the green cornfields
of Matariyeh, no longer tipped with gold, but still catching on its
summit the earliest and latest sun-rays, while wild-bees nestle in the
crannies of the weird characters cut into the stone.

[Illustration: OBELISK OF USURTASEN I. ON THE SITE OF HELIOPOLIS.]

Usurtasen, after reigning ten years in conjunction with his father and
thirty-two years alone, associated his son, Amenemhat II., who became
sole king about three years later. His reign, though long, was
undistinguished, and need not occupy our attention. He followed the
example of his predecessors in associating a son in the government; and
this son succeeded him, and is known as Usurtasen II. One event of
interest alone belongs to this time. It is the reception by one of his
great officials of a large family or tribe of Semitic immigrants from
Asia, who beg permission to settle permanently in the fertile Egypt
under the protection of its powerful king. Thirty-seven Amu, men, women,
and children, present themselves at the court which the great noble
holds near the eastern border, and offer him their homage, while they
solicit a favourable hearing. The men are represented draped in long
garments of various colours, and wearing sandals unlike the
Egyptian--more resembling, in fact, open shoes with many straps. Their
arms are bows, arrows, spears, and clubs. One plays on a seven-stringed
lyre by means of a plectrum. Four women, wearing fillets round their
heads, with garments reaching below the knee, and wearing anklets but no
sandals, accompany them. A boy, armed with a spear, walks at the side
of the women; and two children, seated in a kind of pannier placed on
the back of an ass, ride on in front. Another ass, carrying a spear, a
shield, and a pannier, precedes the man who plays on the lyre. The great
official, who is named Khnum-hotep, receives the foreigners, accompanied
by an attendant who carries his sandals and a staff, and who is followed
by three dogs. A scribe, named Nefer-hotep, unrolls before his master a
strip of papyrus, on which are inscribed the words, "The sixth year of
the reign of King Usurtasen Sha-khepr-ra: account rendered of the Amu
who in the lifetime of the chief, Khnum-hotep, brought to him the
mineral, _mastemut_, from the country of Pit-shu--they are in all
thirty-seven persons." The mineral _mastemut_ is thought to be a species
of stibium or antimony, used for dying the skin around the eyes, and so
increasing the