Part 26 (1/2)

”When Aur-nadin-a?i, my father, sent to the land of Egypt, they caused to be sent to him 20 talents of gold.

”When the ?anigalbatian king sent to Egypt to thy father, he caused 20 talents of go(ld) to be brought to him.

”(Behold), thou hast caused to be brought ... gold to the ?ani(gal)ba(tian) king ... and to me, (but f)or the going and returning it suffices (?) not for wages for my messengers.

”If friends.h.i.+p be desirable unto thee, cause much gold to be brought; and as it will be thy house, send, and let them take what thou desirest.

”We are distant countries-in this wise let our messengers go about.

”Those who delayed thy messengers were the Sut.i.tes, their persecutors; dead (was I) until I had sent, and they had taken the persecuting Sut.i.tes.

Their bands (?) shall verily not delay my messengers.

”As for messengers abroad, why should they be detained and die there? If they stay abroad, the king will have the advantage, so let him stay and let him die abroad-let the king then have the advantage. And if not, why should the messengers whom we send die abroad? ... attack the messengers and cause them to die abroad.”

The last paragraph is difficult to understand on account of its being so mutilated, but the sense of the whole seems now to be fairly clear.

Aur-uballi? desires to be on friendly terms with Egypt, but he is anxious to get, above all, the precious metal which was said to be so plentiful there, and for which all the rulers of Western Asia seem to have hungered.

And this leads to the interesting statement in the fifth paragraph, in which gold in Egypt is said to have been as dust; and there is the question, ”Why should it go round into thine eyes?” (_Ammini ina ene-ka isa??ur?_) implying that, being dust, it behaved as dust, and was in that respect undesirable, and therefore to be got rid of. He would like to have some for the decoration of his palace-his father, and the king of ?anigalbat had been favoured in this way. Let it not be as little (apparently), as that sent to the ?anigalbatian king, for that would not suffice to pay his messengers. The interchange of things needed as presents made good friends. It was a lawless band of Sut.i.tes who had detained the Egyptian king's messengers, and he was as one dead until his people had stopped their depredations. It was useful to a king that his amba.s.sadors lived and died abroad, but not that they should be attacked and killed there.

The relations of Egypt with another cla.s.s of ruler is well ill.u.s.trated by the following letter from a prince or governor brought up in Egypt-

Yabitiri a.s.serts His Faithfulness, And Touches Upon His Early Life.

”To the king my lord, my G.o.ds, my Sun-G.o.ds, say also thus: '(it is) Yabitiri thy servant, the dust of thy feet. At the feet of the king my lord, my G.o.ds, my Sun-G.o.ds, seven times, and twice seven times I fall.

Furthermore, behold, I am a faithful servant(61) of the king my lord. I look here, and I look there,(62) and it is not clear; then I look upon the king my lord, and it is clear. And the brick-foundation may give way from beneath its wall, but I will not give way from beneath the feet of the king my lord. And the king my lord may ask Yan?ama, his official, (concerning) when I was young, and they sent me down to Egypt, where I served the king my lord, and stood in the city-gate of the king my lord.

And the king my lord may ask his official when I guard the city-gate of Azzati (Gaza) and the city-gate of Yapu (Jaffa). And I am with the hired troops of the king my lord, where they go, I am with them, and I am also, therefore, with them now. The yoke of the king my lord is on my neck, and I bear it.' ”

Apparently there had been spread abroad some statement reflecting on the faithfulness of the writer, who seeks to justify himself by appealing to his former services to the Egyptian king. His letter has a ring of sincerity in it which is wanting in many of the communications of this nature.

Reference has already been made to the caravans which pa.s.sed through the territory of the various rulers, and the protection which those rulers were supposed to extend to them. Burra-buria, in his letter translated above, complains that Babylonian caravans had been attacked in the land of Canaan, and asks for the punishment of the persons involved. To all appearance the protection of the caravans was entrusted to certain chiefs, owing allegiance to the Egyptian king, who always held themselves ready to perform this duty. The following translation shows how one of the chiefs or governors of a Canaanitish district looked after the caravans, as his father did before him-

Letter From Mut-Zu'u To The King Of Egypt.

”To the king, my lord and my sun, say thus: 'It is Mut-zu'u(63) thy servant, the dust of thy feet, the earth for thee to tread upon. Seven times, twice seven times, I fall down at the feet of the king my lord.'

”The king my lord has sent by ?aya to speak of the ?ana-galbat(64) caravan. This I have dispatched and have directed it. Who am I, that I should not dispatch the caravans of the king my lord? Behold, (Lab)'aya, my father, (who was faithful) to the king his lord, used to send (a caravan, and give directions concerning it. The cara)vans (which) the king (di)rected to the land of ?ana-galbat (and) to the land of Kara-dunia let the king my lord send. (As to) the caravan, I will bring it so that it is safe.”

As will be seen from this, Mut-zu'u was one of the humble va.s.sals of ”the king his lord,” who at that time-evidently the peaceful days of Amenophis III.-was the happy possessor of many such. As examples of the relations between the smaller rulers and their suzerain, may be quoted two of the numerous letters of Yidia of Askelon, who provided the necessaries for the Egyptian army in Palestine.

Yidia, The Askelonite, Concerning The King's Representative.

”To the king, my lord, my Sun, the Sun who (cometh) from the heavens, (say also) thus: '(It is) Yidia, the Askelonite, thy servant, the dust of thy feet, thy charioteer.(65) I fall down before the feet of the king my lord seven times and twice seven times, back and breast.'

”Now (for) my (lord), (for) the G.o.ds of the king my lord, my G.o.d, my Sun, I guard this city, and again ... let me protect all his land.

”I have heard the words of the king my lord to his representative, when he is not able to protect the country of the king my lord. So now the king my lord has appointed Rianappa, the representative of the king my lord, to whom(66) I will bring (?) good fortune for the king.

”Whatever cometh out of the mouth of the king my lord, lo, that will I keep day and night.”

Yidia Concerning The Commissariat.