222 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. 



Alexandria was washed on the south by the lake Mareotis or 

 Marea on which stood the town of the same name. Now not 

 only is it probable that the Delta itself was in part peopled by 

 Libyans, but beyond doubt in that part of Egypt which bor- 

 dered on the lake Mareotis the population was Libyan, for 

 Herodotus states that " the people of the cities of Marea and 

 Apis, who live in the part of Egypt that borders Libya, took 

 a dislike to the religious usages of the country concerning 

 sacrificial animals, and wished no longer to be restricted from 

 eating the flesh of cows. So as they believed themselves to be 

 Libyans and not Egyptians, they sent to the shrine of Ammon 

 in the Libyan desert to say that, having nothing in common 

 with the Egyptians, neither inhabiting the Delta, nor using 

 the Egyptian tongue, they claimed to be allowed to eat 

 whatever they pleased." Their request, however, was refused 

 by the god, who declared in reply, "that Egypt was the entire 

 tract of country which the Nile overspreads and irrigates, and 

 the Egyptians were the people who lived below Elephantine, 

 and drank the waters of that river." 



Not only in the time of the xxth dynasty did the Libu or 

 Libyans make constant incursions into Egypt, but earlier still, 

 in the reign of Rameses II (circa 1300 B.C.), the third king of 

 the xixth dynasty, the Libyan tribes had entered Egypt but 

 were repulsed. Thus, as far as our knowledge extends back 

 into the annals of the new Empire, the Libyans are seen 

 periodically swooping down upon the rich and tempting valley 

 of the Nile, and we may conjecture without rashness that such 

 too had been their practice throughout unrecorded generations. 



The people of Marea and Apis declared that they were 

 Libyans and had nothing in common with the Egyptians. 

 Their statement is amply confirmed by the testimony of 

 Strabo that the inhabitants of that district were sturdy herds- 

 men, and by the Book of Genesis 1 , which explicitly states that 

 "every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians." That 

 Marea was at all times the point at which the Libyans 

 threatened Egypt is demonstrated by the fact that Psam- 



1 xlvi. 34. 



