h Phtah and Ramses II.; his name figured at the head of the
royal lists, and his cult continued till the time of the Ptolemies.

His immediate successors had an actual existence, and their tombs are
there in proof of it. We know where Usaphais, Miebis, and Semempses[*]
were laid to rest, besides more than a dozen other princes whose real
names and whose position in the official lists are still uncertain. The
order of their succession was often a matter of doubt to the Egyptians
themselves, but perhaps the discoveries of the next few years will
enable us to clear up and settle definitely matters which were shrouded
in mystery in the time of the Theban Pharaohs. As a fact, the forms of
such of their names as have been handed down to us by later tradition,
are curt and rugged, indicative of an early state of society, and
harmonizing with the more primitive civilization to which they belong:
Ati the Wrestler, Teti the Runner, Qenqoni the Crusher, are suitable
rulers for a people, the first duty of whose chief was to lead his
followers into battle, and to strike harder than any other man in the
thickest of the fight.[**]

* Flinders Petrie, _The 'Royal Tombs of the First Dynasty_,
vol. i. p. 56.

** The Egyptians were accustomed to explain the meaning of
the names of their kings to strangers, and the Canon of
Eratosthenes has preserved several of their derivations, of
which a certain number, as, for instance, that of Menes from
auovioc, the "lasting," are tolerably correct. M. Krall is,
to my knowledge, the only Egyptologist who has attempted to
glean from the meaning of these names indications of the
methods by which the national historians of Egypt
endeavoured to make up the lists of the earliest dynasties.

Some of the monuments they have left us, seem to show that their reigns
were as much devoted to war as those of the later Pharaohs. The king
whose Horus name was Narumir, is seen on a contemporary object which has
come down to us, standing before a heap of beheaded foes; the bodies
are all stretched out on the ground, each with his head placed neatly
between his legs: the king had overcome, apparently in some important
engagement, several thousands of his enemies, and was inspecting the
execution of their leaders. That the foes with whom these early kings
contended were in most cases Egyptian princes of the nomes, is proved by
the list of city names which are