* Hotpuri and Manhotpuri are both mentioned in the fragments of a fantastic story (copied during the XXth dynasty), bits of which are found in most European museums.  In one of these fragments, preserved in the Louvre, mention is made of Hotpuri’s tomb, certainly situated at Thebes; we possess scarabs of this king, and Petrie discovered at Coptos a fragment of a stele bearing his name and titles, and describing the works which he executed in the temples of the town.  The XIVth year of Manhotpuri is mentioned in a passage of the story as being the date of the death of a personage born under Hotpuri.  These two kings belong, as far as we are able to judge, to the middle of the XVIIth dynasty; I am inclined to place beside them the Pharaoh Nubhotpuri, of whom we possess a few rather coarse scarabs.

As we proceed, however, information becomes more plentiful, and the list of reigns almost complete.  The part which the princesses of older times played in the transmission of power had, from the XIIth dynasty downward, considerably increased in importance, and threatened to overshadow that of the princes.  The question presents itself whether, during these centuries of perpetual warfare, there had not been a moment when, all the males of the family having perished, the women alone were left to perpetuate the solar race on the earth and to keep the succession unbroken.  As soon as the veil over this period of history begins to be lifted, we distinguish among the personages emerging from the obscurity as many queens as kings presiding over the destinies of Egypt.  The sons took precedence of the daughters when both were the offspring of a brother and sister born of the same parents, and when, consequently, they were of equal rank; but, on the other hand, the sons forfeited this equality when there was any inferiority in origin on the maternal side, and their prospect of succession to the throne diminished in proportion to their mother’s remoteness from the line of Ra.  In the latter case all their sisters, born of marriages which to us appear incestuous, took precedence of them, and the eldest daughter became the legitimate Pharaoh, who sat in the seat of Horus on the death of her father, or even occasionally during his lifetime.  The prince whom she married governed for her, and discharged those royal duties which could be legally performed by a man only,—­such as offering worship to the supreme gods, commanding the army, and administering justice; but his wife never ceased to be sovereign, and however small the intelligence or firmness of which she might be possessed, her husband was obliged to leave to her, at all events on certain occasions, the direction of affairs.

[Illustration:  109.jpg NOFRITARI, FROM TUE WOODEN STATUETTE IN THE TURIN MUSEUM]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Plinders
     Petrie.