his counsels by examples taken from his own life, and from these we have learned some facts in his history.  The little work was widely disseminated and soon became a classic; in the time of the XIXth dynasty it was still copied in schools and studied by young scribes as an exercise in style.  Usirfcasen’s share in the sovereignty had so accustomed the Egyptians to consider this prince as the king de facto, that they had gradually come to write his name alone upon the monuments.  When Amenemhait died, after a reign of thirty years, Usirtasen was engaged in a war against the Libyans.  Dreading an outbreak of popular feeling, or perhaps an attempted usurpation by one of the princes of the blood, the high officers of the crown kept Amenemhait’s death secret, and despatched a messenger to the camp to recall the young king.  He left his tent by night, unknown to the troops, returned to the capital before anything had transpired among the people, and thus the transition from the founder to his immediate successor—­always a delicate crisis for a new dynasty—­seemed to come about quite naturally.  The precedent of co-regnancy having been established, it was scrupulously followed by most of the succeeding sovereigns.  In the XIIIth year of his sovereignty, and after having reigned alone for thirty-two years, Usirtasen I. shared his throne with Amenemhait II.; and thirty-two years later Amenemhait II. acted in a similar way with regard to Usirtasen II.  Amenemhait III. and Amenemhait IV. were long co-regnant.  The only princes of this house in whose cases any evidence of co-regnancy is lacking are Usirtasen III., and the queen Sovknofriuri, with whom the dynasty died out.

[Illustration:  325.jpg AN ASIATIC CHIEF IS PRESENTED TO KHNUMHOTPU BY NOFIRHOPTU, AND BY KHITI, THE SUPERINTENDENT OF THE HUNTSMEN]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a chromolithograph in Lepsius,
     Denhm., ii. 133.

It lasted two hundred and thirteen years, one month, and twenty-seven days,* and its history can be ascertained with greater certainty and completeness than that of any-other dynasty which ruled over Egypt.

This is its total duration, as given in the Turin papyrus.  Several Egyptologists have thought that Manetho had, in his estimate, counted the years of each sovereign as consecutive, and have hence proposed to conclude that the dynasty only lasted 168 years (Brugscii), or 160 (Lieblein), or 194 (Ed. Meyer).  It is simpler to admit that the compiler of the papyrus was not in error; we do not know the length of the reigns of Usirtasen II., Usirtasen III., and Amenemhait III., and their unknown years may be considered as completing the tale of the two hundred and thirteen years.

We are doubtless far from having any adequate idea of its great achievements, for the biographies of its eight sovereigns, and the details of their interminable wars are very imperfectly known to us.  The development of its foreign and domestic policy we can, however, follow without a break.