unabated loyalty is very curious, and seems superfluous after
Usertesen's assurances. Beyond Abisha of the Amu at Beni Hasan, these
are the only early personal names of Syrians that we know. The Fenkhu in
this connection can hardly be other than the Phoenicians; and, if so,
this points to their being already established in southern Syria at
this date. But these chiefs were not allowed to come forward; and it
seems to have been the policy of Egypt to keep the Syrians off as much
as possible, not a single man who came with Sanehat being allowed to
cross the frontier. The allusion to the Tenu belonging to Pharaoh,
like his dogs, is peculiarly fitting to this period, as the dog seems
to have been more familiarly domesticated in the XIth and XIIth
Dynasties than at any other age, and dogs are often then represented
on the funereal steles, even with their names.
The expression for strangeness--"as a man of the Delta sees himself at
the cataract, as a man of the plain who sees himself in the deserts"--is
true to this day. Nothing upsets an Egyptian's self-reliance like going
back a few miles into the desert; and almost any man of the cultivated
plain will flee with terror if he finds himself left alone far in the
desert, or even taken to the top of the desert hills..
We learn incidentally that the Egyptian frontier, even in the later
years of Usertesen I., had not been pushed beyond the Wady Tumilat; for
Sanehat travels south to the Roads of Horus, where he finds the frontier
garrison, and leaves his Syrian friends; and there laden boats meet him,
showing that it must have been somewhere along a waterway from the Nile.
The abasement of Sanehat might well be due to natural causes, beside the
reverence for the divine person of the king. The Egyptian court must
have seemed oppressively splendid, with the brilliant and costly
workmanship of Usertesen, to one who had lived a half-wild life for so
many years; and, more than that, the recalling of all his early days and
habits and friendships would overwhelm his mind and make it difficult to
collect his thoughts.
Sanehat's appearance was so much changed by his long hair, his age, and
his strange dress, that his former mistress and companions could not
recognise him. The use of collars and sceptres in the song and dance
is not clear to us. The sistra were, of course, to beat or rattle in
time with the song; the sceptres or wands were perhaps the same as the
engraved wands of ivory common in the XIIth Dynasty, or of blue glazed
ware in XVIIIth, and would be used to wave or beat time with; but the
use of the collar and counterpoise, or _menat,_ is unexplained, though
figures of dancers are shown holding a collar and _menat,_ and such
objects were found buried in the ceremonial foundation deposit of
Tahutmes III. at Koptos.
This song of the princesses is clearly in parallel phrases. First are
four wishes for the king and queen, in four lines. Second, an ascription
of wisdom and power, in two lines. Third, a comparison of the king to
Ra, and of the queen to the great goddess, in two lines. Fourth, an
ascription of righting power. Fifth, a petition for Sanehat, winding up
with the statement of fear inspired by the king, as explaining
Sanehat's abasement. To this the king responds by reassuring Sanehat,
and promising him position and wealth.
The account of Sanehat's renewal of his old national ways can best be
appreciated by any one who has lived a rough life for a time and then
comes back to civilisation. Doubtless these comforts were all the more
grateful to him in his old age, when he was weary of his unsettled life.
In the preparation of his tomb it is stated to have been a pyramid, with
rock-cut well chamber, and built of bricks above. This just accords
with the construction of the pyramids of the XIIth Dynasty.
The last phrase implies that this was composed during Sanehat's life;
and such a life would be so remarkable that this biography might be
prepared with good reason. Also it is very unlikely that a mere
story-teller would have dropped the relation without describing his
grand funeral which was promised to him. From suddenly stopping at the
preparation of the tomb, without going further, we have a strong
presumption that this was a true narrative, written at Sanehat's
dictation, and probably intended to be inscribed on his tomb wall. In
any case, we have here an invaluable picture of life in Palestine and
in Egypt, and the relations of the two countries, at an epoch before
the time of Abraham, and not paralleled by any other document until
more than a thousand years later.