reckoned the number of men under the command of King Ahmosis when he encamped before Avaris at 480,000.  This immense multitude failed to bring matters to a successful issue, and the siege dragged on indefinitely.  The king afc length preferred to treat with the Shepherds, and gave them permission to retreat into Syria safe and sound, together with their wives, their children, and all their goods.  This account, however, in no way agrees with the all too brief narration of events furnished by the inscription in the tomb.  The army to which Egypt really owed its deliverance was not the undisciplined rabble of later tradition, but, on the contrary, consisted of troops similar to those which subsequently invaded Syria, some 15,000 to 20,000 in number, fully equipped and ably officered, supported, moreover, by a fleet ready to transfer them across the canals and arms of the river in a vigorous condition and ready for the battle.*

* It may be pointed out that Ahmosi, son of Abina, was a sailor and a leader of sailors; that he passed from one vessel to another, until he was at length appointed to the command of one of the most important ships in the royal fleet.  Transport by water always played considerable part in the wars which were carried on in Egyptian territory; I have elsewhere drawn attention to campaigns conducted in this manner under the Horacleopolitan dynasties, and we shall see that the Ethiopian conquerors adopted the same mode of transit in the course of their invasion of Egypt.

As soon as this fleet arrived at the scene of hostilities, the engagement began.  Ahmosi-si-Abina conducted the manouvres under the king’s eye, and soon gave such evidence of his capacity, that he was transferred by royal favour to the Rising in Memphis—­a vessel with a high freeboard.  He was shortly afterwards appointed to a post in a division told off for duty on the river Zadiku, which ran under the walls of the enemy’s fortress.* Two successive and vigorous attacks made in this quarter were barren of important results.  Ahmosi-si-Abina succeeded in each of the attacks in killing an enemy, bringing back as trophies a hand of each of his victims, and his prowess, made known to the king by one of the heralds, twice procured for him, “the gold of valour,” probably in the form of collars, chains, or bracelets.**

* The name of this canal was first recognised by Brugsch, then misunderstood and translated “the water bearing the name of the water of Avaris.”  It is now road “Zadiku,” and, with the Egyptian article, Pa-zadiku, or Pzadiku.  The name is of Semitic origin, and is derived from the root meaning “to be just;” we do not know to which of the watercourses traversing the east of the Delta it ought to be applied.

** The fact that the attacks from this side were not successful is proved by the sequel.  If they had succeeded, as is usually supposed, the Egyptians would not have fallen back on another point further south in order to renew the struggle.

[Illustration:  122.jpg THE TOMBS OF THE PRINCES OF NEKHABIT, IN THE HILLSIDE ABOVE EL-KAB]