ttle. These primitive fortresses were strong enough to
overawe nomads; regular troops made short work of them. The Egyptians
took them by assault, overturned them, cut down the fruit trees, burned
the crops, and retreated in security, after having destroyed everything
in their march. Each of their campaigns, which hardly lasted more than a
few days, secured the tranquillity of the frontier for some years.*

* The inscription of Uni (11. 22-32) furnishes us with the
invariable type of the Egyptian campaigns against the Hiru-
Shaitu: the bas-reliefs of Karnak might serve to illustrate
it, as they represent the great raid led by Seti I. into the
territory of the Shausus and their allies, between the
frontier of Egypt and the town of Hebron.

[Illustration: 159.jpg VIEW OF THE OASIS OF WADY FEIKAN IN THE PENINSULA
OF SINAI]

Drawn by Boudier, from the water-colour drawing published by
Lepsius, _Denhn._, i. 7, No. 2.

To the south of Gebel et-Tih, and cut off from it almost completely by a
moat of wadys, a triangular group of mountains known as Sinai thrusts a
wedge-shaped spur into the Red Sea, forcing back its waters to the right
and left into two narrow gulfs, that of Akabah and that of Suez. Gebel
Katherin stands up from the centre and overlooks the whole peninsula. A
sinuous chain detaches itself from it and ends at Gebel Serbal, at
some distance to the northwest; another trends to the south, and after
attaining in Gebel Umm-Shomer an elevation equal to that of Gebel
Katherin, gradually diminishes in height, and plunges into the sea at
Ras-Mohammed. A complicated system of gorges and valleys--Wady Nasb,
Wady Kidd, Wady Hebran, Wady Baba--furrows the country and holds it as
in a network of unequal meshes. Wady Feiran contains the most fertile
oasis in the peninsula. A never-failing stream waters it for about two
or three miles of its length; quite a little forest of palms enlivens
both banks--somewhat meagre and thin, it is true, but intermingled with
acacias, tamarisks, nabecas, carob trees, and willows. Birds sing amid
their branches, sheep wander in the pastures, while the huts of the
inhabitants peep out at intervals from among the trees. Valleys and
plains, even in some places the slopes of the hills, are sparsely
covered with those delicate aromatic herbs which affect a stony soil.
Their life is a perpetual struggle against the sun: scorched, dried up,
to all appearance d