a

476. The composition is in poetic form, and the lines are separated as usual in the New Kingdom by a dot at the end of each line. It must have been a favorite composition, to judge from the number of manuscripts which have survived. They are all, however, so excessively corrupt that much is unintelligible, and has been omitted in the version below.

477. Whether the historical statements in the document are authentic or not, there is no reason to doubt their truth; on the contrary, all but the attempt upon the king's life are corroborated by conclusive external evidence. These statements, in the order of their occurrence, are as follows: (1) the attempt on the king's life (I, 11-II, 4); (2) Sesostris I's coregency (II, 5, 6); (3) the king's reorganization of Egypt (II, 10, 11); (4) the agricultural prosperity (II, 11-III, 1); (5) foreign conquests in Nubia and among the Bedwin (III, 2, 3); (6) building of a palace (III, 2-6). There seems to be no chronological order in this enumeration, for the reorganization of the country took place in the first years, long before the coregency. It is fair to conclude, however, that the attempt on the king's life was the cause of the association of Sesostris on the throne.

478. I. b1Beginning with the teaching, which the majesty of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt; Sehetepibre, Son of Re: Amenemhet (I) triumphant, composed.

He saith, while distinguishing truth,

For his son, the All-Lord;

He saith: "Shine as a god!

Hearken to that which I say to thee,
That thou mayest be king of the earth,
That thou mayest be ruler of 3the lands,

The paragraph division, retained in the accompanying translation, is also indicated by rubrics.

bNumbering of pages (Roman numerals) and lines (Arabic numerals) from Papyrus Millingen, after Griffith.

That thou mayest increase good.

479. 'Harden' thyself against all subordinates.

The people give heed 4to him who terrorizes them;a
Approach them not alone.

Fill not thy heart with a brother,

Know not a friend,

Nor make for thyself intimates,

Wherein there is no end.

When thou sleepest, guard for thyself thine own heart;

For a man has no people,

In the day of evil.

I gave to the beggar, I nourished the orphan;

I admitted the insignificant as well as him who was great of account.b

(But) he who ate my food made insurrection,

He, to whom I gave my hand, aroused fear therein;

They who put on my fine linen looked upon me as —1.

They who anointed themselves with my myrrh, 'defiled me—

480. It was after the evening meal, night had come.

I took 12an hour of heart's ease.

Lying upon my couch, I relaxed;

II 'My heart began to follow slumber.
'Behold, weapons were flourished1,
'Council was held against me,1

'While I was like a serpent of the desert.

I awoke to fight, utterly alone.

As I quickly grasped the weapons in my hand,

I hurled back the wretches . . . . . .

4.

aBut see Gardiner's careful grammatical analysis of this line (Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology, 24, 353 f.). He renders: "That cometh to pass, to whose terrors no thought has been given." This is grammatically better than the above rendering, although it does not fit either the preceding or following

context.

bLit.: "him who was not, as well as him who was." Compare the saying of the unjust official: "The name of a poor man is mentioned, by reason of his lord" (Eloquent Peasant, Berlin, 3023, 1. 20).

481. Behold, the abomination occurred, while I was without thee, While the court had not (yet) heard that I had delivered to thee (the kingdom).

While I had not yet sat with thee.

"Let me adjust thy administration;

For I do not terrify them, I do not think of them,

My heart does not endure the slackness of servants.

7.

482. I sent to Elephantine,

I reached the Delta,

I stood on the borders of the land,

"I inspected its interior,

I carried forward the boundaries of valor by my bravery, by my deeds.

483. I was one who cultivated 12grain, and loved the harvest-god;b The Nile greeted me in every 'valley];

None was hungry in my years, none thirsted (III) 'then;

One dwelt (in peace) through that which I did; conversing concerning me.

All that I commanded was correct.

I 'captured lions, I took crocodiles,
I 'seized' the people of Wawat,

I captured the people of Mazoi.

3I caused the Bedwin to go like hounds.c

I made a 'palace1 decked 4with gold,

Whose ceilings were of lazuli, and the walls therein.

"The general sense is: the conspiracy was formed in the palace. bBebi, in whose inscription Brugsch thought to find references to Joseph's famine (Geschichte, 246), uses verbatim the same words (Brugsch, Thesaurus, VI, 1527, l. 11) regarding himself.

