od of their forests, the charcoal that they make,
gums, game, skins of animals, and the gold and precious stones which
they get from their mines: they agree in return to refrain from any
act of plunder, and to constitute a desert police, provided that they
receive a regular pay.

[Illustration: 223.jpg MAP OF NUBIA IN THE TIME OF THE MEMPHITE EMPIRE]

The same arrangement existed in ancient times. The tribes hired
themselves out to Pharaoh. They brought him beams of "sont" at the first
demand, when he was in need of materials to build a fleet beyond the
first cataract. They provided him with bands of men ready armed, when
a campaign against the Libyans or the Asiatic tribes forced him to seek
recruits for his armies: the Mazaiu entered the Egyptian service in such
numbers, that their name served to designate the soldiery in general,
just as in Cairo porters and night watchmen are all called Berberines.
Among these people respect for their oath of fealty yielded sometimes
to their natural disposition, and they allowed themselves to be carried
away to plunder the principalities which they had agreed to defend: the
colonists in Nubia were often obliged to complain of their exactions.
When these exceeded all limits, and it became impossible to wink at
their misdoings any longer, light-armed troops were sent against
them, who quickly brought them to reason. As at Sinai, these were easy
victories. They recovered in one expedition what the Uauaiu had
stolen in ten, both in flocks and fellahin, and the successful general
perpetuated the memory of his exploits by inscribing, as he returned,
the name of Pharaoh on some rock at Syene or Elephantine: we may surmise
that it was after this fashion that Usirkaf, Nofiririkeri, and Unas
carried on the wars in Nubia. Their armies probably never went beyond
the second cataract, if they even reached so far: further south the
country was only known by the accounts of the natives or by the few
merchants who had made their way into it. Beyond the Mazaiu, but still
between the Nile and the Red Sea, lay the country of Puanit, rich in
ivory, ebony, gold, metals, gums, and sweet-smelling resins. When some
Egyptian, bolder than his fellows, ventured to travel thither, he could
choose one of several routes for approaching it by land or sea. The
navigation of the Red Sea was, indeed, far more frequent than is usually
believed, and the same kind of vessels in which the Egyptians coasted
along the Me