236 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. 



Christ, the Egyptians must have procured it and the chariot 

 from the Libyans. We may go still further and suggest that it 

 was the acquisition of the horse and the chariot from Libya 

 which enabled the kings of the Thebaid and other kings from 

 the west side of the Nile to master and to expel the Hyksos. 

 As the Semites from the east, so the Libyans were always 

 pressing in from the west, and it is not unlikely that the great 

 XVllth dynasty which expelled the Shepherds may have been 

 partly Libyan in origin. 



The statement of Manetho that it was the kings of the 

 Thebais (upper Egypt) who were the chief factors in the expul- 

 sion of the Hyksos with the help of the chiefs of some other 

 district or districts of Egypt seems absolutely true, for beyond 

 question Thebes was the seat of the new Empire that arose on 

 the overthrow of the Hyksos. Memphis had been the chief 

 seat of the old monarchy, but it fell into the shade under the 

 great xviith, xviilth, and xixth dynasties. It seems probable 

 from the statement of Manetho that the Hyksos kings, 

 though they had control of Memphis and middle Egypt as 

 well as the lower country, were never able to occupy perma- 

 nently Thebes and upper Egypt, but had to rest content with 

 receiving tribute from that province. The Hyksos were thus 

 masters of the region lying on the eastern side, or, as Strabo 

 would say, the Arabian side of the Nile as far south as Memphis. 

 It is clear that the revolt must have originated and gathered to 

 a head in that part of Egypt not occupied by the Hyksos. The 

 other kings who assisted the Thebaid chiefs in the expulsion of 

 the Hyksos must have lived on the western or Libyan side of 

 the Nile, and it is probable that the Thebaid kings once had 

 their homes on that side also, for although the city of Thebes in 

 its great days lay on both sides of the river, yet since the Valley of 

 Tombs, in which are buried the kings of the great dynasties of 

 the new Empire, is on the Libyan side, it is probable that the 

 original home of these monarchs lay on that side also, for the 

 tombs of great families are usually placed at the spot where the 

 founders of the race had dwelt and risen to importance. Thus 

 the tombs of the present Tartar dynasty of China are not at 

 Pekin but at Mukden in Manchuria. It is therefore not 



