separated her from the Nile valley, she preserved a sullen neutrality, while Assyria hastened to form a peaceful alliance with the invading power. Again and again its kings sent to Thutmosis presents in proportion to their resources, and the Pharaoh naturally treated their advances as undeniable proofs of their voluntary vassalage. Each time that he received from them a gift of metal or lapis-lazuli, he proudly recorded their tribute in the annals of his reign; and if, in exchange, he sent them some Egyptian product, it was in smaller quantities, as might be expected from a lord to his vassal.* * The "tribute of Assur" is mentioned in this way under the years XXIII. and XXIV. The presents sent by the Pharaoh in return are not mentioned in any Egyptian text, but there is frequent reference to them in the Tel el-Amarna tablets. It may be mentioned here that the name of Nineveh does not occur on the Egyptian monuments, but only that of the town Nii, in which Champollion wrongly recognised the later capital of Assyria. Sometimes there would accompany the convoy, surrounded by an escort of slaves and women, some princess, whom the king would place in his harem or graciously pass on to one of his children; but when, on the other hand, an even distant relative of the Pharaoh was asked in marriage for some king on the banks of the Tigris or Euphrates, the request was met with a disdainful negative: the daughters of the Sun were of too noble a race to stoop to such alliances, and they would count it a humiliation to be sent in marriage to a foreign court. [Illustration: 384.jpg SOME OF THE OBJECTS CARRIED IN TRIBUTE TO THE SYRIANS] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, after Champollion. Free transit on the main road which ran diagonally through Kharu was ensured by fortresses constructed at strategic points,* and from this time forward Thutmosis was able to bring the whole force of his army to bear upon both Coele-Syria and Naharaim.** He encamped, in the year XXVII., on the table-land separating the Afrin and the Orontes from the Euphrates, and from that centre devastated the district of Uanit,*** which lay to the west of Aleppo; then crossing "the water of Naharaim" in the neighbourhood of Carchemish, he penetrated into the heart of Mitanni. * The castle, for instance, near Megiddo, previously referred to, which, after having contributed to the siege of the town, probably served to keep it in subjection. ** The accounts of the campaigns of Thutmosis III. have been preserved in the Annals in a very mutilated condition, the fragments of which were discovered at different times. They are nothing but extracts from an official account, made for Amon and his priests. *** The province of the Tree Uanu; cf. with this designation the epithet "Shad Erini," "mountain of the cedar tree," which the Assyrians bestowed on the Amanus.