his, probably the same who took the
prsenomen of Aqnunri, was reigning at Tanis when the decisive revolt
broke out, and Saqnunri Tiuaa I., who was the leader on the occasion,
had no other title of authority over the provinces of the south than
that of _hiqu,_ or regent. We are unacquainted with the cause of the
outbreak or with its sequel, and the Egyptians themselves seem to have
been not much better informed on the subject than ourselves. They gave
free flight to their fancy, and accommodated the details to their taste,
not shrinking from the introduction of daring fictions into the account.
A romance, which was very popular with the literati four or five hundred
years later, asserted that the real cause of the war was a kind of
religious quarrel. "It happened that the land of Egypt belonged to
the Fever-stricken, and, as there was no supreme king at that time, it
happened then that King Saqnunri was regent of the city of the south,
and that the Fever-stricken of the city of Ra were under the rule of
Ra-Apopi in Avaris. The Whole Land tribute to the latter in manufactured
products, and the north did the same in all the good things of the
Delta. Now, the King Ra-Apopi took to himself Sutkhu for lord, and he
did not serve any other god in the Whole Land except Sutkhu, and he
built a temple of excellent and everlasting work at the gate of the King
Ra-Apopi, and he arose every morning to sacrifice the daily victims,
and the chief vassals were there with garlands of flowers, as it was
accustomed to be done for the temple of Phra-Harmakhis." Having finished
the temple, he thought of imposing upon the Thebans the cult of his god,
but as he shrank from employing force in such a delicate matter, he had
recourse to stratagem. He took counsel with his princes and generals,
but they were unable to propose any plan. The college of diviners and
scribes was more complaisant: "Let a messenger go to the regent of the
city of the South to tell him: The King Ra-Apopi commands thee: 'That
the hippopotami which are in the pool of the town are to be exterminated
in the pool, in order that slumber may come to me by day and by night.'
He will not be able to reply good or bad, and thou shalt send him
another messenger: The King Ra-Apopi commands thee: 'If the chief of the
South does not reply to my message, let him serve no longer any god but
Sutkhu. But if he replies to it, and will do that which I tell him
to do, then I will impose nothing fu