cipher the
Chaldaean character. Dictionaries and easy mythological texts had been
procured for their instruction, by means of which they had learned the
meaning of words and the construction of sentences. Having once mastered
the mechanism of the syllabary, they set to work to translate the
despatches, marking on the back of each the date and the place from
whence it came, and if necessary making a draft of the reply.** In these
the Pharaoh does not appear, as a rule, to have insisted on the endless
titles which we find so lavishly used in his inscriptions, but the
shortened protocol employed shows that the theory of his divinity was
as fully acknowledged by strangers as it was by his own subjects. They
greet him as their sun, the god before whom they prostrate themselves
seven times seven, while they are his slaves, his dogs, and the dust
beneath his feet.***

* A discovery made by the fellahin, in 1887, at Tel el-
Arnarna, in the rums of the palace of Khuniaton, brought to
light a portion of the correspondence between Asiatic
monarchs, whether vassals or independent of Egypt, with the
officers of Amenothes III. and IV., and with these Pharaohs
themselves.

** Several of these registrations are still to be read on
the backs of the tablets at Berlin, London, and Gizeh.

***The protocols of the letters of Abdashirti may be taken
as an example, or those of Abimilki to Pharaoh, sometimes
there is a development of the protocol which assumes
panegyrical features similar to those met with in Egypt.

The runners to whom these documents were entrusted, and who delivered
them with their own hand, were not, as a rule, persons of any
consideration; but for missions of grave importance "the king's
messengers" were employed, whose functions in time became extended to
a remarkable degree. Those who were restricted to a limited sphere
of activity were called "the king's messengers for the regions of
the south," or "the king's messengers for the regions of the north,"
according to their proficiency in the idiom and customs of Africa or of
Asia. Others were deemed capable of undertaking missions wherever they
might be required, and were, therefore, designated by the bold title of
"the king's messengers for all lands." In this case extended powers were
conferred upon them, and they were permitted to cut short the disputes
between two cities in some province they had to insp