nome, with Monait-Khufui
as capital, was granted to his father-in-law, Khnumhotpu I. Expeditions
against the Uauaiu, the Mazaiu, and the nomads of Libya and Arabia
delivered the fellahin from their ruinous raids and ensured to the
Egyptians safety from foreign attack. Amenemhait had, moreover, the wit
to recognize that Thebes was not the most suitable place of residence
for the lord of all Egypt; it lay too far to the south, was thinly
populated, ill-built, without monuments, without prestige, and almost
without history. He gave it into the hands of one of his relations to
govern in his name, and proceeded to establish himself in the heart of
the country, in imitation of the glorious Pharaohs from whom he claimed
to be descended. But the ancient royal cities of Kheops and his children
had ceased to exist; Memphis, like Thebes, was now a provincial town,
and its associations were with the VIth and VIIIth dynasties only.
Amenemhait took up his abode a little to the south of Dahshur, in the
palace of Titoui, which he enlarged and made the seat of his government.
Conscious of being in the hands of a strong ruler, Egypt breathed freely
after centuries of distress, and her sovereign might in all sincerity
congratulate himself on having restored peace to his country. "I caused
the mourner to mourn no longer, and his lamentation was no longer
heard,--perpetual fighting was no longer witnessed,--while before my
coming they fought together as bulls unmindful of yesterday,--and no
man's welfare was assured, whether he was ignorant or learned."--"I
tilled the land as far as Elephantine,--I spread joy throughout the
country, unto the marshes of the Delta.--At my prayer the Nile granted
the inundation to the fields:--no man was an hungered under me, no
man was athirst under me,--for everywhere men acted according to my
commands, and all that I said was a fresh cause of love."

In the court of Amenemhait, as about all Oriental sovereigns, there were
doubtless men whose vanity or interests suffered by this revival of
the royal authority; men who had found it to their profit to intervene
between Pharaoh and his subjects, and who were thwarted in their
intrigues or exactions by the presence of a prince determined on keeping
the government in his own hands.

These men devised plots against the new king, and he escaped with
difficulty from their conspiracies. "It was after the evening meal, as
night came on,--I gave myself up to pleasure