the river. The order was given for the journey down the stream to the stronghold of the city of Ramessu, the Conqueror.

'Then the king, in order to behold his father, made the rowers enter the canal of Nif-ur, with the intention of offering a sacrifice to the beneficent god Unnofer with his choicest libations, and of praying to [the divinity] of his brother Anhur, the son of Ra in . . . as which he abides there.

'There he found the halls of the dead of the former kings, and their graves, which are in Abydus, hastening to the beginning of desolation. Their burial-places had become dilapidated from the foundations. [The stones were torn away] out of the ground, their walls lay scattered about on the road, no brick held to another, the hall "of the second birth" lay in ruins, nothing had been built up [for the father by his son], who should have been busied in preserving it according to his expectations, since its possessor had flown up to heaven. Not one son had renewed the memorial of his father, who rested in the grave.

There was the temple of Seti. The front and back elevations were in process of building when he entered the realm of heaven. Unfinished was his monument; the columns were not raised on their bases, his statues lay upon the earth; they were not sculptured according to the corresponding measure of "the golden chamber." His revenues failed. The servants of the temple without distinction had taken what was brought in from the fields, the boundary marks of which were not staked out on the land.

'The king speaks to the Chamberlain at his side: "Speak, that there may be assembled the princes, the favourites of the king, the commanders of the body guards, as they are (i.e. all of them), the architects, according to their number, and the superintendents of the house of the rolls of the books."

'When they had come before the king, their noses touched the ground, and their feet lay on the ground for joy; they fell down to the ground, and with their hands they prayed to the king. They praised this divine benefactor, while they exalted his grace in his presence. They related exactly what he had achieved, and composed his glorious deeds as they had been done. All words that proceeded out of their mouths were employed to describe the deeds of the lord of the land in full truth. Thus they lay prostrate and touching the earth before the king, speaking thus:

"We are come before thee, the lord of heaven, lord of the earth,

sun, life of the whole world, lord of time, measurer of the course of the sun, Tum for men, lord of prosperity, creator of the harvest, fashioner and former of mortals, dispenser of breath to all men; animator of the whole company of the gods, pillar of heaven, threshold of the earth, weigher of the balance of the two worlds, lord of rich gifts, increaser of the corn, at whose feet the Ranen (the Egyptian Ceres) waits; thou former of the great, creator of the small, whose words engender the most splendid abundance; thou who watchest when other men rest, whose strength overshadows Egypt, conqueror of the foreigners, who hast returned home victorious, whose arm protects the Egyptians, who loves justice, in which he lives by his laws; protector of the land, rich in years, the conqueror whose terror has stricken down the foreigners; thou our lord, our sun, by whose words out of his mouth Tum lives. Here we are all assembled before thee; grant us life out of thy hands, O Pharaoh, and breath for our nostrils; all men live, on whom he has risen (like the sun)."

'The king speaks to them after an interval: "I have called you because of a determination regarding that which I am about to do. I have beheld the houses of the Necropolis, the graves of Abydus. The buildings of them require labour from the times of their possessors down to the present day. When the son arose in the place of his father, he did not renew the memorial of his parent. In my mind I have pondered with myself the splendid occasion for good works for coming times (?). The most beautiful thing to behold, the best thing to hear, is a child with a thankful breast, whose heart beats for his father. Wherefore my heart urges me to do what is good for Mineptah. I will cause them to talk for ever and eternally of his son, who has awakened his name to life. My father Osiris will reward me for this with a long existence, like his son Horus. Let me do what he did; let me be excellent, just as he was excellent, for my parent, I, who am a scion of the sungod Ra.

""Let me speak to you of Seti. The lord of all, he himself nourished me and brought me up. I was a little boy before I attained to the government; then he gave over to me the country. I was yet in my mother's womb when the great ones greeted me with veneration. I was solemnly inducted as eldest son into the dignity of an heir of the throne, on the chair of the earth-god Seb. And I gave my orders as the chief of the life-guards and of the

fighters on chariots. Then my father showed me publicly to the people, and I was a boy on his lap, and he spake thus: 'I will cause him to be crowned as king, for I will behold his excellence while I am yet alive.' [Then came forward] the officials of the court to place the double crown on my head (and my father spake) : 'Place the regal circlet on his brow.' Thus he spake of me while he still remained on earth: Let him establish order in the land, let him raise up again what has fallen into decay, let him take care of the inhabitants.' Thus spake he with kind intention in his very great love for me; yet he left me in the house of the women and of the royal concubines, after the manner of the maidens of the palace. He chose for me women among the maidens, who wore a harness of leather. . . . It was the house of the women that took care of and nourished me.

"Thus was I like the sun god Ra, the first of mortals. The inhabitants of the South and of the North lay at my feet. [I gave orders for the buildings], I myself laid their foundation-stone to build [the work. I had an image] made of him who begat me, my father, of gold, quite new.

