Amenothes III. had spent but little of his time in war. He had undertaken the usual raids in the South against the negroes and the tribes of the Upper Nile. In his fifth year, a general defection of the sheikhs obliged him to invade the province of Abhait, near Semneh, which he devastated at the head of the troops collected by Mari-ifi mosu, the Prince of Kush; the punishment was salutary, the booty considerable, and a lengthy peace was re-established. The object of his rare expeditions into Naharaim was not so much to add new provinces to his empire, as to prevent disturbances in the old ones. The kings of Alasia, of the Khati, of Mitanni, of Singar,* of Assyria, and of Babylon did not dare to provoke so powerful a neighbour.** * Amenothes entitles himself on a scarabaeus "he who takes prisoner the country of Singar;" no other document has yet been discovered to show whether this is hyperbole, or whether he really reached this distant region. ** The lists of the time of Amenothes III. contain the names of Phoenicia, Naharaim, Singar, Qodshu, Tunipa, Patina, Carchomish, and Assur; that is to say, of all the subject or allied nations mentioned in the correspondence of Tel el- Amarna. Certain episodes of these expeditions had been engraved on the exterior face of the pylon constructed by the king for the temple of Amon at Karnak; at the present time they are concealed by the wall at the lower end of the Hypostyle Hall. The tribute of the Lotanu was represented on the tomb of Hui, at Sheikh-Abd-el-Qurneh. [Illustration: 052b.jpg Amenothes III. Colossal Head in the British Museum] [Illustration: 052b-text.jpg] The remembrance of the victories of Thutmosis III. was still fresh in their memories, and, even had their hands been free, would have made them cautious in dealing with his great-grandson; but they were incessantly engaged in internecine quarrels, and had recourse to Pharaoh merely to enlist his support, or at any rate make sure of his neutrality, and prevent him from joining their adversaries. [Illustration: 053.jpg AMENOTHES III. FROM THE TOMB OF KHAMHAIT] Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Daniel Heron.