two,
passes the town of Shodu, and is then subdivided into numerous canals
and ditches, whose ramifications appear on the map as a network
resembling the reticulations of a skeleton leaf. The lake formerly
extended beyond its present limits, and submerged districts from which
it has since withdrawn.*

* Most of the specialists who have latterly investigated the
Fayum have greatly exaggerated the extent of the Birket-
Kerun in historic times. Prof. Petrie states that it covered
the whole of the present province throughout the time of the
Memphite kings, and that it was not until the reign of
Amenemhait I. that even a very small portion was drained.
Major Brown adopts this theory, and considers that it was
under Amenemhait III. that the great lake of the Fayum was
transformed into a kind of artificial reservoir, which was
the Mceris of Herodotus. The city of Shodu, Shadu, Shadit--
the capital of the Fayum--and its god Sovku are mentioned
even in the Pyramid texts: and the eastern district of the
Fayum is named in the inscription of Amten, under the IIIrd
dynasty.

[Illustration: 297.jpg MAP, THE FAYUM]

In years when the inundation was excessive, the surplus waters were
discharged into the lake; when, however, there was a low Nile, the
storage which had not been absorbed by the soil was poured back into
the valley by the same channels, and carried down by the Bahr-Yusuf to
augment the inundation of the Western Delta.

[Illustration: 298.jpg FLAT-BOTTOMED VESSEL OF BRONZE OPEN-WORK BEARING
THE CARTOUCHES OF PHARAOH KHITI I]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the original in the Louvre
Museum.

The Nile was the source of everything in this principality, and hence
they were gods of the waters who received the homage of the three nomes.
The inhabitants of Heracleopolis worshipped the ram Harshafitu, with
whom they associated Osiris of Naruduf as god of the dead; the people
of the Upper Oleander adored a second ram, Khnumu of Hasmonitu, and the
whole Fayum was devoted to the cult of Sovku the crocodile. Attracted by
the fertility of the soil, the Pharaohs of the older dynasties had
from time to time taken up their residence in Heracleopolis or its
neighbourhood, and one of them--Snofrui--had built his pyramid at Medum,
close to the frontier of the nome. In proportion as the power of the
Memphites declined, the princes of the Oleander grew more