equal, for he had vanquished the whole country. He said, "Let Sanehat
fight with me;" for he desired to overthrow me, he thought to take my
cattle for his tribe. The prince counselled with me. I said, "I know
him not. I certainly am not of his degree, I hold me far from his
place. Have I ever opened his door, or leaped over his fence? It is
some envious jealousy from seeing me; does he think that I am like
some steer among the cows, whom the bull overthrows? If this is a
wretch who thinks to enrich himself at my cost, not a Bedawi and a
Bedawi fit for fight, then let us put the matter to judgment. Verily a
true bull loves battle, but a vain-glorious bull turns his back for
fear of contest; if he has a heart for combat, let him speak what he
pleases. Will God forget what He has ordained, and how shall that be
known?" I lay down; and when I had rested I strung my bow, I made
ready my arrows, I loosened my poignard, I furbished my arms. At dawn
the land of the Tenu came together; it had gathered its tribes and
called all the neighbouring people, it spake of nothing but the fight.
Each heart burnt for me, men and women crying out; for each heart was
troubled for me, and they said, "Is there another strong one who would
fight with him? Behold the adversary has a buckler, a battle axe, and
an armful of javelins." Then I drew him to the attack; I turned aside
his arrows, and they struck the ground in vain. One drew near to the
other, and he fell on me, and then I shot him. My arrow fastened in
his neck, he cried out, and fell on his face: I drove his lance into
him, and raised my shout of victory on his back. Whilst all the men of
the land rejoiced, I, and his vassals whom he had oppressed, gave
thanks unto Mentu. This prince, Amu-an-shi, embraced me. Then I
carried off his goods and took his cattle, that which he had wished to
do to me, I did even so unto him; I seized that which was in his tent,
I spoiled his dwelling. As time went on I increased the richness of my
treasures and the number of my cattle.
_Petition to the king of Egypt._
"Now behold what the god has done for me who trusted in him. Having once
fled away, yet now there is a witness of me in the palace. Once having
fled away, as a fugitive,------now all in the palace give unto me a good
name. After that I had been dying of hunger, now I give bread to those
around. I had left my land naked, and now I am clothed in fine linen.
After having been a wanderer without followers, now I possess many
serfs. My house is fine, my land wide, my memory is established in the
temple of all the gods. And let this flight obtain thy forgiveness;
that I may be appointed in the palace; that I may see the place where
my heart dwells. How great a thing is it that my body should be
embalmed in the land where I was born! To return there is happiness. I
have made offering to God, to grant me this thing. His heart suffers
who has run away unto a strange land. Let him hear the prayer of him
who is afar off, that he may revisit the place of his birth, and the
place from which he removed.
"May the king of Egypt be gracious to me that I may live of his favour.
And I render my homage to the mistress of the land, who is in his
palace; may I hear the news of her children. Thus will my limbs grow
young again. Now old age comes, feebleness seizes me, my eyes are
heavy, my arms are feeble, my legs will not move, my heart is slow.
Death draws nigh to me, soon shall they lead me to the city of
eternity. Let me follow the mistress of all (the queen, his former
mistress); lo! let her tell me the excellencies of her children; may
she bring eternity to me."
Then the majesty of King Kheper-ka-ra, the blessed, spake upon this my
desire that I had made to him. His majesty sent unto me with presents
from the king, that he might enlarge the heart of his servant, like unto
the province of any strange land; and the royal sons who are in the
palace addressed themselves unto me.
_Copy of the decree which was brought--to me who speak to you--to lead
me back into Egypt._
"The Horus, life of births, lord of the crowns, life of births, king
of Upper and Lower Egypt, Kheper-ka-ra, son of the Sun, Amen-em-hat,
ever living unto eternity. Order for the follower Sanehat. Behold this
order of the king is sent to thee to instruct thee of his will.
"Now, although thou hast gone through strange lands from Adim to Tenu,
and passed from one country to another at the wish of thy heart--behold,
what hast thou done, or what has been done against thee, that is amiss?
Moreover, thou reviledst not; but if thy word was denied, thou didst
not speak again in the assembly of the nobles, even if thou wast
desired. Now, therefore, that thou hast thought on this matter which
has come to thy mind, let thy heart not change again; for this thy
Heaven (queen), who is in the palace is fixed, she is flourishing, she
is enjoying the best in the kingdom of the land, and her children are
in the chambers of the palace.
