This eloquence, however, was of no avail.  A detachment of archers, sailors, and engineers sent to make a reconnaissance of the harbour was taken by surprise and routed with loss, and on the following night Tafnakhti suddenly made his appearance on the spot.  He had the 8000 men who were defending it paraded before him, and made them a speech, in which he pointed out the great natural strength of the position, the stoutness of the walls and the abundance of provisions; he then mounted his horse, and making his way a second time through the enemy’s outposts, headed straight for the Delta in order to levy reinforcements there.  The next day, Pionkhi went in person to examine the approaches of the city in which his ancestors had once been throned.  There was a full Nile, and the river came right up to the walls.  He sailed close in along the whole of the eastern front, and landed on the north, much vexed and discomfited at finding it so strongly fortified.  Even the common soldiers were astonished, and began to discuss among themselves the difficulties of the undertaking with a certain feeling of discouragement.  It would be necessary, they declared, to open a regular siege, “to make an inclined plane leading to the city, throw up-earthworks against its walls, bind ladders, set up masts and erect spars all around it.”  Pionkhi burst into a rage when these remarks were repeated to him:  a siege in set form would have been a most serious enterprise, and would have allowed the allied princes time to get together fresh troops.  He drove his ships full speed against the line of boats anchored in the harbour, and broke through it at the first onset; his sailors then scaled the bank and occupied the houses which overlooked it.  Reinforcements concentrated on this point gradually penetrated into the heart of the city, and after two days’ fighting the garrison threw down their arms.  The victor at once occupied the temples to save them from pillage:  he then purified Memphis with water and natron, ascended in triumph to the temple of Phtah, and celebrated there those rites which the king alone was entitled to perform.  The other fortresses in the neighbourhood surrendered without further hesitation.  King Auputi of Tentramu,* prince Akaneshu,** and prince Petisis tendered the homage of their subjects in person, and the other sovereigns of the Delta merely waited for a demonstration in force on the part of the Ethiopians before following their example.

* Probably the original of the statue discovered by Naville at Tel-el-Yahudiyeh.  Tentramu and Taanu, the cities of Auputi, are perhaps identical with the biblical Elim (Exod. xvi. 1) and the Daneon Portus of Pliny on the Red Sea, but Naville prefers to identify Daneon with the Tonu of the Berlin Papyrus No. 1.  I believe that we ought to look for the kingdom of Auputi in the neighbourhood of Menzaleh, near Tanis.

** Akaneshu ruled over Sebennytos and in the XVIIth nome.  Naville discovered at Samannud the statue of one of his descendants, a king of the same name, perhaps his grandson, who was prince of Sebennytos in the time of Psammetichus I.

Pionkhi crossed the Nile and marched in state to Heliopolis, there to receive the royal investiture.