* This fortress, which bears a name compounded with that of Osorkon I., must have been rebuilt by that monarch on the site of an earlier fort; the new name remained in use under the XXIInd and XXIIIth dynasties, after which the old one reappears.  It is Illahun, where Petrie discovered the remains of a flourishing town of the Bubastite epoch.

Shortly after, Maitumu threw open its gates, and its example was followed by Titaui; at Maitumu there was rioting among the Egyptians in the streets, one party wishing to hold out, the other to surrender, but in the end the latter had their way.* Pionkhi discharged his priestly duties wherever he went, and received the local taxes, always being careful to reserve a tenth for the treasury of Amon-Ra; the fact that his army was kept under rigid control, and that he showed great clemency to the vanquished, helped largely to conciliate those who were not bound by close ties of interest to the cause of Tafnakhti.  On reaching Memphis, Pionkhi at once had recourse to the persuasive methods which had hitherto served him so well, and entered into negotiations with the garrison.  “Shut not yourselves up in forts, and fight not against the Upper Country,** for Shu the god of creation, when I enter, he entereth, and when I go out, he goeth out, and none may repel my attacks.  I will present offerings to Phtah and to the divinities of the White Wall, I will honour Sokari in his mysterious coffer, I will contemplate Eisanbuf,*** then I will return from thence in peace.  If ye will trust in me, Memphis shall be prosperous and healthy, even the children shall not cry therein.  Behold the nomes of the South; not a soul has been massacred there, saving only the impious who blasphemed God, and these rebels have been executed.”

* Maritumu, or Maitumu, is the modern Meidum, associated in the inscription with the characteristic epithet, Pisokari- Nibu-Suazu, or “temple of Sokari, master of the transfiguration.”  Titaui lay exactly on the frontier between Upper and Lower Egypt—­hence its name, which signifies “commanding the two regions;” it was in the Memphite nome, and Brugsch identifies it with the Greek city of Acanthos, near Dahshur, but this position appears to me to be too close to Memphis and too far from the boundary of the nome; I should prefer to place Titaui at Kafr el-Ayat or thereabouts.

** I.e. against Pionkhi, who was master of the Upper Country, that is, of Thebes and Ethiopia, and the forces from the whole of the valley to the south of Memphis who accompanied him.

     *** Lit., “He who is on the South of his Wall,” a name given
     to one of the quarters of Memphis, and afterwards applied to
     the god Phtah, who was worshipped in that quarter.