there is a tendency to consider him equally well fitted for service in any of the others, and the fiat of a prince transforms the clever scribe of to-day into the general of to-morrow.  No one is surprised, not even the person promoted; he accepts his new duties without flinching, and frequently distinguishes himself as much in their performance as though he had been bred to them from his youth up.  When Papi had resolved to give a lesson to the Bedouin of Sinai, he at once thought of Uni, his “sole friend,” who had so skilfully conducted the case of Queen Amitsi.  The expedition was not one of those which could be brought to a successful issue by the troops of the frontier nomes; it required a considerable force, and the whole military organization of the country had to be brought into play.  “His Majesty raised troops to the number of several myriads, in the whole of the south from Elephantine to the nome of the Haunch, in the Delta, in the two halves of the valley, in each fort of the forts of the desert, in the land of Iritit, among the blacks of the land of Maza, among the blacks of the land of Amamit, among the blacks of the land of Uauait, among the blacks of the land of Kaau, among the blacks of To-Tamu, and his Majesty sent me at the head of this army.  It is true, there were chiefs there, there were mamelukes of the king there, there were sole friends of the Great House there, there were princes and governors of castles from the south and from the north, ‘gilded friends,’ directors of the prophets from the south and the north, directors of districts at the head of troops from the south and the north, of castles and towns that each one ruled, and also blacks from the regions which I have mentioned, but it was I who gave them their orders—­although my post was only that of superintendent of the irrigated lands of Pharaoh,—­so much so that every one of them obeyed me like the others.”  It was not without much difficulty that he brought this motley crowd into order, equipped them, and supplied them with rations.  At length he succeeded in arranging everything satisfactorily; by dint of patience and perseverance, “each one took his biscuit and sandals for the march, and each one of them took bread from the towns, and each one of them took goats from the peasants.”  He collected his forces on the frontier of the Delta, in the “Isle of the North,” between the “Gate of Imhotpu” and the “Tell of Horu nib-mait,” and set out into the desert.  He advanced, probably by Gebel Magharah and Gebel Helal, as far as Wady-el-Arish, into the rich and populous country which lay between the southern slopes of Gebel Tih and the south of the Dead Sea:  once there he acted with all the rigour permitted by the articles of war, and paid back with interest the ill usage which the Bedouin had inflicted on Egypt.  “This army came in peace, it completely destroyed the country of the Lords of the Sands.  This army came in peace, it pulverized the country of the Lords of the Sands.  This army came in