s. Zalukhi does not
seem to be mentioned again, and Rib-Addi in a later letter compares Ugarit
with the region round Tyre as regards its administrative relation to
Egypt. Abi-milki, the Tyrian prefect, once informs the king, "Fire hath
devoured the city of Ugarit; one half of it hath it destroyed and not the
other." Finally, a certain Yapakhi-Addi, after an unsuccessful attempt to
get provisions into Rib-Addi's city Simyra, reproachfully informs Yanhamu
that Aziru has extended his dominions from Gebal to Ugarit. Ugarit must
thus have been the most northerly of the Egyptian possessions in Asia, and
therefore not far from the site of the modern Alexandretta. This outlying
position made the little state a somewhat insecure jewel in the crown of
Egypt. King Kadashman-Bel seems to have been of this opinion when (see p.
27) he included in his little list of ladies impossible for a royal harem
"a maiden from Ugarit." Evidently he meant to enumerate superciliously
petty foreign "princesses" only.

Of a certain land of Danuna (considered a part of Canaan) we learn further
that its king died, and that his brother succeeded to the throne
unopposed. One of the two may be identical with the king of Tana; who, as
Rib-Addi briefly mentions, was about to march to Gebal, but was forced by
scarcity of water to return home.

A few letters from women are among the tablets. Two probably came from the
wife of Milki-El, who was hard pressed by the Habiri when her husband was
called to Egypt. Two others are addressed, "The handmaid to my mistress";
perhaps they were sent along with Tushratta's letters to his daughter in
Egypt and were from one of her playfellows or relatives. Finally, the
daughter of Napkhuria, married to Burnaburiash, sent a small tablet to her
father by a special envoy named Kidin-Ramman. "Before the face of my lord
let him come" indicates that the letter was "to be delivered in person."
It is a pity that this dainty little letter is for the most part
illegible.

V. POLITICAL CONDITIONS IN THE TELL EL AMARNA PERIOD.

However favourably the religious reform of King Napkhuria may be estimated
on its own merits, it by no means strengthened the authority of Egypt in
Asia. Of course it could have in no way been the cause of the state of
affairs in Syria and Canaan; perhaps Amenophis III., whatever his own
great slackness, simply inherited the confusion in this part of his
empire. The heaviest blows could not in the l