as might be expected, came into personal contact with the enemy, and slew their chief with his own hand; the barbarian warriors sold their lives dearly, but were unable to protect their country from pillage, the victors carrying off whatever they could seize—­men, women, and cattle.  The pursuit of the enemy had led the army some distance into the desert, as far as a halting-place called the “Upper cistern”—­Khnumit hirit; instead of retracing his steps to the Nile squadron, and returning slowly by boat, Amenothes resolved to take a short cut homewards.  Ahmosi conducted him back overland in two days, and was rewarded for his speed by the gift of a quantity of gold, and two female slaves.  An incursion into Libya followed quickly on the Ethiopian campaign.

[Illustration:  144.jpg STATUE OF AMENOTHES I. IN THE TURIN MUSEUM]

     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph supplied by Flinders
     Petrie.

The tribe of the Kihaka, settled between Lake Mareotis and the Oasis of Amon, had probably attacked in an audacious manner the western provinces of the Delta; a raid was organized against them, and the issue was commemorated by a small wooden stele, on which we see the victor represented as brandishing his sword over a barbarian lying prostrate at his feet.  The exploits of Amenothes appear to have ended with this raid, for we possess no monument recording any further victory gained by him.  This, however, has not prevented his contemporaries from celebrating him as a conquering and ’victorious king.  He is portrayed standing erect in his chariot ready to charge, or as carrying off two barbarians whom he holds half suffocated in his sinewy arms, or as gleefully smiting the princes of foreign lands.  He acquitted himself of the duties of the chase as became a true Pharaoh, for we find him depicted in the act of seizing a lion by the tail and raising him suddenly in mid-air previous to despatching him.  These are, indeed, but conventional pictures of war, to which we must not attach an undue importance.  Egypt had need of repose in order to recover from the losses it had sustained during the years of struggle with the invaders.  If Amenothes courted peace from preference and not from political motives, his own generation profited as much by his indolence as the preceding one had gained by the energy of Ahrnosis.  The towns in his reign resumed their ordinary life, agriculture flourished, and commerce again followed its accustomed routes.  Egypt increased its resources, and was thus able to prepare for future conquest.  The taste for building had not as yet sufficiently developed to become a drain upon the public treasury.  We have, however, records showing that Amenothes excavated a cavern in the mountain of Ibrim in Nubia, dedicated to Satit, one of the goddesses of the cataract.

[Illustration:  146.jpg Page Image]

It is also stated that he worked regularly the quarries of Silsileh, but we do not know for what buildings the sandstone thus extracted was destined.* Karnak was also adorned with chapels, and with at least one colossus,** while several chambers built of the white limestone of Turah were added to Ombos.  Thebes had thus every reason to cherish the memory of this pacific king.