ave no information of
any war with or conquest of that people. It must be a case of trade
rather than tribute here and in like instances. According to the papyrus
of Unamun at the end of the weak XXth Dynasty payment for cedar was
insisted on by the king of Byblus from the Egyptian commissioner, and
proofs were shown to him of payment having been made even in the more
glorious times of Egypt. Trade both internal and external must have been
largely in the hands of foreigners. It is impossible to say at what
period Phoenician traffic by sea with Egypt began, but it existed as
early as the IIIrd Dynasty. In the time of Herodotus much wine was
imported from Syria and Greece. Amasis II. (c. 570 B.C.) established
Naucratis as the centre of Greek trade in Egypt. Financial transactions
by Jews settled at the southern extremity of Egypt, at Assuan, are found
as early as the reign of Artaxerxes.

_Hunting, Fishing, &c._--In the desert hunting was carried on by hunters
with bows and arrows, dogs and nets to check the game. Here in ancient
times were found the oryx, addax, ibex, gazelle, bubale, ostrich, hyena
and porcupine, more rarely the wild ox and wild sheep (_O.
tragelaphus_). All of these were considered fit for the table. The lion,
leopard and jackal were not eaten. Pigeons and other birds were caught
in traps, and quails were netted in the fields and on the sea-shore. In
the papyrus marshes the hippopotamus was slain with harpoons, the wild
boar, too, was probably hunted, and the sportsman brought down wild-fowl
with the boomerang, or speared or angled for fish. Enormous quantities
of wild-fowl of many sorts were taken in clap-nets, to be preserved in
jars with salt. Fish were taken sometimes in hand-nets, but the
professional fishermen with their draw-nets caught them in shoals. The
fishing industry was of great importance: the annual catch in the Lake
of Moeris and its canal formed an important part of the Egyptian
revenue. The fish of the Nile, which were of many kinds (including
mullets, &c., which came up from the sea), were split and dried in the
sun: others were salted and so preserved. A supply of sea fish would be
obtained off the coast of the Delta and at the mouth of the Lake
Serbonis.

_Farming, Horticulture, &c._--The wealth of Egypt lay in its
agriculture. The regular inundations, the ease of irrigating the rich
alluvial flats, and the great heat of the sun in a cloudless sky, while
limiting the natural flo