officers, and having imparted the news to them, took counsel with them as to a plan of attack.  Three alternative routes were open to him.  The most direct approached the enemy’s position on the front, crossing Mount Carmel by the saddle now known as the Umm el-Fahm; but the great drawback attached to this route was its being so restricted that the troops would be forced to advance in too thin a file; and the head of the column would reach the plain and come into actual conflict with the enemy while the rear-guard would only be entering the defiles in the neighbourhood of Aluna.  The second route bore a little to the east, crossing the mountains beyond Dutina and reaching the plain near Taanach; but it offered the same disadvantages as the other.  The third road ran north of Zafiti, to meet the great highway which cuts the hill-district of Nablus, skirting the foot of Tabor near Jenin, a little to the north of Megiddo.  It was not so direct as the other two, but it was easier for troops, and the king’s generals advised that it should be followed.  The king was so incensed that he was tempted to attribute their prudence to cowardice.  “By my life! by the love that Ra hath for me, by the favour that I enjoy from my master Amon, by the perpetual youth of my nostril in life and power, My Majesty will go by the way of Aluna, and let him that will go by the roads of which ye have spoken, and let him that will follow My Majesty.  What will be said among the vile enemies detested of Ra:  ’Doth not His Majesty go by another way?  For fear of us he gives us a wide berth,’ they will cry.”  The king’s counsellors did not insist further.  “May thy father Amon of Thebes protect thee!” they exclaimed; “as for us, we will follow Thy Majesty whithersoever thou goest, as it befitteth a servant to follow his master.”  The word of command was given to the men; Thutmosis himself led the vanguard, and the whole army, horsemen and foot-soldiers, followed in single file, wending their way through the thickets which covered the southern slopes of Mount Carmel.*

* The position of the towns mentioned and of the three roads has been discussed by E. de Rouge, also by P. de Saulcy, who fixed the position of Yahmu at El-Kheimeh, and showed that the Egyptian army must have passed through the defiles of Umm el-Rahm.  Conder disagreed with this opinion in certain respects, and identified Aluna, Aruna, at first with Arrabeh, and afterwards with Arraneh; he thought that Thutmosis came out upon Megiddo from the south-east, and he placed Megiddo at Mejeddah, near Beisan, while Tomkins placed Aruna in the Wady el-Arrian.  W. Max Millier seems to place Yahinu too much to the north, in the neighbourhood of Jett.

They pitched their camp on the evening of the 19th near Aluna, and on the morning of the 20th they entered the wild defiles through which it was necessary to pass in order to reach the enemy.  The king had taken precautionary measures against any possible