Kheti's Lineage

400. [Heir] of a ruler, ruler of rulers, a son of a ruler, son of the daughter of a ruler, an ancient stock

b ['son of the daughter

of a ruler, — of the beginning, a noble without an equal.

ΤΟ

........

c for thou hast put 'fear in the land, thou hast chastised

Middle Egypt for hisd sake alone.

Services for the King

401. Thou didst convey him up-river, the "heaven cleared for him,e the whole land was with him, the counts of Middle Egypt, and the great ones of Heracleopolis, the district of the queens of the land, who came 1to repel the evil-doer. The land trembled, Middle Egypt 'feared', all the people were in terror, the villages in 'panic1, 13fear entered into their limbs. The officials of Pharaoh were (a prey) to fear, the favorites to the terror of Heracleopolis. 14The land burned in itsh flame

aGriffith (Babylonian and Oriental Record, III, 164) and later Maspero (Revue critique, II [1889], 413) have interpreted this passage as indicating that Kheti was the descendant of five princes. It seems to me there are two convincing objections to this: (1) five princes could be written in Egyptian only by employing the usual construction with the numeral 5, not by repeating the word "prince” (ḥķ3) five times! (2) The usual method of indicating a line of descent is the one employed in this very passage, by repeating the paternity of the parent (s' st hk); hence a male descent through five generations of princes would be written (s' hk) “son of a ruler," repeated five times. (I have rendered the politically very unprecise title hḥ by the equally unprecise “ruler;” it is probably synonymous with nomarch in this passage.) Of the 5 hk -signs, the first is genitive after a lost noun preceding, as shown by the surviving n; the second is nomen regens of a genitive construction in which the following plural of ḥk (written three times as often) is nomen rectum. The last construction, written in the same way with four hk'-signs, is found in Sirenpowet's tomb (Assuan, de Morgan, Catalogue des monuments, 185, l. 8), and often with other words, e. g., in the name of Amenhotep IV's queen (nfr-nfrw with four nir-signs).

bAbout one-third line.

cKing Merikere's benefits to Kheti are referred to.

dThe king's sake.

eSee Erman (Gespräch, 69, 70), who makes the verb transitive: "he cleared the heavens."

f Lit.: "(river)-bend" (many different localities are so designated) apparently in apposition with Heracleopolis. See Erman, Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache, 1891, 120, and Griffith, Kahun Papyri, II, 21, and infra index.

8Some protecting goddess.

hThe pronoun refers to Heracleopolis.

Sheshotep, while its rear was still at la

..... •

16

They descended by water and landed at Heracleopolis. The city came, rejoicing over [her] lord, the son of her lord; women 17mingled with men, old men and children.

Old Age

с

402. The ruler's (hk) son, he reached his city, entering into the house of his father. He saw the 18approach to their house, his sarcophagus, his old age. When a man is in his place (his tomb), the cityof eternity,

Building the Temple

403. Thy city-god loves thee, Tefibi's son, Kheti. He hath 'presented1 thee, that he might look to the future in order to restore his temple, in order to raise the ancient walls, the original places of offering, to the venerable ground, 21— — — which Ptah built with his fingers, which Thoth founded, for Upwawet, lord of Siut,d [by] command of the king, 22the ruler (hk) of the Two Lands, the king of Upper and Lower Egypt, Merikere, to make a monument for the souls of Anubis, the great god; that he (the king) might spend for him (the god) millions of years, that he might repeat Sed Jubilees; 23under the leadership of the confidant of the king, Tefibi's son, Kheti, great lord of Middle

a The reading of this second locality is unfortunately quite uncertain. Maspero reads "Hou" (Revue critique, II (1889), 418). Sheshotep is the modern Shatb (Baedeker's Egypt, 1902, 205), just south of Assiut, while Hou is 125 miles farther up-river. It is impossible that the fleet should have been 125 miles long. Moreover, the direction of the fleet's movement (l. 10) is up-river, so that the rear must have been at a place below Sheshotep. The return down-river is narrated in 1. 16 following. [Since writing the above, I notice that Maspero (Dawn, 457) has changed "Hou" to Gebel-Abufodah,” which would make the fleet about 30 miles long; but this is a guess like "Hou."]

bAs the preceding paragraph closes very abruptly, it is possible that the following paragraph contains the words of the rejoicing multitude to the king as he enters the city.

CHis own approach to the house, meaning the tomb of his ancestors; hence his death.

dThis "by" would of course not refer to the building by the gods, but to the proposed restoration.

*Meaning that the building of the temple is to be under Kheti's leadership.

Egypt. Behold, thya name shall be forever in the temple 24of Upwawet, thy memory shall be beautiful in the colonnade. Some shall communicate it to others,b - the future - 25in years, one hundred after another hundred, of added life upon earth; thou shalt (still) be among them that dwell on earth.1

Peaceful Rule

31

404. How beautiful is that which happens in thy time, the city is satisfied with thee. That which was concealed from the people, 31thou hast done it 'openly, in order to make gifts to Siut, - by thy plan alone. Every 'official' was at his post, 33there was no one fighting, nor any shooting an arrow. The child was not smitten beside his mother, (nor) the citizen beside his wife. There was no evil-doer 34in (—), nor any one doing violence against his house - Thy city-god, thy father who loveth thee, leadeth' thee.

