easily have shaken the fidelity of the
other feudatory kings, and endangered the stability of the new dynasty.
Pionkhi, therefore, accepted the terms offered him without modification,
and asked for no guarantee beyond the oath taken in the presence of
the gods. News was brought him about this time that Cynopolis and
Aphroditopolis had at last thrown open their gates, and accordingly he
summoned his vassals for the last time to his camp near Athribis. With
the exception of Tafnakhti, they all obeyed the call, including two
minor kings of Upper and two of Lower Egypt, together with barons of
lesser rank; but of these, Namroti alone was admitted to the royal
apartments, because he alone was circumcised and ate no fish; after
this the camp was broken up, and the Ethiopians set out on their return
journey southwards. Pionkhi may well have been proud of the result of
this campaign, both for himself and for his country. The empire of the
Pharaohs, which had for the last hundred and fifty years been divided,
was now re-established from the confluence of the Niles to the shores
of the Mediterranean, but it was no longer Egypt that benefited by the
change. It was now, after many years of slavery, the turn of Ethiopia
to rule, and the seat of power was transferred from Thebes or Memphis to
Napata. As a matter of fact, the fundamental constitution of the kingdom
underwent no great modification; it had merely one king the more to rule
over it--not a stranger, as we are often tempted to conclude, when we
come to measure these old-world revolutions by our modern standards
of patriotism, but a native of the south, who took the place of those
natives of the north who had succeeded one another on the throne since
the days of Smendes. In fact, this newly crowned son of Ra lived a very
long way off; he had no troops of his own further north than Siut,
and he had imposed his suzerainty on the rival claimants and reigning
princes without thereby introducing any change in the constitution
of the state. In tendering their submission to him, the heads of the
different nomes had not the slightest intention of parting with their
liberty; they still retained it, even though nominally dependent, and
continued, as in the past, to abuse it without scruple. Namroti was king
at Khmunu, Pefzaabastit at Khninsu, Auputi at Tentramu, and Osorkon
III. at Bubastis; the prestige investing the Tanite race persisted so
effectively that the annalists give to the