"In the first year of my reign as king I had given orders to provide his temple with stores. I secured to him his fields, [and fixed their boundaries], and appointed him revenues for his worship, [and arranged the sacrifices of oxen and geese and bread] and wine and incense and other things. I planted for him groves to grow up for him. Thus was his house under my protection; I took upon myself all his buildings from the time that [I was crowned as king]. And thus I was a child [whose beart was full of thanks towards] his father who had raised me up.

"I will renew the memorial. I will not neglect his tomb as children are accustomed to do, who do not remember their father. [Men shall speak of me] as of a son who did good, and shall estimate the strength of my father in me his child. I will complete it because I am lord of the land. I will take care of it because it is fitting and right.

"I clothe the walls in the temple of my parent. I will commission the man of my choice to hasten the buildings for him, to build up again what was sunken of its walls, [and to raise up] his temple wings on the [front side], to clothe his house, to erect his pillars, and to place the blocks on the places of the foundation stone. Beautifully shall the most splendid double memorial be made

at once. Let it be inscribed with my name, and with the name of my father. As the son is, so was the father [who begat him]."

'The king's friends speak in answer to the divine benefactor: "Thou art the Sun-god, thy body is his body, no king is like to thee, thou alone art like the son of Osiris. What thou hast done is like his story. The mother Isis [never saw] such a king since the Sun-god, except thee and her son Horus. Greater is that which thou hast done than what he did when he ruled as king after Osiris. The laws of the land continue fixed. Such a son is dear to his father. The holy offspring [of Ra], who has formed him in the mother egg, [his heart] beats for him who brought him up. Glorious is he. None has done the deeds of Horus for his father up to the present day, except thou, O king! Thou loved one! Thou hast performed more than it was necessary to do; no permission for good [is necessary any more for thee. May such a king as thou be] our leader, whose word we may obey! Was not that which has just come to pass, to remember him, an example for thee? Thou didst refuse to forget [thy father]. Thy heart was true to thy father, King Seti, father of the divine one, the heavenly Mineptah.

"Since the time of Ra, since kings have reigned, no other is to be compared to thee. Never was seen face to face, nor was heard of in story, [any other son] who has busied himself in renewing the memorial of his father. None who rose up would honour his father. Each one worked for his own name, except only thee alone and Horus. As thou hast done, so did the son of Osiris.

"Therefore thou art a beautiful heir, like to him; his kingdom, thou guidest it in the same way. If any one does according as the god did, there will be to him a duration of life for that which he has done. The god Ra in heaven [is highly delighted], his company of gods is full of joy, the gods are friendly disposed towards Egypt, since thy rule as king of the land.

"Noble is thy just disposition; it has reached as far as the heights of heaven. Thy upright wisdom pleases the Sun-god Ra. Tum is full of delight [because of thy conduct]; Unnofer triumphs because of thy deeds, O king, for his name. He speaks thus: [My dear son], let there be granted to thee the duration of heaven, the power of the gods, the secret of the lord of the depth, so long as thou shalt remain upon earth, like the disk of the sun.'

""Moved is the heart of Mineptah, his name lives anew; thou hast caused him to be made in gold and precious stones, [and thou hast set] up his [statues] of silver. [And his temple] thou hast built for him anew in thy name, and in the name of all the kings which are in heaven, and whose chambers need the work. No son has done what thou hast done, since the time of Ra down to the [present day].

""[That which thou hast determined], O king, do it. Remember that which was sunk in forgetfulness, renew the monuments in the Necropolis, and all the plans which were behindhand, execute them as is right and fitting.-Thou art now king of Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt. Do good even as thou willest. Let thy heart be satisfied in doing what is right. For that which is done for the honour of the gods, that will be accepted and [rewarded by the immortals] when thou hereafter shalt rise to heaven. When thy grace raises himself to the orb of light, then shall the eyes see thy glorious virtues in the sight of gods and men. Thus do thou! Renew memorial after memorial to the gods. Therefore shall thy father Ra command that thy name shall resound in all lands, beginning in the south with Khonti-Hon-Nofer, northwards from the shores of the sea as far as the nations of Ruthen. The foreign fortresses and towns of the king and the cities, well guarded and occupied with their inhabitants, and [the dwellers in all places, they speak of thee], that thou art as a god for every one. They awake to offer incense to thee. Thus according to the will of thy father Tum, the black land (Egypt), and the red land (the Erythræans), praise thee, O king."

'When this speech from the lips of the princes before their lord was ended, then the king commanded, and gave commission to the architects, and separated the people of the masons and of the stone-cutters with the help of the graver, and the draughtsmen, and all kinds of artists, to build the most holy place for his father, and to raise up what had fallen into decay in the Necropolis, and in the temple of his father, who sojourns among the deceased ones. Then [he began] to have the statues of his father carved, from the first year. The revenues were doubled for his worship, his temple was enriched according to the number of its wants. He appointed its roll of fields and peasants and herds. He named its priests according to their service, and the prophet, to raise in his hands [the incense-vessel], and he appointed the temple servants for