This line is slightly doubtful, but compare similar phrase, Piankhi, 1. 3. dNot being able to destroy it. The remainder of p. III, for which Papyrus Millingen is wanting, is too corrupt for translation.

DEDICATION INSCRIPTIONa

484. A relic of Amenemhet I's building activity at Karnak, is preserved in this dedication, found on the base of a shrine from the Karnak temple of Amon, whence it had been taken to the Ptah-temple:

Amenemhet I; he made it as his monument for his father Amon-Re, lord of Thebes (Ns wt-t'wy), making for him a shrine of pink granite, that he may thereby be given life forever.

485. Another dedication at Bubastis runs as follows: Amenemhet I; he made it as his monument for his mother Bast, making for her a gate

THE TALE OF SINUHED

486. The tale of Sinuhe is a highly artificial piece of "fine writing" in poetical form, most of which is lost to our modern taste. It is, however, so rational and sober throughout, and breathes such an air of reality, that it is not to be disregarded as a historical source.

aAnnales, III, 102.

bNaville, Bubastis I, Pl. 33A.

cAn s has been omitted, either in the publication or by the ancient scribe. dThe bulk of this tale (311 lines) is preserved in a hieratic papyrus of the Middle Kingdom, now in Berlin (P. 3022), published by Lepsius, Denkmäler, VI, 104-7. The beginning, lacking in the Berlin Papyrus, is preserved in a hieratic ostracon (a large flake of limestone) discovered in a Twentieth Dynasty tomb by Maspero (now in Cairo, No. 27149), and published by him in Mémoires de l'Institut égyptien, II, 1-23, and Pls. I, II, 1886. This fragment, excessively corrupt, is supplemented by eleven lines from the Amherst Papyrus (Newberry, Amherst Papyri, Pl. I), which have been incorporated with the Cairo ostracon and published in transcription by Griffith (Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology, XIV, 453, 454). The whole has been translated by Erman in Aus den Papyrus des königlichen Museums zu Berlin, 14-29. My materials were: all the above publications except Maspero's (which was not accessible), the Berlin original, and especially a transcription of the Cairo ostracon, made by Erman from the original, which he kindly placed at my disposal.

eThe Cairo ostracon containing the beginning separates the lines by red dots, and divides into stanzas. The above translation preserves these lines and stanzas as far as the ostracon goes, after which the division is uncertain.

487. The hero, Sinuhe, a noble of high rank, is with the young coregent, Prince Sesostris I, in the western Delta, on a campaign against the Libyans, when the message announcing the death of the old king, Amenemhet I, reaches the camp. Sesostris I does not allow the news to be made public, but secretly returns to the royal residence, in order firmly to establish himself as king before any pretender can precede him. Sinuhe accidentally overhears the message, and, evidently for political reasons, immediately flees the country, making Palestine his goal. Here he spends many years, experiencing manifold adventures, until in old age, after becoming rich and powerful, he is pardoned by Sesostris I, and permitted to return to Egypt.

488. The date of Amenemhet's death, given in the tale as in the thirtieth year of his reign, is corroborated by the monuments, where his highest date is also the thirtieth year;a hence the introductory narrative may probably be accepted as essentially historical. Moreover, the style of the writing in the Berlin papyrus shows that the document could not have been written very much later than the reign of Sesostris I, when the historical facts were still well known.

489. The geography of the flight is correct as far as traceable, but the error of Upper Tenu for Upper Retenu, the Empire term for Palestine, shows unfamiliarity with one of the most important, and later the most frequent, designations in the Egyptian's geography of Asia. But it is the earliest occurrence of the name; for the tale offers us

aThe stela of Intef bears the joint date: "Year 30 of Amenemhet I, year 10 of Sesostris I" (Cairo, Mariette, Abydos, II, 22 = Rougé, Inscriptions hieroglyphiques, VIII=Rougé, Album photographique, No. 146; Mariette, Catalogue général d'Abydos, 104, No. 558).

bSee especially Müller, Asien und Europa, 38-47.

cRetenu was, however, known in the Middle Kingdom, and is mentioned in a Sinai inscription (see Weill, Sinai).