"From the time that I was in the egg," Ramses writes later on, "the great ones sniffed the earth before me; when I attained to the rank of eldest son and heir upon the throne of Sibu, I dealt with affairs, I commanded as chief the foot-soldiers and the chariots. My father having appeared before the people, when I was but a very little boy in his arms, said to me: 'I shall have him crowned king, that I may see him in all his splendour while I am still on this earth!' The nobles of the court having drawn near to place the pschent upon my head: 'Place the diadem upon his forehead!' said he." As Ramses increased in years, Seti delighted to confer upon him, one after the other, the principal attributes of power; "while he was still upon this earth, regulating everything in the land, defending its frontiers, and watching over the welfare of its inhabitants, he cried: 'Let him reign!' because of the love he had for me." Seti also chose for him wives, beautiful "as are those of his palace," and he gave him in marriage his sisters Nofritari II. Mimut and Isitnofrit, who, like Ramses himself, had claims to the throne. Ramses was allowed to attend the State councils at the age of ten; he commanded armies, and he administered justice under the direction of his father and his viziers. Seti, however, although making use of his son's youth and activity, did not in any sense retire in his favour; if he permitted Ramses to adopt the insignia of royalty--the cartouches, the pschent, the bulbous-shaped helmet, and the various sceptres--he still remained to the day of his death the principal State official, and he reckoned all the years of this dual sovereignty as those of his sole reign.* * Brugsoh is wrong in reckoning the reign of Ramses II. from the time of his association in the crown; the great inscription of Abydos, which has been translated by Brugsch himself, dates events which immediately followed the death of Seti I. as belonging to the first year of Ramses II. Ramses repulsed the incursions of the Tihonu, and put to the sword such of their hordes as had ventured to invade Egyptian territory. He exercised the functions of viceroy of Ethiopia, and had on several occasions to chastise the pillaging negroes. We see him at Beit-Wally and at Abu Simbel charging them in his chariot: in vain they flee in confusion before him; their flight, however swift, cannot save them from captivity and destruction. [Illustration: 187.jpg RAMSES II. PUTS THE NEGROES TO FLIGHT] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Insinger. He was engaged in Ethiopia when the death of Seti recalled him to Thebes.*