thou shalt do good
to thy people. But take good heed that thou lovest not the possessions
of Amen-Ra, the King of the Gods, for the lion loveth the things that
belong unto him. And now, I pray thee to allow my scribe to be summoned
to me, and I will send him to Nessubanebtet and Thent-Amen, the local
governors whom Amen hath appointed to rule the northern portion of his
land, and they will send to me everything which I shall tell them to
send to me, saying, 'Let such and such a thing be brought,' until such
time as I can make the journey to the South (_i.e._ to Egypt), when I
will have thy miserable dross brought to thee, even to the uttermost
portion thereof, in very truth." That was what I said unto him.

[Footnote 1: _i.e._ the figure of Amen already referred to.]

And he gave my letter into the hand of his ambassador. And he loaded up
on a ship wood for the fore part and wood for the hind part [of the Boat
of Amen], and four other trunks of cedar trees which had been cut down,
in all seven trunks, and he despatched them to Egypt. And his ambassador
departed to Egypt, and he returned to me in Syria in the first month of
the winter season (November-December). And Nessubanebtet and Thent-Amen
sent to me five vessels of gold, five vessels of silver, ten pieces of
byssus, each sufficiently large to make a suit of raiment, five hundred
rolls of fine papyrus, five hundred hides of oxen, five hundred ropes,
twenty sacks of lentils, and thirty vessels full of dried fish. And for
my personal use they sent to me five pieces of byssus, each sufficiently
large to make a suit of raiment, a sack of lentils, and five vessels
full of dried fish. Then the Governor was exceedingly glad and rejoiced
greatly, and he sent three hundred men and three hundred oxen [to
Lebanon] to cut down the cedar trees, and he appointed overseers to
direct them. And they cut down the trees, the trunks of which lay there
during the whole of the winter season. And when the third month of the
summer season had come, they dragged the tree trunks down to the
sea-shore. And the Governor came out of his palace, and took up his
stand before the trunks, and he sent a message to me, saying, "Come."
Now as I was passing close by him, the shadow of his umbrella fell upon
me, whereupon Pen-Amen, an officer of his bodyguard, placed himself
between him and me, saying, "The shadow of Pharaoh, life, strength, and
health, be to him! thy Lord, falleth upon thee."[1] And t