"Leave all the riches that thou hast, and that are with thee,
altogether. When thou shalt come into Egypt behold the palace, and when
thou shalt enter the palace, bow thy face to the ground before the Great
House; thou shalt be chief among the companions. And day by day behold
thou growest old; thy vigour is lost, and thou thinkest on the day of
burial. Thou shalt see thyself come to the blessed state, they shall
give thee the bandages from the hand of Tait, the night of applying the
oil of embalming. They shall follow thy funeral, and visit the tomb on
the day of burial, which shall be in a gilded case, the head painted
with blue, a canopy of cypress wood above thee, and oxen shall draw
thee, the singers going before thee, and they shall dance the funeral
dance. The weepers crouching at the door of thy tomb shall cry aloud
the prayers for offerings: they shall slay victims for thee at the
door of thy pit; and thy pyramid shall be carved in white stone, in
the company of the royal children. Thus thou shalt not die in a
strange land, nor be buried by the Amu; thou shalt not be laid in a
sheep-skin when thou art buried; all people shall beat the earth, and
lament on thy body when thou goest to the tomb."
When this order came to me, I was in the midst of my tribe. When it was
read unto me, I threw me on the dust, I threw dust in my hair; I went
around my tent rejoicing and saying, "How may it be that such a thing
is done to the servant, who with a rebellious heart has fled to
strange lands? Now with an excellent deliverance, and mercy delivering
me from death, thou shall cause me to end my days in the palace."
_Copy of the answer to this order._
"The follower Sanehat says: In excellent peace above everything consider
of this flight that he made here in his ignorance; Thou, the Good God,
Lord of both Lands, Loved of Ra, Favourite of Mentu, the lord of Thebes,
and of Amen, lord of thrones of the lands, of Sebek, Ra, Horus, Hathor,
Atmu, and of his fellow-gods, of Sopdu, Neferbiu, Samsetu, Horus, lord
of the east, and of the royal uraeus which rules on thy head, of the
chief gods of the waters, of Min, Horus of the desert, Urrit, mistress
of Punt, Nut, Harnekht, Ra, all the gods of the land of Egypt, and of
the isles of the sea. May they give life and peace to thy nostril, may
they load thee with their gifts, may they give to thee eternity
without end, everlastingness without bound. May the fear of thee be
doubled in the lands of the deserts. Mayest thou subdue the circuit of
the sun's disc. This is the prayer to his master of the humble servant
who is saved from a foreign land.
"O wise king, the wise words which are pronounced in the wisdom of the
majesty of the sovereign, thy humble servant fears to tell. It is a
great thing to repeat. O great God, like unto Ra in fulfilling that to
which he has set his hand, what am I that he should take thought for me?
Am I among those whom he regards, and for whom he arranges? Thy majesty
is as Horus, and the strength of thy arms extends to all lands.
"Then let his Majesty bring Maki of Adma, Kenti-au-ush of Khenti-keshu,
and Tenus from the two lands ol the Fenkhu; these are the princes who
bear witness of me as to all that has passed, out of love for thyself.
Does not Tenu believe that it belongs to thee like thy dogs. Behold
this flight that I have made: I did not have it in my heart; it was
like the leading of a dream, as a man of Adehi (Delta) sees himself in
Abu (Elephantine), as a man of the plain of Egypt who sees himself in
the deserts. There was no fear, there was no hastening after me, I did
not listen to an evil plot, my name was not heard in the mouth of the
magistrate; but my limbs went, my feet wandered, my heart drew me; my
god commanded this flight, and drew me on; but I am not stiff-necked.
Does a man fear when he sees his own land? Ra spread thy fear over the
land, thy terrors in every strange land. Behold me now in the palace,
behold me in this place; and lo! thou art he who is over all the
horizon; the sun rises at thy pleasure, the water in the rivers is
drunk at thy will, the wind in heaven is breathed at thy saying.
"I who speak to thee shall leave my goods to the generations to follow
in this land. And as to this messenger who is come even let thy majesty
do as pleaseth him, for one lives by the breath that thou givest. O thou
who art beloved of Ra, of Horus, and of Hathor; Mentu, lord of Thebes,
desires that thy august nostril should live for ever."
