*** Dushratta of Mitanni, sending a statue of Ishtar to his
daughter, wife of Amenôthes III., reminds her that the same
statue had already made the voyage to Egypt in the time of
his father Sutarna.

The children of these queens ranked next in order to those whose mothers
belonged to the solar race, but nothing prevented them marrying their
brothers or sisters of pure descent, and being eventually raised to
the throne. The members of their families who remained in Asia were
naturally proud of these bonds of close affinity with the Pharaoh, and
they rarely missed an opportunity of reminding him in their letters that
they stood to him in the relationship of brother-in-law, or one of his
fathers-in-law; their vanity stood them in good stead, since it afforded
them another claim on the favours which they were perpetually asking of
him.*

* Dushratta of Mitanni never loses an opportunity of calling
Aoienôthes III., husband of his sister Gilukhîpa, and of one
of his daughters, "akhiya," my brother, and "khatani-ya," my
son-in-law.

These foreign wives had often to interfere in some of the contentions
which were bound to arise between two States whose subjects were in
constant intercourse with one another. Invasions or provincial wars may
have affected or even temporarily suspended the passage to and from of
caravans between the countries of the Tigris and those of the Nile; but
as soon as peace was re-established, even though it were the insecure
peace of those distant ages, the desert traffic was again resumed and
carried on with renewed vigour. The Egyptian traders who penetrated