so as to
leave the body unimpeded in walking,--these constituted the ordinary
costume of the people. Their arms were similar to those of the
Egyptians, consisting of the lance, the mace, the iron or copper dagger,
the boomerang, the bow and arrow, and the sling.

[Illustration: 253.jpg A LIBYAN]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph.

They also employed horses and chariots. Their bravery made them a foe
not to be despised, in spite of their ignorance of tactics and their
want of discipline. When they were afterwards formed into regiments and
conducted by experienced generals, they became the best auxiliary troops
which Egypt could boast of. The Labu from this time forward were the
most energetic of the tribes, and their chiefs prided themselves upon
possessing the leadership over all the other clans in this region of the
world.*

* This was the case in the wars of Minephtah and Ramses
III., in which the Labu and their kings took the command of
the confederate armies assembled against Egypt.

The Labu might very well have gained the mastery over the other
inhabitants of the desert at this period, who had become enfeebled
by the frequent defeats which they had sustained at the hands of the
Egyptians. At the moment when Minephtah ascended the throne, their king,
Maraiu, son of Didi, ruled over the immense territory lying between the
Fayum and the two Syrtes: the Timihu, the Kahaka, and the Mashauasha
rendered him the same obedience as his own people. A revolution had
thus occurred in Africa similar to that which had taken place a century
previously in Naharaim, when Sapalulu founded the Hittite empire. A
great kingdom rose into being where no state capable of disturbing
Egyptian control had existed before. The danger was serious. The
Hittites, separated from the Nile by the whole breadth of Kharu, could
not directly threaten any of the Egyptian cities; but the Libyans, lords
of the desert, were in contact with the Delta, and could in a few days
fall upon any point in the valley they chose. Minephtah, therefore,
hastened to resist the assault of the westerns, as his father had
formerly done that of the easterns, and, strange as it may seem, he
found among the troops of his new enemies some of the adversaries with
whom the Egyptians had fought under the walls of Qodshu sixty years
before. The Shardana, Lycians, and others, having left the coasts of the
Delta and the Phoenician seaports owing t