Sahuri
brought these nomads to reason, and perpetuated the memory of his
victories by a stele, engraved on the face of one of the rocks in the
Wady Magharah; Anu obtained some successes over them, and Assi repulsed
them in the fourth year of his reign. On the whole, they maintained
Egypt in the position of prosperity and splendour to which their
predecessors had raised it.

In one respect they even increased it. Egypt was not so far isolated
from the rest of the world as to prevent her inhabitants from knowing,
either by personal contact or by hearsay, at least some of the peoples
dwelling outside Africa, to the north and east.

[Illustration: 217.jpg TRIUMPHAL BAS-RELIEF OF PHARAOH SAHURU, ON THE
ROCKS OF WADY MAGHARAH.]

Drawn by Boudier, from the water-colour published in
Lepsius, _Denhn._, i. pl. 8, No. 2

They knew that beyond the "Very Green," almost at the foot of the
mountains behind which the sun travelled during the night, stretched
fertile islands or countries and nations without number, some barbarous
or semi-barbarous, others as civilized as they were themselves. They
cared but little by what names they were known, but called them all by
a common epithet, the Peoples beyond the Seas, "Haui-nibu." If they
travelled in person to collect the riches which were offered to them by
these peoples in exchange for the products of the Nile, the Egyptians
could not have been the unadventurous and home-loving people we have
imagined. They willingly left their own towns in pursuit of fortune
or adventure, and the sea did not inspire them with fear or religious
horror. The ships which they launched upon it were built on the model of
the Nile boats, and only differed from the latter in details which would
now pass unnoticed. The hull, which was built on a curved keel, was
narrow, had a sharp stem and stern, was decked from end to end, low
forward and much raised aft, and had a long deck cabin: the steering
apparatus consisted of one or two large stout oars, each supported on
a forked post and managed by a steersman. It had one mast, sometimes
composed of a single tree, sometimes formed of a group of smaller masts
planted at a slight distance from each other, but united at the top by
strong ligatures and strengthened at intervals by crosspieces which made
it look like a ladder; its single sail was bent sometimes to one yard,
sometimes to two; while its complement consisted of some fifty men,
oarsmen, sailo