Abdikheba. “Lo! Milki-El and Tagi have done as follows.... Thus, as the king liveth, hath Milki-El committed treachery against me. Send Yanhamu that he may see what is done in the king's land.”
Milki-El. “The king, my lord, shall know the deed done by Yanhamu after I had been dismissed by the king. Lo, he took three thousand talents from me and said to me, ‘Give me thy wife and thy sons that I may slay them.’ May my lord, the king, remember this deed and send us chariots to bring us away.”
Tagi. “Am I not a servant of the king? But my brother is full of wounds so that I can send no message by him to the king. Ask the rabisu (a title of Yanhamu) whether my brother is not full of wounds. But we turn our eyes to thee, to know whether we may rise to heaven or creep into the earth; our heads remain in thy hand. Behold, I shall try to make my way to the king by the hand of the surgeons.”
Milki-El. “I have received the king's message. Let him send the Pidati to protect his servant, and grains of myrrh gum for healing.”
As already pointed out, the blame for such occurrences belongs in the first place to the Egyptian system of government. How little the petty princes could expect, whether of good or evil, from their suzerain is shown by glaring examples. King Burnaburiash complained that [pg 048] a Babylonian trading company established by his ambassador in the Canaanite city of Khinaton had, immediately after the ambassador's departure, been attacked and utterly plundered. The principals were killed, and the rest—some of them mutilated—were sent into slavery. “Canaan is thy land; thou art king of it,” continues Burnaburiash. “It was in thy land that I suffered this injury; therefore restrain the doers of it. Replace the stolen gold, and slay the murderers of my subjects to avenge their blood.” Whether this was done was extremely doubtful, for part of the plunder had in all probability already sufficed to secure a safe retreat for the brigands, who, furthermore, were officials from some of whom letters have been found. The natural consequence was that the ambassadors themselves were attacked. Their caravan with gifts for Napkhuria was robbed twice in succession, and they themselves were held to ransom. The Egyptian Government nevertheless remained outrageously slack as ever, as we may see from the following safe conduct granted on behalf of the Canaanite miscreants: “To the princes in the land of Canaan, the vassals of my brother. Akiya, my messenger, I send to the King of Egypt my brother. Bring him safe and quickly to Egypt. Let no violence befall him.”
Prefects of Canaanite ports were naturally in [pg 049] most active communication with Egypt. On some of the shrewder minds among these men it had dawned that it pleased and amused the king to have immediate news of messages by sea and land from far and near communicated in their letters. Abi-milki of Tyre had carried this practice farthest, and he was also admirably skilful in lodging complaints by the way. We owe to this worthy one of the choicest pieces in the whole collection, the elegant pæan of a place-hunter of more than three thousand years ago. It will be noticed that some of his rhetorical expressions repeatedly recall those of the Hebrew Psalter in the same way as do phrases in the letter of Tagi already quoted. In fact, the Bible critic has much to learn from the tablets as a whole. After the formal beginning, Abi-milki launches out as follows:
“My lord the king is the Sun-God, rising each day over the earth according to the will of his gracious father, the heavenly Sun-God (Aten). His words give life and prosperity. To all lands his might giveth peace. Like the (Phœnician) god Ram-man, so he thunders down from heaven, and the earth trembles before him. Behold, thy servant writeth as soon as he has good news to send the king. And the fear of my lord, the king, fell upon the whole land till the messenger made known the good news from the king my lord. When I heard through him the command of the king to me, ‘Be at the disposal of my high officials,’ then thy servant [pg 050] answered his lord, ‘It is already done.’ On my breast and on my back write I down for myself the commands of the king. Verily, he who hearkeneth to the king his lord, and serveth him with love, the Sun-God riseth over him, and a good word from the mouth of his lord giveth him life. If he heed not the commands of his lord his city will fall, his house will perish, and his name will be known no more for ever in all lands. But he who followeth his lord as a faithful servant, his city is prosperous, his house is secure, and his name shall endure for ever.”
The letter continues for some time in the same strain, but at the end the courtier bethinks him of his office of informer, and adds hastily:
“Furthermore, Zimrida, the prefect of Sidon, sends a report every day to Aziru, Abd-Ashera's son. Every word that comes from Egypt he telleth to him. I, however, tell it to my lord, that it may serve thee, oh my lord!”
Two princes, Adad-nirari of Nukhashi and another whose name is now illegible, apparently take a higher rank than their neighbours. Nukhashi is often named in these tablets as well as in Egyptian inscriptions, and it must have been situated on the north-east slope of the Lebanon range. We have also letters from the towns of Biruta (Beyrout), Hashab, Hazi, Kumidi, Kadesh on the Orontes, Sidon, Akko, Rubiza, Megiddo, Hazor, Gezer, Gaza, Lachish, Shamhuna, Mushihuma, Dubu, and others, while there are many more so [pg 051] mutilated that their origin can no longer be determined.