even the news of the attack could reach the nearest police station.  Under treaties concluded with the authorities of the country, they are permitted to descend into the plain in order to exchange peaceably for corn and dourah, the acacia-wood of their forests, the charcoal that they make, gums, game, skins of animals, and the gold and precious stones which they get from their mines:  they agree in return to refrain from any act of plunder, and to constitute a desert police, provided that they receive a regular pay.

[Illustration:  223.jpg MAP OF NUBIA IN THE TIME OF THE MEMPHITE EMPIRE]

The same arrangement existed in ancient times.  The tribes hired themselves out to Pharaoh.  They brought him beams of “sont” at the first demand, when he was in need of materials to build a fleet beyond the first cataract.  They provided him with bands of men ready armed, when a campaign against the Libyans or the Asiatic tribes forced him to seek recruits for his armies:  the Mazaiu entered the Egyptian service in such numbers, that their name served to designate the soldiery in general, just as in Cairo porters and night watchmen are all called Berberines.  Among these people respect for their oath of fealty yielded sometimes to their natural disposition, and they allowed themselves to be carried away to plunder the principalities which they had agreed to defend:  the colonists in Nubia were often obliged to complain of their exactions.  When these exceeded all limits, and it became impossible to wink at their misdoings any longer, light-armed troops were sent against them, who quickly brought them to reason.  As at Sinai, these were easy victories.  They recovered in one expedition what the Uauaiu had stolen in ten, both in flocks and fellahin, and the successful general perpetuated the memory of his exploits by inscribing, as he returned, the name of Pharaoh on some rock at Syene or Elephantine:  we may surmise that it was after this fashion that Usirkaf, Nofiririkeri, and Unas carried on the wars in Nubia.  Their armies probably never went beyond the second cataract, if they even reached so far:  further south the country was only known by the accounts of the natives or by the few merchants who had made their way into it.  Beyond the Mazaiu, but still between the Nile and the Red Sea, lay the country of Puanit, rich in ivory, ebony, gold, metals, gums, and sweet-smelling resins.  When some Egyptian, bolder than his fellows, ventured to travel thither, he could choose one of several routes for approaching it by land or sea.  The navigation of the Red Sea was, indeed, far more frequent than is usually believed, and the same kind of vessels in which the Egyptians coasted along the Mediterranean, conveyed them, by following the coast of Africa, as far as the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb.  They preferred, however, to reach it by land, and they returned with caravans of heavily laden asses and slaves.

[Illustration:  225.jpg HEAD OF AN INHABITANT OF PUANIT]