It is very doubtful, however, whether the supremacy, thus triumphantly acquired, was maintained even so long as during Piankhi’s own lifetime. His successor, Nutmeramen, was moved by a dream to reconquer it. ‘His majesty beheld two snakes, one to his right, the other to his left, and when he awoke he found them no more. He said: “Explain these things to me in a moment,” and lo! they explained it to him, saying: “Thou wilt have the southern lands, and thou shalt seize upon the northern, and both crowns shall be set upon thy head.”’ The king, collecting a numerous army, advanced down the stream, and met with no opposition until he reached Memphis. Here he gained a victory, whereupon the ‘chiefs of the north’ entered their walled towns, so that there was no reaching their retreats. A pause ensued, neither party seeming willing to take further steps. However, the suspense ended by a voluntary surrender of the northern princes, who came to Memphis to offer their homage, and were gladly received and hospitably entertained. Being dismissed from the royal presence, they returned to their respective governments, and the ‘men of the north’ sailed up to the place where his majesty was, to offer gifts and tribute in token of fealty. The power of the twenty-fifth or ‘Ethiopian’ dynasty was gradually increasing and consolidating itself; its supremacy was in the end recognised in some sort throughout the land, although in Lower Egypt it was always uncertain and precarious. The descendants of the ‘chiefs of the north’ never rendered more than a reluctant and sullen obedience to the rulers from the south. The successors of Piankhi, however, were not content to rule, as he had done, from their distant seat in Napata, but they set up their throne in the heart of Egypt itself, claiming and, as far as possible, exercising the rights of an over-lord.