I made a feast in Iaa, to pass over my goods to my children. My eldest
son was leading my tribe, all my goods passed to him, and I gave him my
corn and all my cattle, my fruit, and all my pleasant trees. When I had
taken my road to the south, and arrived at the roads of Horus, the
officer who was over the garrison sent a messenger to the palace to give
notice. His majesty sent the good overseer of the peasants of the king's
domains, and boats laden with presents from the king for the Sati who
had come to conduct me to the roads of Horus. I spoke to each one by his
name, and I gave the presents to each as was intended. I received and I
returned the salutation, and I continued thus until I reached the city
of Thetu.
When the land was brightened, and the new day began, four men came with
a summons for me; and the four men went to lead me to the palace. I
saluted with both my hands on the ground; the royal children stood at
the courtyard to conduct me: the courtiers who were to lead me to the
hall brought me on the way to the royal chamber.
I found his Majesty on the great throne in the hall of pale gold. Then I
threw myself on my belly; this god, in whose presence I was, knew me
not. He questioned me graciously, but I was as one seized with
blindness, my spirit fainted, my limbs failed, my heart was no longer in
my bosom, and I knew the difference between life and death. His
majesty said to one of the companions, "Lift him up, let him speak to
me." And his majesty said, "Behold thou hast come, thou hast trodden
the deserts, thou hast played the wanderer. Decay falls on thee, old
age has reached thee; it is no small thing that thy body should be
embalmed, that the Pedtiu shall not bury thee. Do not, do not, be
silent and speechless; tell thy name; is it fear that prevents thee?"
I answered in reply, "I fear, what is it that my lord has said that I
should answer it? I have not called on me the hand of God, but it is
terror in my body, like that which brings sudden death. Now behold I
am before thee; thou art life; let thy majesty do what pleaseth him."
The royal children were brought in, and his majesty said to the queen,
"Behold thou Sanehat has come as an Amu, whom the Sati have produced."
She cried aloud, and the royal children spake with one voice, saying,
before his majesty, "Verily it is not so, O king, my lord." Said his
majesty, "It is verily he." Then they brought their collars, and their
wands, and their sistra in their hands, and displayed them before his
majesty; and they sang--
"May thy hands prosper, O king; May the ornaments of the Lady of Heaven
continue. May the goddess Nub give life to thy nostril; May the mistress
of the stars favour thee, when thou sailest south and north. All
wisdom is in the mouth of thy majesty; Thy uraeus is on thy forehead,
thou drivest away the miserable.
"Thou art pacified, O Ra, lord of the lands; They call on thee as on the
mistress of all. Strong is thy horn, Thou lettest fly thine arrow. Grant
the breath to him who is without it; Grant good things to this
traveller, Samehit the Pedti, born in the land of Egypt, Who fled away
from fear of thee, And fled this land from thy terrors. Does not the
face grow pale, of him who beholds thy countenance; Does not the eye
fear, which looks upon thee."
Said his majesty, "Let him not fear, let him be freed from terror. He
shall be a Royal Friend amongst the nobles; he shall be put within the
circle of the courtiers. Go ye to the chamber of praise to seek wealth
for him."
When I went out from the palace, the royal children offered their hands
to me; we walked afterwards to the Great Gates. I was placed in a house
of a king's son, in which were delicate things, a place of coolness,
fruits of the granary, treasures of the White House, clothes of the
king's guardrobe, frankincense, the finest perfumes of the king and the
nobles whom he loves, in every chamber. All the servitors were in their
several offices.
Years were removed from my limbs: I was shaved, and polled my locks of
hair; the foulness was cast to the desert with the garments of the
Nemau-sha. I clothed me in fine linen, and anointed myself with the fine
oil of Egypt; I laid me on a bed. I gave up the sand to those who lie
on it; the oil of wood to him who would anoint himself therewith.
There was given to me the mansion of a lord of serfs, which had
belonged to a royal friend. There many excellent things were in its
buildings; all its wood was renewed. There were brought to me portions
from the palace, thrice and four times each day; besides the gifts of
the royal children, always, without ceasing. There was built for me a
pyramid of stone amongst the pyramids. The overseer of the architects
measured its ground; the chief treasurer wrote it; the sacred masons
cut the well; the chief of the labourers on the tombs brought the
bricks; all things used to make strong a building were there used.
