[Illustration:  401.jpg MAP OF PRINCIPALITY OF THE GAZELLE]

The lords of Shashotpu in the south, and those of Hermopolis in the north, had acquired to some extent the ascendency which their neighbours of Siut had lost.  The Hermopolitan princes dated at least from the time of the VIth dynasty, and they had passed safely through the troublous times which followed the death of Papi II.  A branch of their family possessed the nome of the Hare, while another governed that of the Gazelle.  The lords of the nome of the Hare espoused the Theban cause, and were reckoned among the most faithful vassals of the sovereigns of the south:  one of them, Thothotpu, caused a statue of himself, worthy of a Pharaoh, to be erected in his loyal town of Hermopolis, and their burying-places at el-Bersheh bear witness to their power no less than to their taste in art.  During the troubles which put an end to the XIth dynasty, a certain Khnumhotpu, who was connected in some unknown manner with the lords of the nome of the Gazelle, entered the Theban service and accompanied Amenemhait I. on his campaigns into Nubia.  He obtained, as a reward of faithfulness, Monait-Khufui and the district of Khuit-Horu,—­“the Horizon of Horus,”—­on the east bank of the Nile.  On becoming possessed of the western bank also, he entrusted the government of the district which he was giving up to his eldest son, Nakhiti I.; but, the latter having died without heirs, Usirtasen I. granted to Biqit, the sister of Nakhiti, the rank and prerogative of a reigning princess.  Biqit married Nuhri, one of the princes of Hermopolis, and brought with her as her dowry the fiefdom of the Gazelle, thus doubling the possessions of her husband’s house.  Khnumhotpu II., the eldest of the children born of this union, was, while still young, appointed Governor of Monait-Khufui, and this title appears to have become an appanage of his heir-apparent, just as the title of “Prince of Kaushu” was, from the XIXth dynasty onwards, the special designation of the heir to the throne.  The marriage of Khnumhotpu II. with the youthful Khiti, the heiress of the nome of the Jackal, rendered him master of one of the most fertile provinces of Middle Egypt.  The power of this family was further augmented under Nakhiti II., son of Khnumhotpu II. and Khiti:  Nakhiti, prince of the nome of the Jackal in right of his mother, and lord of that of the Gazelle after the death of his father, received from Usirtasen II. the administration of fifteen southern nomes, from Aphroditopolis to Thebes.  This is all we know of his history, but it is probable that his descendants retained the same power and position for several generations.  The career of these dignitaries depended greatly on the Pharaohs with whom they were contemporary:  they accompanied the royal troops on their campaigns, and with the spoil which they collected on such occasions they built temples or erected tombs for themselves.  The tombs of the princes of the nome of the Gazelle