to Amon of [Napata], my father, in his excellent festival wherein he appears in his procession of the New Year, when he shall have sent me in peace to look upon the [Theban] Amon in his festivals at Thebes, and when I shall have carried his image in procession to Luxor, in the festival celebrated in his honour among the festivals of Thebes, on the night of the feast appointed in the Thebaid, established by Ra at the creation, when I have led him in the procession and brought him unto his throne, on the day for introducing the god, even the second of Athyr, then will I make the enemy taste the savour of my claws.’”

* The ancient geographers looked upon the nome of Heraoleopolis as a large island, its southern boundary being, probably, the canal of Harabshent:  the end of the island, which the Egyptians called “the forepart of Khninsu,” was probably Harabshent and its environs.

     ** Pi-puga is probably El-Foka, on the Nile, to the north of
     Harabshent.

*** The king does not mention his adversary by name in the text; he is content to indicate him by a pronoun in the third person—­“that which he hath done... then will I make him taste,” etc.

The generals did their very utmost to appease their master’s wrath before he appeared on the scene.  They told off a force to keep watch over Hermopolis while they themselves marched against the nome of Uabu; they took Oxyrrhynchos by storm, with “the fury of a water-spout,” and informed the king of this achievement; but “his heart was not softened thereby.”  They crossed over to the right bank; they crushed the people of the north under the walls of Tatehni,* they forced the walls of the town with the battering-ram, and killed many of the inhabitants, amongst others a son of Tafnakhti, whose body they sent to the king; but “his heart was not softened thereby.”

They then pushed on as far as Hait Bonua** and sacked it, but still failed to regain favour.  On the 9th of Thoth, Pionkhi came down to Thebes, and after hasty attendance at the services to Amon, went to rejoin the vanguard of his army under the walls of Hermopolis.

     * The modern Tehneh, on the right bank of the Nile, a little
     below Minieh.

     ** Hait-Bonu, or Habonu, is the Hipponon of the Greco-Roman
     geographers.

[Illustration:  266.jpg KING NAMROTI LEADING A HORSE TO PIONKHI]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from an impression of the stele in
     the Gizeh Museum.

“No sooner had his Majesty quitted the cabin of his ship, than the horses were harnessed and the charioteers in their places; the fear of his Majesty spread even to the Nomads of Asia, and all hearts trembled before him.”  Pionkhi drove back the enemy behind their walls, pitched his tent to the south-west of the city, threw up earth-works, and built terraces so as to place his bowmen and sling-ers on a level