There were given to me peasants; there were made for me a garden, and
fields in it before my mansion, as is done for the chief royal friend.
My statue was inlayed with gold, its girdle of pale gold; his majesty
caused it to be made. Such is not done to a man of low degree.
May I be in the favour of the king until the day shall come of my death.
_(This is finished from beginning to end, as was found in the writing.)_
Remarks
The Adventures of Sanehat appears to have been a popular tale, as
portions of three copies remain. The first papyrus known (Berlin No.
1) was imperfect at the beginning; but since then a flake of limestone
found in a tomb bore the beginning of the tale, and the same part is
found on a papyrus in the Amherst collection. The main text has been
translated by Chabas ("Le papyrus de Berlin," 37-51), Goodwin, and
Maspero ("Mel. d'arch.," iii. 68, 140, and "Contes Populaire,"
89-130); while the beginning is treated in "Memoires de l'institut
Egyptien," ii. 1-23, and in Proc. S.B.A., 452. The present translation
is mainly based on Mr. Griffith's readings in all cases of difficulty.
This is perhaps the most interesting of all the tales, because it bears
such signs of being written in the times of which it treats, it throws
so much light on the life of the time in Egypt and Syria, and if not a
real narrative, it is at least so probable that it may be accepted
without much difficulty. For my own part, I incline to look on it as
strictly historical; and in the absence of a single point of doubt, I
shall here treat it as seriously as the biographical inscriptions of
the early tombs. Possibly some day the tomb of Sanehat may be found,
and the whole inscription be read complete upon the walls.
The name Sa-nehat means "son of the sycamore," probably from his having
been born, or living, at some place where was a celebrated sacred
sycamore. This was a common tree in ancient, as in modern, Egypt; but an
allusion in the tale, to Sanehat turning his back on the sycamore, when
he was fleeing apparently up the west side of the Delta, makes it
probable that the sycamore was that of Aa-tenen, now Batnun, at the
middle of the west side of the Delta.
The titles given to Sanehat at the opening are of a very high rank, and
imply that he was the son either of the king or of a great noble. And
his position in the queen's household shows him to have been of
importance; the manner in which he is received by the royal family at
the end implying that he was quite familiar with them in early days.
But the great difficulty in the account has been the sudden panic of
Sanehat on hearing of the death of Amenemhat, and no explanation of this
has yet been brought forward. It seems not unlikely that he was a son of
Amenemhat by some concubine. This would at once account for his high
titles--for his belonging to the royal household--for his fear of his
elder brother Usertesen, who might see in him a rival, and try to slay
him after his father's death--for the command to him to leave all his
possessions and family behind him in Syria, as the condition of his
being allowed to return to end his days in Egypt--for his familiar
reception by the royal family, and for the property given to him on his
return.
The date recorded for the death of Sehote-pabra--Amenemhat I., the
founder of the XIIth Dynasty--agrees with the limit of his reign on the
monuments. And the expressions for his death are valuable as showing
the manner in which a king's decease was regarded; under the emblem of
a hawk--the bird of Ra--he flew up and joined the sun.
Sometime before his death Amenemhat had been in retirement; after twenty
years of reign (which was probably rather late in his life, as he seems
to have forced his way to the front as a successful man and founder of a
family) he had associated his son, the first Usertesen, on the throne,
and apparently resigned active life; for in the third year of Usertesen
we find the coregent summoning his court and decreeing the founding of
the temple of Heliopolis without any mention of his father. The old
king, however, lived yet ten years after his retirement, and died (as
this narrative shows us) during an expedition of his son Usertesen.
The time of year mentioned here would fall in about the middle of the
inundation in those days. Hence it seems that the military expeditions
were made after the harvest was secured, and while the country was
under water and the population disengaged from other labour.
