omatic sanction, but from
conventions agreed to after some war, or entered on without any previous
struggle, when there was no question at issue between the two states.*

* The treaty of Ramses II. with the King of the Khati, the
only one which has come down to us, was a renewal of other
treaties effected one after the other between the fathers
and grandfathers of the two contracting sovereigns. Some of
the Tel el-Amarna letters probably refer to treaties of this
kind; e.g. that of Burnaburiash of Babylon, who says that
since the time of Karaindash there had been an exchange of
ambassadors and friendship between the sovereigns of Chaldoa
and of Egypt, and also that of Dushratta of Mitanni, who
reminds Queen Tii of the secret negotiations which had taken
place between him and Amenothes III.

When once the Syrian conquest had been effected, Egypt gave permanency
to its results by means of a series of international decrees, which
officially established the constitution of her empire, and brought about
her concerted action with the Asiatic powers.

[Illustration: 040.jpg THE MUMMY OF THUTMOSIS III.]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph taken by Emil
Brugsch-Bey.

She already occupied an important position among them, when Thutmosis
III. died, on the last day of Phamenoth, in the IVth year of his reign.*
He was buried, probably, at Deir el-Bahari, in the family tomb wherein
the most illustrious members of his house had been laid to rest since
the time of Thutmosis I. His mummy was not securely hidden away, for
towards the close of the XXth dynasty it was torn out of the coffin by
robbers, who stripped it and rifled it of the jewels with which it was
covered, injuring it in their haste to carry away the spoil. It was
subsequently re-interred, and has remained undisturbed until the
present day; but before re-burial some renovation of the wrappings was
necessary, and as portions of the body had become loose, the restorers,
in order to give the mummy the necessary firmness, compressed it between
four oar-shaped slips of wood, painted white, and placed, three inside
the wrappings and one outside, under the bands which confined the
winding-sheet.

* Dr. Mahler has, with great precision, fixed the date of
the accession of Thutmosis III, as the 20th of March, 1503,
and that of his death as the 14th of February, 1449 b.c. I
do not think