land of Canaan, through which he was borne by his pair of horses named 'big with victory,' the great fortress of Kadesh, which had already played such an important part under Thutmes III., was reached by the Egyptian army. The inscription thus designates the campaign: This is the going up of Pharaoh, to conquer the land of Kadesh in the territory of the Amorites.' The arrival of the army was unexpected. The herdsmen were even pasturing their cattle under the trees which surrounded the city, when Pharaoh appeared on his war-chariot. Each seeks to save himself; the herds flee with their keepers; the warriors of Kadesh, as they sally out, are pierced by the arrows of Seti, and fall from their war-chariots. The defenders in the interior of the fortress fare no better. They also give way before the violent assault of the Egyptian army, and fortress and people fall into the hands of Pharaoh's warriors. From Kadesh onwards, the land of the Khita lay open before the hosts of Pharaoh. The then king of the country, Mauthanar, had broken the existing treaties, which had been made between his predecessor and the Egyptians, and had given notice to Pharaoh of the termination of their alliance. Seti made no delay in falling upon the territory of the Khita, as the avenger of the broken treaties. Success crowned his enterprise. Although the well-ordered hosts of the beardless lightred Khita, on foot, on horseback, and on chariots, offered a determined resistance to the Egyptians, yet for all this the Pharaoh triumphed. The inscription describes this victory in the brief words: These are the miserable inhabitants of the land of the Khita; the king has prepared for them a great overthrow.' And then the song of praise to Seti sounds forth with the most vigorous choice of phrases. Thus it is said of Pharaoh: 'He is a jackal which rushes leaping through this land, a grim lion that frequents the most hidden paths of all regions, a powerful bull with a pair of sharpened horns.' 'He has struck down the Asiatics, he has thrown to the ground the Khita; he has slain their princes.' After the main battle had been fought, the king (whose pair of horses this time bore the name Amon gives him strength') had taken an immense number of prisoners, and prepared deliberately for his return home. Peace was concluded with the powerful Khita, and so the inscriptions could sing of him: The king was victorious, great was his strength. His war-cry was like that of the son of Nut (that is, Baal-Sutekh). returns home in triumph; he has annihilated the peoples, he has struck to the ground the land of Khita, he has made an end of his adversaries. The enmity of all peoples is turned into friendship. The terror of the king has penetrated them, his boldness has opened their hearts. The kings of the countries find themselves bound before him.' He On his return, which took place by the great royal highway through Kadesh, Seti made a diversion to the land of Limanon, the position of which answers exactly to the better known name of Mount Lebanon. The inhabitants of the country, Canaanites of the purest race, received the king in the most reverential manner, lifting up their hands to hail the conqueror. The 9 priests and elders of the land of Limanon, they speak thus, while they pray before the lord of the land to exalt his renown: "Thou appearest like thy father, the sun-god, men live in thy glance." The story is thus told in a short inscription annexed. The king himself, as it appears, had made known certain intentions, for an Egyptian scribe assures him, 'All shall be accomplished as thou hast said.' The question related to the felling of cedars in the wooded mountain-region of Lebanon, for the building of a new great ship on the river of Egypt for the service of the Theban Amon, and for the fabrication of those tall masts which were wont to adorn the front of the propylæa before the temples. In fact we see, in the lively representation here preserved, the Canaanites actively employed in felling the highest and straightest trees with their axes. An inscription, though half-destroyed, enables us nevertheless to understand clearly the object of their labours. It runs as follows, (slightly filling up the parts wanting) :— '[The inhabitants of the land of] Limanon fell [the trees for the building of a] great ship on the river [King Seti's] high masts at Amon's [temple in Thebes].' With this the deeds of Seti in the east had reached their conclusion. He had smitten the wandering peoples (An), and struck to the ground the agricultural peoples (Menti), and had placed his boundaries at the beginning of the world, and at the utmost borders of the river-land of Naharain,'-' which the great sea encircles.' His return took the form of a specially festive triumphal procession. Laden with rich booty from the land of Ruthen, with silver and gold, with blue, green, red, and other precious stones of the foreign country, accompanied by numerous captives of all lands, which he had again subjected to the supremacy of Egypt, Seti reached the plains of his home by the same road which had led him from Egypt into the foreign countries. At the frontier, near Khetam, the priests and great men of the land waited to meet him with rich gifts of flowers. The following inscription will give the best account of the object of this festive gathering: 'The priests, the great ones, and the most distinguished men of South and North Egypt have arrived to praise the divine benefactor on his return from the land of Ruthen, accompanied by an immensely rich booty, such as never had happened since the time of the sun-god Ra. They speak thus in praise of the king and in glorification of his fame: "Thou hast returned home from the foreign countries which thou hast overcome. Thou hast triumphed over thy enemies, which are subjected to thee. May the duration of thy life as king be as long as the sun in heaven. Thou hast quenched thy wrath upon the nine foreign nations. The sun-god himself has established thy boundaries. His hand protected thee, when thy battle-axe was raised above the heads of all peoples, whose kings fell under thy sword."' United with these representations, the richness of which we can only lay before our readers in a cursory description, are the lists of the nations conquered by Seti. We will confine ourselves to those names, out of the whole number, that appear in the more distinct forms in which they are henceforward generally mentioned on the monuments. 1. Khita, the land of the Khita. 2. Naharain, the river-land. 3. Upper Ruthen, Canaan. 4. Lower Ruthen, Northern Syria. 5. Singar, the city and the land of Singara, the Sinear of Holy Scripture. 6. Unu, an unknown island or coast land. 7. Kadesh, in the land of the Amorites. 8. Pa-bekh 9. Kadnaf } both names require to be more accurately defined. 10. Asebi, the island of Cyprus. 11. Mannus, the city and land of Mallos. 12. Aguptha, the land of Cappadocia. 13. Balnu, Balaneæ, to the north of Aradus. To these we may add the names of the cities of Canaan mentioned in Seti's temple at Abydus (see below, p. 28), and which were conquered by Seti ;— Zithagael. Zor or Tyre. Inua'm or Jamnia. Pa-Hir (Hil) Galilee? Bitha-'antha or Beth-anoth (in what was afterwards Judah). Qartha-'anbu or Kiriath-eneb (in Judah). That the wars and victories of the king in the east did not take place only in the first year of his reign is self-evident, and is sufficiently confirmed by several repetitions in the sculptures. The memorial wall at Karnak may be expected to unite together in one general representation everything glorious which Pharaoh Seti had performed, as hero and favourite of the gods, up to the building of the great Hall of Columns. This is proved, not only by the wars against the Libyan peoples, which will be spoken of further on, but also by several inscriptions with dates later than his first |