y form a kind of _caput mortuum_. The most striking
example of this arrangement is afforded us in the IVth dynasty. The
contemporary monuments show that its kings formed a compact group, to
which are appended the first three sovereigns of the Vth dynasty,
always in the same order: Menkauri succeeded Khafri, Shopsiskaf followed
Menkauri, Usirkaf followed Shopsiskaf, and so on to the end. The lists
of Manetho suppress Shopsiskaf, and substitute four other individuals
in his place, namely, Katoises, Bikheris, Seberkheres, Thamphthis, whose
reigns must have occupied more than half a century; these four were
doubtless aspirants to the throne, or local kings belonging to the time
between the IVth and Vth dynasties, whom Manetho's authorities inserted
between the compact groups made up of Kheops and his sons on the one
hand, and of Usirkaf and his two real of supposed brothers on the other,
omitting Shopsiskaf, and having no idea that Usirkaf was his immediate
successor, with or without rivals to the throne.

In a course of lectures given at the _College de France_ (1893-95), I
have examined at length the questions raised by a study of the various
lists, and I may be able, perhaps, some day to publish the result of
my researches: for the present I must confine myself merely to what
is necessary to the elucidation of the present work, namely, the
Manethonian tradition on the one hand, and the tradition of the
monumental tables on the other. The text which I propose to follow for
the latter, during the first five dynasties, is that of the second table
of Abydos; the names placed between brackets [ ] are taken either from
the table of Saqqara or from the Royal Canon of Turin. The numbers of
the years, months, and days are those furnished by the last-mentioned
document.

[Illustration: 357.jpg LISTS OF THE PHARAOHS OF THE ANCIENT EMPIRE]

[Illustration: 358.jpg LISTS ON THE MONUMENTS]

From the VIth to the XIIth dynasty, the lists of Manetho are at fault:
they give the origin and duration of the dynasties, without furnishing
us with the names of the kings.

[Illustration: 359.jpg LISTS ON THE MONUMENTS]

This blank is partially filled by the table of Abydos, by the fragments
of the Turin Papyrus, and by information supplied by the monuments. No
such definitely established sequence appears to have existed for this
period, as for the preceding ones. The Heracleopolitan dynasties
figure, perhaps, in the Canon of Turin only; as