led his father. Khiti gathered together such an extensive
fleet that it encumbered the Nile from Shashhotpu to Gebel-Abufodah,
from one end of the principality of the Terebinth to the other. Vainly
did the rebels unite with the Thebans; Khiti "sowed terror over the
world, and himself alone chastised the nomes of the south." While he was
descending the river to restore the king to his capital, "the sky grew
serene, and the whole country rallied to him; the commanders of the
south and the archons of Heracleopolis, their legs tremble beneath them
when the royal urous, ruler of the world, comes to suppress crime; the
earth trembles, the South takes ship and flies, all men flee in dismay,
the towns surrender, for fear takes hold on their members." Mirikari's
return was a triumphal progress: "when he came to Heracleopolis the
people ran forth to meet him, rejoicing in their lord; women and men
together, old men as well as children." But fortune soon changed. Beaten
again and again, the Thebans still returned to the attack; at length
they triumphed, after a struggle of nearly two hundred years, and
brought the two rival divisions of Egypt under their rule.

[Illustration: 313.jpg PALETTE INSCRIBED WITH THE NAME OF MIRIKARI]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the original, now in the Museum
of the Louvre. The palette is of wood, and bears the name of
a contemporary personage; the outlines of the hieroglyphs
are inlaid with silver wire. It was probably found in the
necropolis of Meir, a little to the north of Siut. The
sepulchral pyramid of the Pharaoh Mirikari is mentioned on a
coffin in the Berlin Museum.

The few glimpses to be obtained of the early history of the first
Theban dynasty give the impression of an energetic and intelligent race.
Confined to the most thinly populated, that is, the least fertile part
of the valley, and engaged on the north in a ceaseless warfare which
exhausted their resources, they still found time for building both at
Thebes and in the most distant parts of their dominions. If their power
made but little progress southwards, at least it did not recede, and
that part of Nubia lying between Aswan and the neighbourhood of Korosko
remained in their possession. The tribes of the desert, the Amamiu, the
Mazaiu, and the Uauaiu often disturbed the husbandmen by their sudden
raids; yet, having pillaged a district, they did not take possession of
it as conquerors, but hastil