rything into account, the condition of the Pharaoh's
subjects might have been a pleasant one, had they been able to accept
their lot without any mental reservation. They retained their own laws,
their dynasties, and their frontiers, and paid a tax only in proportion
to their resources, while the hostages given were answerable for their
obedience. These hostages were as a rule taken by Thutmosis from among
the sons or the brothers of the enemy's chief. They were carried to
Thebes, where a suitable establishment was assigned to them,** the
younger members receiving an education which practically made them
Egyptians.

* The statues of Thutmosis III. and of the gods of Egypt
erected at Tunipa are mentioned in a letter from the
inhabitants of that town to Amenothes III. Later, Ramses
II., speaking of the two towns in the country of the Khati
in which were two statues of His Majesty, mentions Tunipa as
one of them.

** The various titles of the lists of Thutmosis III. at
Thebes show us "the children of the Syrian chiefs conducted
as prisoners" into the town of Suhanu, which is elsewhere
mentioned as the depot, the prison of the temple of Anion.
W. Max Mullcr was the first to remark the historical value
of this indication, but without sufficiently insisting on
it; the name indicates, perhaps, as he says, a great prison,
but a prison like those where the princes of the family of
the Ottoman sultans were confined by the reigning monarch--
a palace usually provided with all the comforts of Oriental
life.

As soon as a vacancy occurred in the succession either in Syria or in
Ethiopia, the Pharaoh would choose from among the members of the family
whom he held in reserve, that prince on whose loyalty he could best
count, and placed him upon the throne.* The method of procedure was not
always successful, since these princes, whom one would have supposed
from their training to have been the least likely to have asserted
themselves against the man to whom they owed their elevation, often gave
more trouble than others. The sense of the supreme power of Egypt, which
had been inculcated in them during their exile, seemed to be weakened
after their return to their native country, and to give place to a
sense of their own importance. Their hearts misgave them as the time
approached for them to send their own children as pledges to their
suzerain, and a