into account the repairs of existing buildings, had plenty to do in
constructing edifices in honour of Atonu in the principal towns of the
Nile valley, at Memphis, Heliopolis, Hermopolis, Hermonthis, and in
the Fayum. The provinces in Ethiopia remained practically in the
same condition as in the time of Amenothes III.;* Kush was pacified,
notwithstanding the raids which the tribes of the desert were accustomed
to make from time to time, only to receive on each occasion rigorous
chastisement from the king's viceroy.

* The name and the figure of Khuniatonu are met with on the
gate of the temple of Soleb, and he received in his
XIIth year the tributes of Kush, as well as those of Syria.

The sudden degradation of Amon had not brought about any coldness
between the Pharaoh and his princely allies in Asia. The aged Amenothes
had, towards the end of his reign, asked the hand of Dushratta's
daughter in marriage, and the Mitannian king, highly flattered by the
request, saw his opportunity and took advantage of it in the interest
of his treasury. He discussed the amount of the dowry, demanded a
considerable sum of gold, and when the affair had been finally arranged
to his satisfaction, he despatched the princess to the banks of the
Nile. On her arrival she found her affianced husband was dead, or, at
all events, dying. Amenothes IV., however, stepped into his father's
place, and inherited his bride with his crown.

[Illustration: 100.jpg THE DOOR OF A TOMB AT TEL EL-AMARNA]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Insinger.

The new king's relations with other foreign princes were no less
friendly; the chief of the Khati (Hittites) complimented him on his
accession, the King of Alasia wrote to him to express his earnest desire
for a continuance of peace between the two states. Burnaburiash of
Babylon had, it is true, hoped to obtain an Egyptian princess in
marriage for his son, and being disappointed, had endeavoured to pick a
quarrel over the value of the presents which had been sent him, together
with the notice of the accession of the new sovereign. But his kingdom
lay too far away to make his ill-will of much consequence, and his
complaints passed unheeded. In Coele-Syria and Phoenicia the situation
remained unchanged. The vassal cities were in a perpetual state
of disturbance, though not more so than in the past. Aziru, son of
Abdashirti, chief of the country of the Amorites, had always, even