Major Brown adopts this theory, and considers that it was under Amenemhait III. that the great lake of the Fayum was transformed into a kind of artificial reservoir, which was the Mceris of Herodotus.  The city of Shodu, Shadu, Shadit—­ the capital of the Fayum—­and its god Sovku are mentioned even in the Pyramid texts:  and the eastern district of the Fayum is named in the inscription of Amten, under the IIIrd dynasty.

[Illustration:  297.jpg MAP, THE FAYUM]

In years when the inundation was excessive, the surplus waters were discharged into the lake; when, however, there was a low Nile, the storage which had not been absorbed by the soil was poured back into the valley by the same channels, and carried down by the Bahr-Yusuf to augment the inundation of the Western Delta.

[Illustration:  298.jpg FLAT-BOTTOMED VESSEL OF BRONZE OPEN-WORK BEARING THE CARTOUCHES OF PHARAOH KHITI I]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the original in the Louvre
     Museum.

The Nile was the source of everything in this principality, and hence they were gods of the waters who received the homage of the three nomes.  The inhabitants of Heracleopolis worshipped the ram Harshafitu, with whom they associated Osiris of Naruduf as god of the dead; the people of the Upper Oleander adored a second ram, Khnumu of Hasmonitu, and the whole Fayum was devoted to the cult of Sovku the crocodile.  Attracted by the fertility of the soil, the Pharaohs of the older dynasties had from time to time taken up their residence in Heracleopolis or its neighbourhood, and one of them—­Snofrui—­had built his pyramid at Medum, close to the frontier of the nome.  In proportion as the power of the Memphites declined, the princes of the Oleander grew more vigorous and enterprising; and when the Memphite kings passed away, these princes succeeded their former masters and sat “upon the throne of Horus.”

The founder of the IXth dynasty was perhaps Khiti I., Miribri, the Akhthoes of the Greeks.  He ruled over all Egypt, and his name has been found on rocks at the first cataract.  A story dating from the time of the Ramessides mentions his wars against the Bedouin of the regions east of the Delta; and what Manetho relates of his death is merely a romance, in which the author, having painted him as a sacrilegious tyrant like Kheops and Khephren, states that he was dragged down under the water and there devoured by a crocodile or hippopotamus, the appointed avengers of the offended gods.  His successors seem to have reigned ingloriously for more than a century.  Their deeds are unknown to history, but it was under the reign of one of them—­Nibkauri—­that a travelling fellah, having been robbed of his earnings by an artisan, is said to have journeyed to Heracleopolis to demand justice from the governor, or to charm him by the eloquence of his pleadings and the variety of his metaphors.  It would, of course, be idle to look for the record of any historic event in this story; the common people, moreover, do not long remember the names of unimportant princes, and the tenacity with which the Egyptians treasured the memories of several kings of the Heracleopolitan line amply proves that, whether by their good or evil qualities, they had at least made a lasting impression upon the popular imagination.