ABSTRACT
North of the Straits ofBab el Mandeb, near the modern Massawa, Addulis was an important centre of activity. Here Ptolemy III set up an inscription in Greek recording that he captured elephants (2). From here the huntsmen spread inland, and clearly had a centre at Aksum, a place which later was to become the capital of a kingdom and the sacred city of the Ethiopians. At Aksum a block of stone has been recorded which at the time of its discovery still preserved the name of Ptolemy III Euergetes in Greek. There was also found there one of those magical hieroglyphic tablets so well known in Egypt from the fourth century B.C. onwards. and called by archaeologists cippi of Horus (3: i. pp. 417. 418ff: iii, p. 132). They are charms against every sort of noxious beast: crocodiles. serpents. scorpions, lions. etc. The Aksumite specimen must have been brought from Egypt by one of the
huntsmen, though it is of some size, in fact about as large as they are commonly made, being 17 in. by 6 in.
