Page:The Pharaohs and their people; scenes of old Egyptian life and history (IA pharaohstheirpeo00berkiala).pdf/101

Rh one of the group is playing on a lyre of antique form. The children are carried in panniers, and women walk by their side; asses laden with baggage bring up the rear.

This occurred in the sixth year of Usertesen, and it was a scene that was very likely often-times repeated. Families of foreigners came to settle in Egypt, attracted by its luxuriant plenty, and gradually developed into colonies. In the Delta more especially, foreigners settled in great numbers. There were colonists bent on peaceful industry, but there were others of a more restless and warlike type. It is possible that some may have been established there since the dark and troubled days that followed the sixth dynasty, when foreign tribes very probably held possession of part at least of the Delta for a time.

Egypt had often maintained a severe conflict on her southern frontier, where the boundary line was now marked by grim fortresses; but if trouble should ever overwhelm the land the storm would assuredly gather in the north-east. Fortresses had been erected there also, and Amenemhat's wall of defence was still standing,