daughter of an Ethiopian Pharaoh, or at any rate the daughter of a chief of some Nubian tribe; it was thought that Ahmosis must have married her to secure the help of the negro tribes in his wars, and that it was owing to this alliance that he succeeded in expelling the Hyksos.  Later discoveries have not confirmed these hypotheses.  Nofritari was most probably an Egyptian of unmixed race, as we have seen, and daughter of Ahhotpu I., and the black or blue colour of her skin is merely owing to her identification with the goddesses of the dead.

Considerable endowments were given for maintaining worship at her tomb, and were administered by a special class of priests.  Her mummy reposed among those of the princes of her family, in the hiding-place at Deir-el-Bahari:  it was enclosed in an enormous wooden sarcophagus covered with linen and stucco, the lower part being shaped to the body, while the upper part representing the head and arms could be lifted off in one piece.  The shoulders are covered with a network in relief, the meshes of which are painted blue on a yellow background.  The Queen’s hands are crossed over her breast, and clasp the crux ansata, the symbol of life.  The whole mummy-case measures a little over nine feet from the sole of the feet to the top of the head, which is furthermore surmounted by a cap, and two long ostrich-feathers.  The appearance is not so much that of a coffin as of one of those enormous caryatides which we sometimes find adorning the front of a temple.

We may perhaps attribute to the influence of Nofritari the lack of zest evinced by Amenothes for expeditions into Syria.  Even the most energetic kings had always shrunk from penetrating much beyond the isthmus.  Those who ventured so far as to work the mines of Sinai had nevertheless felt a secret fear of invading Asia proper—­a dread which they never succeeded in overcoming.  When the raids of the Bedouin obliged the Egyptian sovereign to cross the frontier into their territory, he would retire as soon as possible, without attempting any permanent conquest.  After the expulsion of the Hyksos, Ahmosis seemed inclined to pursue a less timorous course.  He made an advance on Sharuhana and pillaged it, and the booty he brought back ought to have encouraged him to attempt more important expeditions; but he never returned to this region, and it would seem that when his first enthusiasm had subsided, he was paralysed by the same fear which had fallen on his ancestors.  Nofritari may have counselled her son not to break through the traditions which his father had so strictly followed, for Amenothes I. confined his campaigns to Africa, and the traditional battle-fields there.  He embarked for the land of Kush on the vessel of Ahmosi-si-Abina “for the purpose of enlarging the frontiers of Egypt.”  It was, we may believe, a thoroughly conventional campaign, conducted according to the strictest precedents of the XIIth dynasty.  The Pharaoh,