The most important, to the north of Siut, were those of the Hare and the Oleander. The principality of the Hare never reached the dimensions of that of its neighbour the Terebinth, but its chief town was Khmunu, whose antiquity was so remote, that a universally accepted tradition made it the scene of the most important acts of creation.[*] That of the Oleander, on the contrary, was even larger than that of the Terebinth, and from Hininsu, its chief governor ruled alike over the marshes of the Fayum and the plains of Beni-Suef.[**] To the south, Apu on the right bank governed a district so closely shut in between a bend of the Nile and two spurs of the range, that its limits have never varied much since ancient times. Its inhabitants were divided in their employment between weaving and the culture of cereals. From early times they possessed the privilege of furnishing clothing to a large part of Egypt, and their looms, at the present day, still make those checked or striped "melayahs" which the fellah women wear over their long blue tunics.[***] * Khmunu, the present Ashmunein, is the Hermopolis of the Greeks, the town of the god Thot. ** Hininsu is the _Heraecleopolis Magna_ of the Greeks, the present Henassieh, called also Ahnas-el-Medineh. The Egyptian word for the tree which gives its name to this principality, is Narit. Loret has shown that this tree, _Narit_, is the oleander. *** Apu was the Panopolis or Chemmis of the Greeks, the town of the god Min or ithyphallic Khimu. Its manufactures of linen are mentioned by Strabo; the majority of the beautiful Coptic woven fabrics and embroideries which have been brought to Europe lately, come from the necropolis of the Arab period at Apu. Beyond Apu, Thinis, the Girgeh of the Arabs, situate on both banks of the river, rivalled Khmunu in antiquity and Siut in wealth: its plains still produce the richest harvests and feed the most numerous herds of sheep and oxen in the Said. [Illustration: 096.jpg NOMES OF UPPER EGYPT] As we approach the cataract, information becomes scarcer. Qubti and Aunu of the South, the Coptos and Hermonthis of the Greeks, shared peaceably the plain occupied later on by Thebes and its temples, and Nekhabit and Zobu watched over the safety of Egypt. Nekhabit soon lost its position as a frontier town, and that portion of Nubia lying between Gebel Silsileh and the rapids of Syene formed a kind of border province, of which Nubit-Ombos was the principal sanctuary and Abu-Elephantine the fortress: beyond this were the barbarians, and those inaccessible regions whence the Nile descended upon our earth.