e the Lords of the Marches in England and Scotland. It was
their duty to keep in order the wild Nubian tribes south of the
Cataract, to see that they allowed the trading caravans to pass safely,
and sometimes to lead these caravans through the desert themselves. A
caravan was a very different thing then from the long train of camels
that we think of now when we hear the name. For, though there are some
very old pictures which show that, before Egyptian history begins at
all, the camel was known in Egypt, somehow that useful animal seems to
have disappeared from the land for many hundreds of years. The Pharaohs
and their adventurous barons never used the queer, ungainly creature
that carries the desert postman in our picture (Plate 12), and the
ivory, gold-dust, and ebony that came from the Soudan had to be carried
on the backs of hundreds of asses.

The barons of Elephantine bore the proud title of "Keepers of the Door
of the South," and, in addition, they display, seemingly just as
proudly, the title "Caravan Conductors." In those days it was no easy
task to lead a caravan through the Soudan, and bring it back safe with
its precious load through all the wild and savage tribes who inhabited
the land of Nubia. More than one of the barons of Elephantine set out
with a caravan never to return, but to leave his bones, and those of his
companions, to whiten among the desert sands; and one of them has told
us how, hearing that his father had been killed on one of these
adventurous journeys, he mustered his retainers, marched south with a
train of a hundred asses, punished the tribe which had been guilty of
the deed, and brought his father's body home, to be buried with all due
honours.

Some of the records of these early journeys, the first attempts to
explore the interior of Africa, may still be read, carved on the walls
of the tombs where the brave explorers sleep. One baron, called Herkhuf,
has told us of no fewer than four separate expeditions which he made
into the Soudan. On his first journey, as he was still young, he went in
company with his father, and was away for seven months. The next time he
was allowed to go alone, and brought back his caravan safely after an
absence of eight months.

On his third journey he went farther than before, and gathered so large
a quantity of ivory and gold-dust that three hundred asses were required
to bring his treasure home. So rich a caravan was a tempting prize
for the wild tri