ers. Of these
thirty were the rowers, whose long sweeps were to plough the waves, and
bring the vessels into port, whether the wind were favourable or no;
some ten or twelve formed the crew; and the remainder consisted of
men-at-arms, whose services, it was felt, might be required, if the
native tribes were not sufficiently impressed with the advantages of
commercial dealings. An expedition then started from Thebes under the
conduct of a royal ambassador, who was well furnished with gifts for
distribution among the barbarian chiefs, and instructed to proceed with
his fleet down the Red Sea to its mouth, or perhaps even further, and
open communications with the land of "Punt," which was in this quarter.
"Punt" has been generally identified with Southern Arabia, and it is
certainly in favour of this view that the chief object of the expedition
was to procure incense and spices, which Arabia is known to have
produced anciently in profusion. But among the other products of the
land mentioned in the inscriptions of Hatasu, there are several which
Arabia could not possibly have furnished; and the conjecture has
therefore been made that Punt, or at any rate the Punt of this
expedition, was not the Arabian peninsula, or any part of it, but the
African tract outside the Gulf, known to moderns as "the Somauli
country." However this may have been, it is certain that the fleet
weighed anchor, and sailed down the Red Sea, borne by favourable winds,
which were ascribed to the gracious majesty of Ammon, and reached their
destination, the Ta-neter, or "Holy Land"--the "abode of Athor," and
perhaps the original home of Ammon himself--without accident or serious
difficulty. The natives gave them a good reception. They were simple
folk, living in rounded huts or cabins, which were perched on floors
supported by piles, probably on account of the marshiness of the
ground, and which had to be entered by means of ladders. Cocoa-nut palms
overshadowed the huts, interspersed with incense trees, while near them
flowed a copious stream, in which were a great variety of fishes. The
principal chief of the country was a certain Parihu, who was married to
a wife of an extraordinary appearance. A dwarf, hunchbacked, with a
drawn face and short, deformed legs, she can scarcely, one would think,
have been a countrywoman of the Queen of Sheba. She belonged, more
probably, to one of the dwarfish tribes of which Africa has so many, as
Dokos, Bosjesmen, and