only after a battle in which nine thousand of the enemy were slain that the war came to an end.  Rameses III., however, was again confronted with these persistent invaders, and only succeeded in checking them temporarily.  Presently the tables were turned, and Dynasty XXII., which reigned so gloriously in Egypt, was Libyan in origin.  No attempt was made thenceforth for many years to check the peaceful entrance of Libyans into Egypt, and soon that nation held a large part of the Delta.  Occasional mention is made of troubles upon the north-west frontier, but little more is heard of any serious invasions.  In Arabic times disturbances are not infrequent, and certain sovereigns, as for example, El Mansur Kalaun, were obliged to invade the enemy’s country, thus extending Egypt’s power as far as Tunis.

There is one lesson which may be learnt from the above facts—­namely, that this frontier is somewhat exposed, and that incursions from North Africa by way of Siwa are historic possibilities.  If the Senussi invasion of Egypt is ever attempted it will not, at any rate, be without precedent.

When England entered Egypt in 1882 she found a nation without external interests, a country too impoverished and weak to think of aught else but its own sad condition.  The reviving of this much-bled, anaemic people, and the reorganisation of the Government, occupied the whole attention of the Anglo-Egyptian officials, and placed Egypt before their eyes in only this one aspect.  Egypt appeared to be but the Nile Valley and the Delta; and, in truth, that was, and still is, quite as much as the hard-worked officials could well administer.  The one task of the regeneration of Egypt was all absorbing, and the country came to be regarded as a little land wherein a concise, clearly-defined, and compact problem could be worked out.

[Illustration:  PL.  V. The mummy of Sety I. of Dynasty XIX. 
                      —­CAIRO MUSEUM.]

[Photo by E. Brugsch Pasha.

Now, while this was most certainly the correct manner in which to face the question, and while Egypt has benefited enormously by this singleness of purpose in her officials, it was, historically, a false attitude.  Egypt is not a little country:  Egypt is a crippled Empire.  Throughout her history she has been the powerful rival of the people of Asia Minor.  At one time she was mistress of the Sudan, Somaliland, Palestine, Syria, Libya, and Cyprus; and the Sicilians, Sardinians, Cretans, and even Greeks, stood in fear of the Pharaoh.  In Arabic times she held Tunis and Tripoli, and even in the last century she was the foremost Power at the east end of the Mediterranean.  Napoleon when he came to Egypt realised this very thoroughly, and openly aimed to make her once more a mighty empire.  But in 1882 such fine dreams were not to be considered:  there was too much work to be done in the Nile Valley itself.  The Egyptian Empire was forgotten, and Egypt was regarded