g down to the Nile from the
Abyssinian mountains. The legend of the coming of Hathor from Ta-neter
may refer to some such wandering, and we know that the Egyptians of the
Old Kingdom communicated with the Land of Punt, not by way of the Red
Sea coast as Hatshepsut did, but by way of the Upper Nile. This would
tally well with the march of the _Mesniu_ northwards from Edfu to their
battle with the forces of Set at Dendera.

In any case, at the dawn of connected Egyptian history, we find two main
centres of civilization in Egypt, Heliopolis and Buto in the Delta
in the North, and Edfu and Hierakonpolis in the South. Here were
established at the beginning of the Chalcolithic stage of culture, we
may say, two kingdoms, of Lower and Upper Egypt, which were eventually
united by the superior arms of the kings of Upper Egypt, who imposed
their rule upon the North but at the same time removed their capital
thither. The dualism of Buto and Hierakonpolis really lasted throughout
Egyptian history. The king was always called "Lord of the Two Lands,"
and wore the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt; the snakes of Buto and
Nekhebet (the goddess of Nekheb, opposite Nekhen or Hierakonpolis)
always typified the united kingdom. This dualism of course often led to
actual division and reversion to the predynastic order of things, as,
for instance, in the time of the XXIst Dynasty.

It might well seem that both the impulses to culture development in the
North and South came from Semitic inspiration, and that it was to
the Semitic invaders in North and South that the founding of the two
kingdoms was due. This may be true to some extent, but it is at the same
time very probable that the first development of political culture at
Hierakonpolis was really of pre-Semitic origin. The kingdom of Buto,
since its capital is situated so near to the seacoast, may have owed
its origin to oversea Mediterranean connections. There is much in
the political constitution of later Egypt which seems to have been of
indigenous and pre-Semitic origin. Especially does this seem to be so in
the case of the division and organization of the country into nomes. It
is obvious that so soon as agriculture began to be practised on a large
scale, boundaries would be formed, and in the unique conditions of
Egypt, where all boundaries disappear beneath the inundation every
year, it is evident that the fixing of division-lines as permanently as
possible by means of landmarks was e