ion: 096.jpg NOMES OF UPPER EGYPT]

As we approach the cataract, information becomes scarcer. Qubti and Aunu
of the South, the Coptos and Hermonthis of the Greeks, shared peaceably
the plain occupied later on by Thebes and its temples, and Nekhabit and
Zobu watched over the safety of Egypt. Nekhabit soon lost its position
as a frontier town, and that portion of Nubia lying between Gebel
Silsileh and the rapids of Syene formed a kind of border province, of
which Nubit-Ombos was the principal sanctuary and Abu-Elephantine
the fortress: beyond this were the barbarians, and those inaccessible
regions whence the Nile descended upon our earth.

The organization of the Delta, it would appear, was more slowly brought
about. It must have greatly resembled that of the lowlands of Equatorial
Africa, towards the confluence of the Bahr el Abiad and the Bahr el
Ghazal. Great tracts of mud, difficult to describe as either solid or
liquid, marshes dotted here and there with sandy islets, bristling with
papyrus reeds, water-lilies, and enormous plants through which the arms
of the Nile sluggishly pushed their ever-shifting course, low-lying
wastes intersected with streams and pools, unfit for cultivation
and scarcely available for pasturing cattle. The population of such
districts, engaged in a ceaseless struggle with nature, always preserved
relatively ruder manners, and a more rugged and savage character,
impatient of all authority. The conquest of this region began from the
outer edge only. A few principalities were established at the apex of
the Delta in localities where the soil had earliest been won from the
river. It appears that one of these divisions embraced the country
south of and between the bifurcation of the Nile: Aunu of the North,
the Heliopolis of the Greeks, was its capital. In very early times the
principality was divided, and formed three new states, independent of
each other. Those of Aunu and the Haunch were opposite to each other,
the first on the Arabian, the latter on the Libyan bank of the Nile. The
district of the White Wall marched with that of the Haunch on the north,
and on the south touched the territory of the Oleander. Further down the
river, between the more important branches, the governors of Sai's and
of Bubastis, of Athribis and of Busiris, shared among themselves the
primitive Delta. Two frontier provinces of unequal size, the Arabian on
the east in the Wady Tumilat, and the Libyan on the west to