405. Kheti II's relation to the two preceding nomarchs is not quite certain, but the unmolested rule which he enjoyed would seem to indicate that he lived before the war with the Thebans, and hence before Tefibi. His inscription curiously inverts the order of his life, placing his youth last, but does not mention the name of his father.' On the death of his maternal grandfather, who was lord of the Lycopolite nome, Kheti's mother ruled until he grew up to succeed to his maternal heritage (ll. 40-25). Meantime, he was educated with the royal children by the king (11.

a Pronoun refers to Kheti.

bThe text has a dittography of n kt.

cSee Sethe, Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache, 1893, 113. dThe intervening lines contain praise of Kheti as builder of the temple. The text then proceeds to the government of the nome.

eIn tomb V, the northernmost of the three tombs on the same terrace, in a false door on the back wall (ll. 1-24) and on the south wall, inner half. Text, Griffith, Siut, Pl. 15. See § 391.

f On his mother's name, see note on 1. 38.

22, 23), and was installed in his nome at an early age (1. 21). His life was peaceful and prosperous, and devoted to the development of the material resources of the nome. He dug a much-needed irrigation canal, conducting the water to land unreached by the inundation (l. 1-8). He was rich in grain, which he dispensed to the people (11. 9, 10). He remitted taxes (ll. 10, 11), and his herds greatly multiplied (l. 11-14). He built in the temple, increased its offerings (ll. 14-16), was a good soldier, and, as military commander of Middle Egypt, he raised a troop (ll. 16-18); like Kheti I, he had a navy (ll. 18, 19). His people and those of Heracleopolis were pleased with his government, and recognized the instruction of a king in it (ll. 23, 24). It is possible that Kheti II became an official of the contemporary Theban king (Eleventh Dynasty) after the triumph of Thebes and the consolidation of the country (see note on 1. 38).

406. The inscription opens with the usual titles of the Siut nomarchs, a and Kheti states that there is no falsehood in his narrative, but that all which he did was done in the face of the people (ll. 1, 2); and then proceeds:

New Canal

407. I brought a gift for this city, in which there were no families of the Northland, nor people of Middle Egypt (šm); 3making a monument in c I substituted a channel of ten cubits.d I excavated for it upon the arable land. I equipped a gate 'for] 4its

Le it

aSee § 391.

bThe determinative shows that people of some sort are meant, parallel with "families." The remarkable statement perhaps means that no forced labor was employed on the canal, from any part of Egypt composing the Heracleopolitan kingdom, viz., the "Northland" (Delta) and "Middle Egypt."

cAbout one-third line is lost; it doubtless contained some reference to an insufficient canal. Kheti's gift to the city, is a larger canal "of 10 cubits," probably in breadth.

dA little over 17 feet.

eAbout one-third line.

in the ground of - in one building, free from -. I was liberal as to the monument — 5г_____] a [I sustained1] the life of the city, I made the -b with grain-food, to give water at 'mid'day, "to a I supplied water] in the highland district, I made a water-supply for this cityd of Middle Egypt in the 'mountain", e which had not seen water. 7I secured the borders I made the elevated land a swamp. I caused the water of the Nile to flood over the ancient landmarks1, I made the arable land water. Every neighbor was ['supplied with water, and every citizen had1] Nile water to his heart's desire; I gave waters to his neighbors, and he was content with them.

Wealth and Generosity

408. 'I was rich in grain. When the land was in need, I maintained the city with khaf and with heket. I allowed the citizen to carry away for himself grain; and his wife, the widow and her son. I remitted ''all imposts which I found counted by my fathers. I filled the 'pastures] with cattle, '['every]] man had many colors; the cowsh brought forth twofold, the folds were full of 13calves. I was kind to the cow, when she said, “It is —" I was one rich in bulls 14— his Ox; he lived well.

aAbout one-third line.

bThe determinative is a man. The word itself ḥsb means "to reckon." Maspero says: "Hobsou (reading the root as hbs) est l'homme qui paie la redevance annuelle, le contribuable” (Revue critique, II (1889), 413, n. 8), and hence renders "sujet," but I cannot find any such usage elsewhere. Furthermore, the grammatical construction is not clear.

The same word (<-mw) is used in enumerating the duties of the vizier (II, 698), among which was care of the water-supply in the whole land.

dThis means Siut. Maspero (loc. cit., 414, n. 2) calls it Thebes. But šm in these inscriptions means Middle Egypt, not South; and "this city" in a nomarch's inscription means his own city; see II, 11.

eThe sign for mountain is certain, but an uncertain sign precedes it; the parallelism with "highland" demands a word like "mountain."

H and hkt are measures of capacity referring here to grain. See Griffith,

Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology. XIV, 425.

8 Doubtless referring to breeds of cattle.

hThe text has "bulls” (!) misread from 1. 13, where the word "bulls” occurs with "many" before it, as in this line.

iCompare the talking cows in Papyrus d'Orbigny.