. One of them, Hapizaufi I., excavated for himself, in the
reign of Usirtasen I., nor far from the burying-place of Khiti and
Tefabi, that beautiful tomb, which, though partially destroyed by Coptic
monks or Arabs, still attracts visitors and excites their astonishment.

[Illustration: 401.jpg MAP OF PRINCIPALITY OF THE GAZELLE]

The lords of Shashotpu in the south, and those of Hermopolis in the
north, had acquired to some extent the ascendency which their neighbours
of Siut had lost. The Hermopolitan princes dated at least from the time
of the VIth dynasty, and they had passed safely through the troublous
times which followed the death of Papi II. A branch of their family
possessed the nome of the Hare, while another governed that of the
Gazelle. The lords of the nome of the Hare espoused the Theban cause,
and were reckoned among the most faithful vassals of the sovereigns of
the south: one of them, Thothotpu, caused a statue of himself, worthy
of a Pharaoh, to be erected in his loyal town of Hermopolis, and their
burying-places at el-Bersheh bear witness to their power no less than
to their taste in art. During the troubles which put an end to the XIth
dynasty, a certain Khnumhotpu, who was connected in some unknown manner
with the lords of the nome of the Gazelle, entered the Theban service
and accompanied Amenemhait I. on his campaigns into Nubia. He obtained,
as a reward of faithfulness, Monait-Khufui and the district of
Khuit-Horu,--"the Horizon of Horus,"--on the east bank of the Nile. On
becoming possessed of the western bank also, he entrusted the government
of the district which he was giving up to his eldest son, Nakhiti I.;
but, the latter having died without heirs, Usirtasen I. granted to
Biqit, the sister of Nakhiti, the rank and prerogative of a reigning
princess. Biqit married Nuhri, one of the princes of Hermopolis, and
brought with her as her dowry the fiefdom of the Gazelle, thus doubling
the possessions of her husband's house. Khnumhotpu II., the eldest
of the children born of this union, was, while still young, appointed
Governor of Monait-Khufui, and this title appears to have become an
appanage of his heir-apparent, just as the title of "Prince of Kaushu"
was, from the XIXth dynasty onwards, the special designation of the heir
to the throne. The marriage of Khnumhotpu II. with the youthful Khiti,
the heiress of the nome of the Jackal, rendered him master of one of
the most fertile provinces of Mi