rial the most frequented of the routes into
Central Africa has terminated at its gates, bringing to it the commerce
of the Soudan. It held sway, at the outset, over both banks, from range
to range, northward as far as Deyrut, where the true Bahr Yusuf leaves
the Nile, and southward to the neighbourhood of Gebel Sheikh Haridi. The
extent and original number of the other principalities is not so easily
determined.

The most important, to the north of Siut, were those of the Hare and the
Oleander. The principality of the Hare never reached the dimensions
of that of its neighbour the Terebinth, but its chief town was Khmunu,
whose antiquity was so remote, that a universally accepted tradition
made it the scene of the most important acts of creation.[*] That of the
Oleander, on the contrary, was even larger than that of the Terebinth,
and from Hininsu, its chief governor ruled alike over the marshes of the
Fayum and the plains of Beni-Suef.[**] To the south, Apu on the right
bank governed a district so closely shut in between a bend of the Nile
and two spurs of the range, that its limits have never varied much since
ancient times. Its inhabitants were divided in their employment between
weaving and the culture of cereals. From early times they possessed the
privilege of furnishing clothing to a large part of Egypt, and their
looms, at the present day, still make those checked or striped
"melayahs" which the fellah women wear over their long blue tunics.[***]

* Khmunu, the present Ashmunein, is the Hermopolis of the
Greeks, the town of the god Thot.

** Hininsu is the _Heraecleopolis Magna_ of the Greeks, the
present Henassieh, called also Ahnas-el-Medineh. The
Egyptian word for the tree which gives its name to this
principality, is Narit. Loret has shown that this tree,
_Narit_, is the oleander.

*** Apu was the Panopolis or Chemmis of the Greeks, the
town of the god Min or ithyphallic Khimu. Its manufactures
of linen are mentioned by Strabo; the majority of the
beautiful Coptic woven fabrics and embroideries which have
been brought to Europe lately, come from the necropolis of
the Arab period at Apu.

Beyond Apu, Thinis, the Girgeh of the Arabs, situate on both banks of
the river, rivalled Khmunu in antiquity and Siut in wealth: its plains
still produce the richest harvests and feed the most numerous herds of
sheep and oxen in the Said.

[Illustrat