THE HAMtLTON ASSOCIATION. 3 1 



Hittites mustered all their forces and called to their aid all their 

 allies from the remotest parts of the empire, in order to check the 

 advance of the Egyptians. The scene of conflict was the famous 

 Kadesh on the Orontes — Kadesh inured to the shock of battle. Dr. 

 Wright says : " There were present under the banner of the King of 

 "the Hittites his allies and satraps, from Mesopotamia to Mysia, and 

 " from Arvad in the Sea. Pharaoh set out by the old royal road along 

 " which so many Egyptian armies had marched to the land of the 

 "hereditary enemy. His route lay along the coast of Syria by the 

 " great sea, through Joppa, Tyre, Sidon, and Beyrout. Passing through 

 " the Elenthems Valley, he bronght his army once more before the Hit- 

 "tite city, Kadesh. A great battle was fought, and the special re- 

 porters of those days have given us full details, in pen and picture 

 " sketches, of all the leading incidents of the fray." 



The poet-laureate of Egypt, who accompanied the king, has 

 celebrated the achievements of that day in a heroic poem which has 

 come down to us in several editions. It is found on a papyrus 

 roll, and in conjunction with splendid battle scenes on the walls of 

 temples at Abydos, Luksor, Karnak and Ibsamboul. This oldest 

 extant heroic poem — this first specimen of war correspondence — is 

 too long to quote, but I must give a passage or two. Take his 

 spirited description of Pharaoh : — " King Pharaoh was young and 

 " bold. His arms were strong, his heart courageous. He seized his 

 " weapons, and a hundred thousand sunk before his glance. He 

 " armed his people and his chariots. As he marched towards the 

 " Hittites the whole earth trembled." The enraptured war corres- 

 pondent describes Pharaoh as deserted, and in his hour of need 

 praying to his Father, the God Amon, who holds out his hand to 

 the great delight of the king. After this Pharaoh is likened to a 

 God hurling darts with his right hand, and at the same time fighting 

 with his left. Making due allowance for the orientalisms, and 

 remembering that the writer is poet-laureate to the King of Egypt, 

 the following has its merits, though not of the highest order. Re- 

 presenting Pharaoh as dashing 2,500 horses to pieces, he says : 

 " That the hearts of the Hittites sank within them. Their limbs 

 " gave way, and they had no courage to thrust the spear. And Pha- 

 raoh swept them into the Orontes like crocodiles. He slew the 

 " Hittites at his pleasure, and no one resisted him. The King of 

 ' the Hittites sent eight of his brother kings, with armed chariots 



