nto Ethiopia, and received in audience at
Thebes messengers from all foreign nations. He kept up so zealously the
appearance of universal dominion, that to judge from his inscriptions
he must have been the equal of the most powerful of his predecessors at
Thebes.

Egypt, nevertheless, was proceeding at a quick pace towards its
downfall. No sooner had this monarch disappeared than it began to break
up.** There were no doubt many claimants for the crown, but none of them
succeeded in disposing of the claims of his rivals, and anarchy reigned
supreme from one end of the Nile valley to the other. The land of Qimit
began to drift away, and the people within it had no longer a sovereign,
and this, too, for many years, until other times came; for "the land of
Qimit was in the hands of the princes ruling over the nomes, and they
put each other to death, both great and small.

* Bai has left two inscriptions behind him, one at Silsilis
and the other at Sehel, and the titles he assumes on both
monuments show the position he occupied at the Theban court
during the reign of Siphtah-Minephtah. Chabas thought that
Bai had succeeded in maintaining his rights to the crown
against the claims of Amenmesis.

** The little that we know about this period of anarchy has
been obtained from the _Harris Papyrus_.

Other times came afterwards, during years of nothingness, in which
Arisu, a Syrian,* was chief among them, and the whole country paid
tribute before him; every one plotted with his neighbour to steal the
goods of others, and it was the same with regard to the gods as with
regard to men, offerings were no longer made in the temples."

* The name of this individual was deciphered by Chabas;
Lauth, and after him Krall, were inclined to read it as Ket,
Ketesh, in order to identify it with the Ketes of Diodorus
Siculus. A form of the name Arisai in the Bible may be its
original, or that of Arish which is found in Phoenician,
especially Punic, inscriptions.

This was in truth the revenge of the feudal system upon Pharaoh. The
barons, kept in check by Ahmosis and Amenothes I., restricted by the
successors of these sovereigns to the position of simple officers of the
king, profited by the general laxity to recover as many as possible of
their ancient privileges. For half a century and more, fortune had given
them as masters only aged princes, not capable of maintaini