ted Egypt to a
catastrophe from which she did not recover for a generation.

[Illustration: HEAD OF MENEPHTHAH.]

The first great trouble which disturbed the tranquillity of his reign
was an invasion of his territories from the north-west. Hitherto, though
no serious danger had ever threatened from this quarter, there had been
frequent raids into Egypt on the part of the native Africans, and most
of the more warlike of the Egyptian monarchs had regarded it as
incumbent on them to lead from time to time expeditions into the region,
for the purpose of weakening the wild tribes, Tahennu, Maxyes, and
others, and inspiring them with a wholesome dread of the Egyptian power.
Ramesses II. had on one occasion warred in this quarter, as already
related, and had met with a certain amount of success. But since that
time many years had passed. A new generation had grown up, which the
Egyptians had allowed to remain unmolested, and which felt no fear of
its quiet, peaceful, and industrious neighbours. Population had probably
multiplied in the region, and the tribes began to feel stinted for room.
Above all, new relations had been contracted between the old inhabitants
of the tract and some other races, now for the first time heard of in
authentic history, who had been brought into contact with them. A league
of nations had become possible; and the force of the united league must
have been considerable. Might not an actual conquest be effected, and
the half-starved nomads of Marmarica and the Cyrenaica become the lords
and masters of the rich plain, so long coveted, which adjoined upon
their eastern frontier?

The leading spirit of the combination was a native African prince,
Marmaiu, the son of Deid. Having determined on a serious invasion of
Egypt, for the purpose of conquest, not of plunder, he first of all
collected his native forces, Lubu, Tahennu, Mashuash, Kahaka, to the
number of twenty-five or thirty thousand, and then purchased the
services of a number of auxiliaries, who raised his force probably to a
total of thirty-five or forty thousand men. A peculiar interest attaches
to these auxiliaries. They consisted of contingents from five nations,
whose names are read as Akausha, Luku, Tursha, Shartana or Shardana, and
Sheklusha, and whom most modern historians of Egypt identify with the
Achaeans Laconians, Tyrsenians, Sardinians, and Sicilians. If these
identifications are accepted--- and they are at least plausible--we
shal