he desert ravaged and
plundered, at once harrying the Egyptian territory and threatening the
mining establishments of the Sinaitic region. To the north-west the
Libyan tribes, Maxyes, Asbystae, Auseis, and others, were exercising a
continuous pressure, to which the Egyptians were forced to yield, and
gradually a foreign population was "squatting" on the fertile lands, and
driving the former possessors of the soil back upon the more eastern
portion-of the Delta. "The Lubu and Mashuash," says Ramesses, "were
_seated_ in Egypt; they took the cities on the western side from Memphis
as far as Karbana, reaching the Great River along its entire course
(from Memphis northwards), and capturing the city of Kaukut For many
years had they been in Egypt" Ramesses began his warlike operations by a
campaign against the Shasu, whose country he invaded and overran,
spoiling and destroying their cabins, capturing their cattle, slaying
all who resisted him, and carrying back into Egypt a vast number of
prisoners, whom he attached to the various temples as "sacred slaves."
He then turned against the Libyans, and coming upon them unexpectedly in
the tract between the Sebennytic branch of the Nile and the Canopic, he
defeated in a great battle the seven tribes of the Mashuash, Lubu,
Merbasat, Kaikasha, Shai, Hasa, and Bakana, slaughtering them with the
utmost fury, and driving them before him across the western branch of
the river. "They trembled before him," says the native historian, "as
the mountain goats tremble before a bull, who stamps with his foot,
strikes with his horns, and makes the mountains shake as he rushes on
whoever opposes him." The Egyptians gave no quarter that memorable day.
Vengeance had free course: the slain Libyans lay in heaps upon
heaps--the chariot wheels passed over them--the horses trampled them in
the mire. Hundreds were pushed and forced into the marshes and into the
river itself, and, if they escaped the flight of missiles which
followed, found for the most part a watery grave in the strong current.
Ramesses portrays this flight and carnage in the most graphic way. The
slain enemy strew the ground, as he advances over them with his prancing
steeds and in his rattling war-car, plying them moreover with his arrows
as they vainly seek to escape. His chariot force and his infantry have
their share in the pursuit, and with sword, or spear, or javelin, strike
down alike the resisting and the unresisting. No one seeks