The fleet at length made its reappearance in Egyptian ports, having on board the chiefs of several tribes on whose coasts the sailors had landed, and "bringing back so much that the like had never been brought of the products of Puanit to other kings, by the supreme favour of the venerable god, Amon Ra, lord of Karnak." The chiefs mentioned were probably young men of superior family, who had been confided to the officer in command of the squadron by local sheikhs, as pledges to the Pharaoh of good will or as commercial hostages. National vanity, no doubt, prompted the Egyptians to regard them as vassals coming to do homage, and their gifts as tributes denoting subjection. The Queen inaugurated a solemn festival in honour of the explorers. The Theban militia was ordered out to meet them, the royal flotilla escorting them as far as the temple landing-place, where a procession was formed to carry the spoil to the feet of the god. The good Theban folk, assembled to witness their arrival, beheld the march past of the native hostages, the incense sycomores, the precious gum itself, the wild animals, the giraffe, and the oxen, whose numbers were doubtless increased a hundredfold in the accounts given to posterity with the usual official exaggeration. The trees were planted at Deir el-Bahari, where a sacred garden was prepared for them, square trenches being cut in the rock and filled with earth, in which the sycomore, by frequent watering, came to flourish well.* * Naville found these trenches still filled with vegetable mould, and in several of them roots, which gave every indication of the purpose to which the trenches were applied. A scene represents seven of the incense sycomores still growing in their pots, and offered by the queen to the Majesty "of this god Amonra of Karnak." The great heaps of fresh resin were next the objects of special attention. Hatshopsitu "gave a bushel made of electrum to gauge the mass of gum, it being the first time that they had the joy of measuring the perfumes for Amon, lord of Karnak, master of heaven, and of presenting to him the wonderful products of Puanit. Thot, the lord of Hermo-polis, noted the quantities in writing; Safkhitabui verified the list. Her Majesty herself prepared from it, with her own hands, a perfumed unguent for her limbs; she gave forth the smell of the divine dew, her perfume reached even to Puanit, her skin became like wrought gold,* and her countenance shone like the stars in the great festival hall, in the sight of the whole earth." * In order to understand the full force of the imagery here employed, one must remember that the Egyptian artists painted the flesh of women as light yellow.