bes on the way; but Herkhuf persuaded one of the
Soudanese chiefs to furnish him with a large escort, and the caravan was
so strongly guarded that the other tribes did not venture to attack it,
but were glad to help its leader with guides and gifts of cattle.
Herkhuf brought his treasures safely back to Egypt, and the King was so
pleased with his success that he sent a special messenger with a boat
full of delicacies to refresh the weary traveller.

[Illustration: PLATE 12.
A DESERT POSTMAN.]

But the most successful of all his expeditions was the fourth. The King
who had sent him on the other journeys had died, and was succeeded by a
little boy called Pepy, who was only about six years old when he came to
the throne, and who reigned for more than ninety years--the longest
reign in the world's history. In the second year of Pepy's reign, the
bold Herkhuf set out again for the Soudan, and this time, along with
other treasures, he brought back something that his boy-King valued far
more than gold or ivory.

You know how, when Stanley went in search of Emin Pasha, he discovered
in the Central African forests a strange race of dwarfs, living by
themselves, and very shy of strangers. Well, for all these thousands of
years, the forefathers of these little dwarfs must have been living in
the heart of the Dark Continent. In early days they evidently lived not
so far away from Egypt as when Stanley found them, for, on at least one
occasion, one of Pharaoh's servants had been able to capture one of the
little men, and bring him down as a present to his master, greatly to
the delight of the King and Court. Herkhuf was equally fortunate. He
managed to secure a dwarf from one of these pigmy tribes, and brought
him back with his caravan, that he might please the young King with his
quaint antics and his curious dances.

When the King heard of the present which his brave servant was bringing
back for him, he was wild with delight. The thought of this new toy was
far more to the little eight-year-old, King though he was, than all the
rest of the treasure which Herkhuf had gathered; and he caused a letter
to be written to the explorer, telling him of his delight, and giving
him all kinds of advice as to how careful he should be that the dwarf
should come to no harm on the way to Court.

The letter, through all its curious old phrases, is very much the kind
of letter that any boy might send on hearing of some new toy that was
comin