belonged to the family of the lords of Nekhabit, has left us an account, in one of the inscriptions in his tomb, of the numerous exploits in which he took part side by side with his royal master, and thus, thanks to this fortunate record of his vanity, we are not left in complete ignorance of the events which took place during this crucial struggle between the Asiatic settlers and their former subjects.  Nekhabit had enjoyed considerable prosperity in the earlier ages of Egyptian history, marking as it did the extreme southern limit of the kingdom, and forming an outpost against the barbarous tribes of Nubia.  As soon as the progress of conquest had pushed the frontier as far south as the first cataract, it declined in importance, and the remembrance of its former greatness found an echo only in proverbial expressions or in titles used at the Pharaonic court.* The nomes situated to the south of Thebes, unlike those of Middle Egypt, did not comprise any extensive fertile or well-watered territory calculated to enrich its possessors or to afford sufficient support for a large population:  they consisted of long strips of alluvial soil, shut in between the river and the mountain range, but above the level of the inundation, and consequently difficult to irrigate.

* This is evident from passage in the biography of Ahmosi- si-Abina, where it is stated that, after the taking of Avaris, the king passed into Asia in the year VI.  The first few lines of the Great Inscription of El-Kab seem to refer to four successive campaigns, i.e. four years of warfare up to the taking of Avaris, and to a fifth year spent in pursuing the Shepherds into Syria.

** The vulture of Nekhabit is used to indicate the south, while the urseus of Buto denotes the extreme north; the title Ra-Nekhnit, “Chief of Nekhnit,” which is, hypothetically, supposed to refer to a judicial function, is none the less associated with the expression, “Nekhabit- Tekhnit,” as an indication of the south, and, therefore, can be traced to the prehistoric epoch when Nekhabit was the primary designation of the south.

[Illustration:  116.jpg THE WALLS OF EL-KAB SEEN FROM THE TOMB OF PIHIRI]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey.

[Illustration:  116a.jpg COLLECTION OF VASES] MODELLED AND PAINTED IN THE GRAND TEMPLE.  PHILAE ISLAND.

These nomes were cultivated, moreover, by a poor and sparse population.  It needed a fortuitous combination of circumstances to relieve them from their poverty-stricken condition—­either a war, which would bring into prominence their strategic positions; or the establishment of markets, such as those of Syene and Elephantine, where the commerce of neighbouring regions would naturally centre; or the erection, as at Ombos or Adfu, of a temple which would periodically attract a crowd of pilgrims.  The principality of the Two Feathers comprised, besides Nekhabit, at least