oru, to enable him
to defend himself against the monsters of the lower world. A second
Saqnunri Tiuaa succeeded the first, and like him was buried in a little
brick pyramid on the border of the Theban necropolis. At his death the
series of rulers was broken, and we meet with several names which
are difficult to classify--Sakhontinibri, Sanakhtu-niri, Hotpuri,
Manhotpuri, Eahotpu.*

* Hotpuri and Manhotpuri are both mentioned in the fragments
of a fantastic story (copied during the XXth dynasty), bits
of which are found in most European museums. In one of these
fragments, preserved in the Louvre, mention is made of
Hotpuri's tomb, certainly situated at Thebes; we possess
scarabs of this king, and Petrie discovered at Coptos a
fragment of a stele bearing his name and titles, and
describing the works which he executed in the temples of the
town. The XIVth year of Manhotpuri is mentioned in a passage
of the story as being the date of the death of a personage
born under Hotpuri. These two kings belong, as far as we are
able to judge, to the middle of the XVIIth dynasty; I am
inclined to place beside them the Pharaoh Nubhotpuri, of
whom we possess a few rather coarse scarabs.

As we proceed, however, information becomes more plentiful, and the list
of reigns almost complete. The part which the princesses of older
times played in the transmission of power had, from the XIIth dynasty
downward, considerably increased in importance, and threatened to
overshadow that of the princes. The question presents itself whether,
during these centuries of perpetual warfare, there had not been a moment
when, all the males of the family having perished, the women alone
were left to perpetuate the solar race on the earth and to keep the
succession unbroken. As soon as the veil over this period of history
begins to be lifted, we distinguish among the personages emerging from
the obscurity as many queens as kings presiding over the destinies of
Egypt. The sons took precedence of the daughters when both were the
offspring of a brother and sister born of the same parents, and when,
consequently, they were of equal rank; but, on the other hand, the sons
forfeited this equality when there was any inferiority in origin on the
maternal side, and their prospect of succession to the throne diminished
in proportion to their mother's remoteness from the line of Ra. In the
latter case