d the Ethiopian rule in the southern half of Egypt, though it
somewhat altered its character. While an unknown Ethiopian king filled
the place of the conquerer at Napata, another Ethiopian, named Kashta,
made his way to the throne in Thebes.

[Illustration: 322.jpg MANUSCRIPT ON PAPYRUS IN HIEROGLYPHICS]

It is possible that he was a son of Pionkhi, and may have been placed in
supreme power by his father when the latter reinstated the city in
its place as capital. With all their partiality for real or supposed
descendants of the Ramesside dynasty, the Thebans were, before all
things, proud of their former greatness, and eagerly hoped to regain it
without delay. When, therefore, they accepted this Kushite king who, to
their eyes, represented the only family possessed of a legitimate claim
to the throne, it was mainly because they counted on him to restore them
to their former place among the cities of Egypt. They must have been
cruelly disappointed when he left them for the Sacred Mountain. His
invasion, far from reviving their prosperity, merely served to ratify
the suppression of that pontificate of Amon-Ra which was the last
remaining evidence of their past splendour.

[Illustration: 323.jpg CONE BEARING THE NAME of kashta and of his
DAUGHTER AMENERTAS]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, after Prisse d'Avennes.

All hope of re-establishing it had now to be abandoned, since the
sovereign who had come to them from Napata was himself by birth and
hereditary privelege and hereditary sole priest of Anion: in his
absence the actual head of the Theban religion could lay claim only to
an inferior office, and indeed, even then, the only reason for accepting
a second prophet was that he might direct the worship of the temple
at Karnak. The force of circumstances compelled the Ethiopians to
countenance in the Thebaid what their Tanite or Bubastite predecessors
had been obliged to tolerate at Hermopolis, Heracleopolis, Sais, and in
many another lesser city; they turned it into a feudatory kingdom, and
gave it a ruler who, like Auiti, half a century earlier, had the right
to use the cartouches. Once installed, Kashta employed the usual methods
to secure his seat on the throne, one of the first being a marriage
alliance. The disappearance of the high priests had naturally increased
the importance of the princesses consecrated to the service of Amon.
From henceforward they were the sole visible intermediaries between the
god and his