The Said hailed his return with joy, and the inhabitants, massed upon either bank of the river, acclaimed him as he glided past them on his boat:  “Go in peace! mayest thou have peace!  Restore life to Egypt!  Rebuild the ruined temples, set up once more the statues and emblems of the deities!  Reestablish the endowments raised to the gods and goddesses, even the offerings to the dead!  Restore the priest to his place, that he may minister at all the rites!”

The Assyrian officials and the princes of the north, with Necho at their head, were drawn up beneath the walls of Memphis to defy him.  He overcame them, however, captured the city, and pushed on into the Delta in pursuit of the retreating foe.  Necho either fell in a skirmish, or was taken prisoner and put to death:  his son Psammetichus escaped to Syria, but the remaining princes shut themselves up, each in his own stronghold, to await reinforcements from Asia, and a series of tedious and interminable sieges began.  Impatient at this dilatory method of warfare, Tanuatamanu at length fell back on Memphis, and there opened negotiations in the hope of securing at least a nominal submission, which might enable him to withdraw from the affair with honour.

[Illustration:  190.jpg MURAL DECORATIONS FROM THE GROTTOES]

The princes of the east received his overtures favourably, and consented to prostrate themselves before him at the White Wall under the auspices of Pakruru.  “Grant us the breath of life, for he who acknowledges thee not cannot live, and we will be thy vassals, as thou didst declare at the beginning, on the day in which thou becamest king!”

[Illustration:  191.jpg KING TANUATAMANU IN ADORATION BEFORE THE GODS OF THEBES]

     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Legrain, taken in the
     small temple at Thebes.

The heart of his Majesty was filled with joy when he heard this discourse:  he bestowed upon them in abundance bread, beer, and all manner of good things.  After sojourning some days at the court of Pharaoh their lord, they said to him, “Why stay we here, O prince our master?” His Majesty replied, “Wherefore?” They answered then, “Graciously permit us to return to our own cities, that we may give commands to our subjects, and may bring thee our tribute offerings!” They returned ere long, bringing the promised gifts, and the king withdrew to Napata loaded with spoil.* The Delta proper at once ceased to obey him, but Memphis, as well as Thebes, still acknowledged his sway for some two or three years longer.**

* Tanuatamanu was at first identified by Haigh with the person whose name Assyriologists read as Urdamani, but the impossibility of recognising the name Tanuatamanu in Urdamani decided E. de Rouge, and subsequently others, to admit an Urdamani different from Tanuatamanu.  The discovery of the right reading of the name Tandamanu by Steindorff has banished all doubts, and it is now universally admitted that the person mentioned in the Assyrian documents is identical with the king who erected the Stele of the Dream at Gebel Barkal.

     ** A monument still exists which was dedicated at Thebes in
     the third year of Tanuatamanu.