e trees, the strange animals, the
many products of the distant country, were exhibited; a tame leopard,
with his negro keeper, followed the soldiers; a band of natives, called
Tamahu, engaged in a sort of sham-fight or war-dance. The misshapen
queen and the chiefs of the land of Punt, together with a number of
Nubian hunters from the region of Chent-hen-nefer, which lay far up the
course of the Nile, were conducted to the presence of Hatasu, offered
their homage to her as she sat upon her throne, and presented her with
valuable gifts. "Homage to thy countenance," they said, "O Queen of
Egypt, Sun beaming like the sun-disk, Aten, Arabia's mistress." An
offering was then made by Hatasu to the god Ammon; a bull was
sacrificed, and two vases of the precious frankincense presented to him
by the queen herself. Sacrifice was likewise made and prayers offered to
Athor, "Queen of Punt" and "Mistress of Heaven." The incense trees were
finally planted in ground prepared for them, and the day concluded with
general festivity and rejoicing.

The complete success of so important and difficult an enterprize might
well please even a great queen. Hatasu, delighted with the result, did
her best to prevent it fading away from human remembrance by building a
new temple to Ammon, and representing the entire expedition upon its
walls. At Tel-el-Bahiri, in the valley of El-Assasif, near Thebes, she
found a convenient site for her new structure, which she imposed upon
four steps, and covered internally with a series of bas-reliefs, highly
coloured, depicting the chief scenes of the expedition. Here are to be
seen, even at the present day, the ships--the most ancient
representations of sea-going ships that the world contains--the crews,
the incense-trees, the chiefs and queen of Punt, the native dwellings,
the trees and fish of the land, the arrival of the expedition at Thebes
in twelve large boats, the prostration of the native chiefs before
Hatasu, the festival held on the occasion, and the offerings made to the
gods. It is seldom that any single event of ancient history is so
profusely illustrated as this expedition of Queen Hatasu, which is
placed before our eyes in all its various phases from the gathering of
the fleet on the Red Sea coast to the return of those engaged in it, in
gladness and triumph, to Thebes.

After exercising all the functions of sovereignty for fifteen years,
during which she kept her royal brother in a subjection th