of the North, the unifiers of the kingdom, and the originals of the
legendary Mena. In their time the kingdom's centre of gravity was still
in the South, and Narmer (who is probably identical with "the Scorpion")
dedicated the memorials of his deeds in the temple of Hierakonpolis. It
may be that the legend of the founding of Memphis in the time of "Menés"
is nearly correct (as we shall see, historically, the foundation may
have been due to Merpeba), but we have the authority of Manetho for
the fact that the first two dynasties were "Thinite" (that is, Upper
Egyptian), and that Memphis did not become the capital till the time of
the Hid Dynasty. With this statement the evidence of the monuments fully
agrees. The earliest royal tombs in the pyramid-field of Memphis date
from the time of the Hid Dynasty, so that it is evident that the kings
had then taken up their abode in the Northern capital. We find that soon
after the time of Khâsekhemui the king Perabsen was especially connected
with Lower Egypt. His personal name is unknown to us (though he may
be the "Uatjnes" of the lists), but we do know that he had two
banner-names, Sekhem-ab and Perabsen. The first is his hawk or
Horus-name, the second his Set-name; that is to say, while he bore the
first name as King of Upper Egypt under the special patronage of Horus,
the hawk-god of the Upper Country, he bore the second as King of Lower
Egypt, under the patronage of Set, the deity of the Delta, whose fetish
animal appears above this name instead of the hawk. This shows how
definitely Perabsen wished to appear as legitimate King of Lower as well
as Upper Egypt. In later times the Theban kings of the XIIth Dynasty,
when they devoted themselves to winning the allegiance of the
Northerners by living near Memphis rather than at Thebes, seem to have
been imitating the successors of Khâsekhemui.

Moreover, we now find various evidences of increasing connection with
the North. A princess named Ne-maat-hap, who seems to have been the