The course of Sanehat's flight southward, reaching the Nile at Cairo
after two days' haste, indicates that the army was somewhere west of the
Delta. This would point to its being on the road to the oasis of the
Natron Lakes, which would be the natural course for a body of men
needing water supply. His throwing himself between two bushes to hide
from the army shows that the message came early in the day, otherwise he
would have fled in the dark. He then fled a day's journey to the south,
turning his back on the sycamore, and slept in the open field at
Shi-Seneferu somewhere below the Barrage. The second day he reached the
Nile opposite Old Cairo in the afternoon, and ferried himself over,
passed the quarries at Gebel Mokattam, and the red hill of Gebel Ahmar,
and came to a frontier wall before dark. This cannot have been far from
Old Cairo, by the time; and as Heliopolis was in course of building by
Usertesen, it would be probably on the desert near there, for the
protection of the town. Passing the desert guards by night he pushed
on and reached Peten, near Belbeis, by dawn, and turned east toward
the valley of Kemur, or Wady Tumilat. Here in his extremity he was
found by the Sati or Asiatics, and rescued. This shows that the
eastern desert was left to the wandering tribes, and was without any
regular government at this period; though all the eastern Delta was
already well in Egyptian hands, as we know by the monuments at
Bubastis, Dedamun, and Tanis.
The land of Adim to which Sanehat fled appears to be the same as Edom or
the southeast corner of Syria. It was evidently near the upper Tenu, or
Rutennu, who seem to have dwelt on the hill country of Palestine. The
hill and the plain of Palestine are so markedly different, that in all
ages they have tended to be held by opposing people. In the time of
Sanehat the upper Tenu who held the hills were opposed to the Tenu in
general who held the plains; later on the Semites of the hills opposed
the Philistines of the plain, and now the _fellah_ of the hills
opposes the Bedawi of the plain. The district of Amuanshi in which
Sanehat settled was a goodly land, bearing figs and grapes and olives,
flowing with wine and honey and oil, yielding barley and wheat without
end, and much cattle. This abundance points rather to the hill country
near Hebron or between there and Belt Jibrin, as this south part of
the hills is notably fertile. The Tenu who came to defy Sanehat, being
in opposition to the upper Tenu, were probably those of the plain; and
the opposition to Sanehat may have arisen from his encroaching on the
fertile plain at the foot of his hills, as he was in the best of the
land "on the border of the next land."
The Egyptian was evidently looked on as being of a superior race by the
Tenu, and his civilisation won for him the confidence which many
wandering Englishmen now find in Africa or Polynesia, like John Dunn.
The set combat of two champions seems--by the large gathering--to have
been a well-recognised custom among the Tenu, while it exactly accords
with Goliath's offer in later times. And raising the shout of victory
on the back of the fallen champion reminds us of David's standing on
Goliath.
The transition from the recital of the Syrian adventures to the petition
to Pharaoh is not marked in the manuscript; but from the construction
the beginning of the petition is evidently at the place here marked. The
manner in which Sanehat appeals to the queen shows how well he must have
been known to her in his former days.
The decree in reply to Sanehat is in the regular style of royal
decrees of the period. Apparently by a clerical error the scribe has
substituted the name Amenemhat for Userte-sen, but the Horus name and
the throne name leave no doubt that Usertesen I. is intended here. The
tone of the reply is as gracious as possible, according with the
king's character as stated by Sanehat, "He is a friend of great
sweetness, and knows how to gain love." He quite recognises the
inquiries after the queen, and replies concerning her. And then he
assures Sanehat of welcome on his return, and promises him all that he
asks, including a tomb "in the company of the royal children," a full
recognition of his real rank. Incidentally we learn that the Amu
buried their dead wrapped in a sheep's skin; as we also learn, further
on, that they anointed themselves with oil (olive?), wore the hair
long, and slept on the ground.
The funeral that is promised accords with the burials of the XIIth
Dynasty: the gilded case, the head painted blue, and the canopy of
cypress wood, are all known of this period, but would be out of place in
describing a Ramesside burial.
Sanehat's reply is a full course of the usual religious adulation, and
differs in this remarkably from his petition. In fact it is hard to
be certain where his petition begins; possibly the opening of it has
been lost out of the text in copying from a mutilated papyrus; or
possibly it was sent merely as a memorandum of Sanehat's position and
desires, without venturing to address it personally to the king; or
even it may have not been allowable then to make such petitions
formally, so as to leave the initiative to the king's free will, just
as it is not allowable nowadays to question royalty, but only to
answer when spoken to.