* The Nubian tribes, who are called Ethiopians by Herodotus and the cuneiform inscriptions, paid no regular tribute, but were obliged to send annually two chaenikes of pure gold, two hundred pieces of ebony, twenty elephants’ tusks, and five young slaves, all under the name of a free gift.

     ** Herodotus states that in his own time the Persians, like
     the Saite Pharaohs, still had garrisons at Daphnae and at
     Elephantine.

     *** Herodotus says that the produce sank to the value of a
     third of a talent a day during the six other months.

     **** Diodorus Siculus says that the revenue produced by the
     fisheries in the Lake had been handed over by Moris to his
     wife for the expenses of her toilet.

[Illustration:  219.jpg DARIUS ON THE STELE OF THE ISTHMUS]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the Description de l’Egypte.

Commerce brought in to it, in fact, at least as much money as the tribute took out of it.  Incorporated with an empire which extended over three continents, Egypt had access to regions whither the products of her industry and her soil had never yet been carried.  The produce of Ethiopia and the Sudan passed through her emporia on its way to attract customers in the markets of Tyre, Sidon, Babylon, and Susa, and the isthmus of Suez and Kosseir were the nearest ports through which Arabia and India could reach the Mediterranean.  Darius therefore resumed the work of Necho, and beginning simultaneously at both extremities, he cut afresh the canal between the Nile and the Gulf of Suez.  Trilingual stelae in Egyptian, Persian, and Medic were placed at intervals along its banks, and set forth to all comers the method of procedure by which the sovereign had brought his work to a successful end.  In a similar manner he utilised the Wadys which wind between Koptos and the Red Sea, and by their means placed the cities of the Said in communication with the “Ladders of Incense,” Punt and the Sabaeans.*

* Several of the inscriptions engraved on the rocks of the Wady Hammamat show to what an extent the route was frequented at certain times during the reign.  They bear the dates of the 26th, 27th, 28th, 30th, and 36th years of Darius.  The country of Saba (Sheba) is mentioned on one of the stelae of the isthmus.

He extended his favour equally to the commerce which they carried on with the interior of Africa; indeed, in order to ensure the safety of the caravans in the desert regions nearest to the Nile, he skilfully fortified the Great Oasis.  He erected at Habit, Kushit, and other places, several of those rectangular citadels with massive walls of unburnt brick, which resisted every effort of the nomad tribes to break through them; and as the temple at Habit, raised in former times by the Theban Pharaohs, had become ruinous, he rebuilt it from its foundations.

[Illustration:  220.jpg WALLS OF THE FORTRESS OF DITSH-EL-QALAA]