h Cataract, and which is now preserved in the Egyptian
Museum, Cairo. Although this composition does not belong to the best
period of Egyptian Literature, it is a very fine work. The narrative is
vivid, and the aim of the writer was rather to state the facts of this
splendid expedition than to heap up empty compliments on the king; both
the subject-matter and the dress in which it appears are well worthy of
reproduction in an English form. The inscription is dated in the
twenty-first year of Piankhi's reign, and the king says:

"Hearken ye to [the account of] what I have done more than my ancestors.
I am a king, the emanation of the god, the living offspring of the god
Tem, who at birth was ordained the Governor whom princes were to fear."
His mother knew before his birth that he was to be the Governor, he the
beneficent god, the beloved of the gods, the son of Ra who was made by
his (the god's) hands, Piankhi-meri-Amen. One came and reported to His
Majesty that the great prince Tafnekht had taken possession of all the
country on the west bank of the Nile in the Delta, from the swamps even
to Athi-taui[1], that he had sailed up the river with a large force,
that all the people on both sides of the river had attached themselves
to him, and that all the princes and governors and heads of temple-towns
had flocked to him, and that they were "about his feet like dogs." No
city had shut its gates before him, on the contrary, Mer-Tem,
Per-sekhem-kheper-Ra, Het-neter-Sebek, Per-Metchet, Thekansh, and all
the towns in the west had opened their gates to him. In the east
Het-benu, Taiutchait, Het-suten, and Pernebtepahet had opened to him,
and he had besieged Hensu (Herakleopolis) and closely invested it. He
had enclosed it like a serpent with its tail in its mouth. "Those who
would come out he will not allow to come out, and those who would go in
he will not allow to go in, by reason of the fighting that taketh place
every day. He hath thrown soldiers round about it everywhere." Piankhi
listened to the report undismayed, and he smiled, for his heart was
glad. Presently further reports of the uprising came, and the king
learned that Nemart, another great prince, had joined his forces to
those of Tafnekht. Nemart had thrown down the fortifications of Nefrus,
he had laid waste his own town, and had thrown off his allegiance to
Piankhi completely.

[Footnote 1: A fortress a few miles south of Memphis.]

Then Piankhi sent orders to