Incense-Land under Sahure, in the Vth dynasty (28th century B. C.) was a notable exception. In the VIth dynasty, under Pepi II (26th century B. C.), a royal officer Sebni, sent to the Tigre highlands, records how he "descended to Wawat and Uthek, and sent on the royal attendant Iri, with two others, bearing incense, clothing (probably cotton), one tusk, and one hide" (as specimens). In the XIth dynasty, under Mentuhotep VI (21st century B. C.), a record of the completion of a royal sarcophagus states that "Cattle were slaughtered, goats were slain, incense was put on the fire. Behold, an army of 3000 sailors of the nomes of the Northland (Delta of the Nile) followed it in safety to Egypt." And in the XIIth dynasty, under Amenemhet I (20th century B. C.), another royal officer named Intef was sent for stoneto Hammamat along what was, in the time of the Periplus, the caravan-route from Coptos to Berenice. He sought for it eight days without success, then prostrated himself "to Min, to Mut, to — Great-in-Magic, and all the gods of this highland, giving to them incense upon the fire. . . . Then all scattered in search, and I found it, and the entire army was praising, it rejoiced with obeisance; I gave praise to Montu."
Then followed a period of disorder and Arabian domination in Egypt, during which Arab merchants controlled the trade. This was the condition described in Genesis XXXVII, 25, when "a traveling company of Ishmaelites came from Gilead, with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt." It was ended by a native reaction under the great Pharaohs of the XVIIIth or Theban dynasty, under whom the land increased in power in all directions. These monarchs were not content to remain in commercial dependence upon Arabia, but organized great fleets which went to the "Land of Punt" each season and brought back unprecedented treasure. This land in former times, according to the Deir el Bahri reliefs, "the people knew not; it was heard of from mouth to mouth by hearsay of the ancestors. The marvels brough thence under thy fathers, the kings of Lower Egypt, were brought from one to another, and since the time of the ancestors of the kings of Upper Egypt, who were of old, as a return for many payments; none reaching them except thy carriers." But Amon-Re, so the inscription continues, led the Egyptian army by land and sea, until it came to the Incense-Land, and brought back great store of myrrh, ebony and ivory, gold, cinnamon, incense, eye-paint, apes, monkeys, dogs, panther-skins, natives and their children. "Never was brough the like of this for any king who has been since the beginning." Incense-trees were planted in the court of the temple; "heaven and earth are flooded
