rhaps Unas, more probably Papi I., despatched
them both to the country of the Amamit. The voyage occupied seven
months, and was extraordinarily successful: the sovereign, encouraged by
this unexpected good fortune, resolved to send out a fresh expedition.
Hirkhuf had the sole command of it; he made his way through Iritit,
explored the districts of Satir and Darros, and retraced his steps
after an absence of eight months. He brought back with him a quantity
of valuable commodities, "the like of which no one had ever previously
brought back." He was not inclined to regain his country by the ordinary
route: he pushed boldly into the narrow wadys which furrow the territory
of the people of Iritit, and emerged upon the region of Situ, in the
neighbourhood of the cataract, by paths in which no official traveller
who had visited the Amamit had up to this time dared to travel. A third
expedition which started out a few years later brought him into regions
still less frequented. It set out by the Oasis route, proceeded towards
the Amamit, and found the country in an uproar. The sheikhs had convoked
their tribes, and were making preparations to attack the Timihu "towards
the west corner of the heaven," in that region where stand the pillars
which support the iron firmament at the setting sun. The Timihu were
probably Berbers by race and language. Their tribes, coming from beyond
the Sahara, wandered across the frightful solitudes which bound the Nile
Valley on the west. The Egyptians had constantly to keep a sharp look
out for them, and to take precautions against their incursions; having
for a long time acted only on the defensive, they at length took the
offensive, and decided, not without religious misgivings, to pursue
them to their retreats. As the inhabitants of Mendes and of Busiris
had relegated the abode of their departed to the recesses of the
impenetrable marshes of the Delta, so those of Siut and Thinis had at
first believed that the souls of the deceased sought a home beyond the
sands: the good jackal Anubis acted as their guide, through the gorge
of the Cleft or through the gate of the Oven, to the green islands
scattered over the desert, where the blessed dwelt in peace at a
convenient distance from their native cities and their tombs. They
constituted, as we know, a singular folk, those _uiti_ whose members
dwelt in coffins, and who had put on the swaddling clothes of the dead;
the Egyptians called the Oasis which t