Brugsch, Heinrich: Egypt under the pharaohs: a history derived entirely from the monuments (London, 1891)

168 FAUNA AND FLORA OF CONQUERED NATIONS ch. yiii.

Upper Buthen, appears rather to be the product of
vainglory than of real conquests.

In the two halls situated to the north-west of the
Hall of Pillars Mariette-Pasha discovered a succession
of wonderful representations, which are clearly copies
of similar objects on the Temple at Deir-el-Bahari. I
refer to the pictures, so true to nature (that is, in an
Egyptian sense), of the new plants and animals acquired
during the campaign.

By command of the king, who manifested so
strong an inclination for researches in natural history,
that four unknown birds gave him greater pleasure
than the war contribution of a whole country, an
artist was commissioned to depict the new fauna and
flora—water-lilies as tall as trees, cactus-like plants, all
sorts of trees and shrubs, leaves, flowers, and fruits,
melons and pomegranates (the latter are represented
in profusion, and seem to have been especially liked by
the Egyptians), oxen and calves, among which is a
wonderful animal with three horns, herons, sparrow-
hawks, geese, and doves. The principal inscription re-
marks :—

Here are all sorts of plants and all sorts of flowers from the
land of Ta-neter (' Holy Land') — [which] the king [discovered]
then, when he went to the land of Ruthen to conquer that land,
as his father Amen had commanded him. They are under his feet
[from henceforward] until an eternity (of coming) years. The king
speaks thus : ' I swear by the Sun, and I call to witness my father
Amen, that everything is plain truth ; there is no trace of self-
deception in that which has happened to me. What the splendid
soil brings forth as its productions, that I have had portrayed (in
this picture) in order to offer it to my father Amen, in this great
temple of Amen, as a memorial for all times.'

A second shorter inscription is valuable from the
date affixed to it, namely :—

In the year 25, under King Tehuti-mes III.—may he live for
ever !—these are the plants which the king found in the land of
Ruthen.