54. Pot of burnt clay ([Pl. LXXIV]. D) with two lines of hieratic text giving the beginning of a rough draft for a letter:—
‘Harmose to Ahhotep, Life, Wealth, Health, and the Favour of Amon-Re! Behold, I have not found ... I have permitted that something be brought to me.’
The break in the middle of the second line makes the meaning of the text impossible to interpret.
Regarding the date, it is to be noted that the script is typical of the late Hyksos period, or of the beginning of the XVIIIth Dynasty, and may be compared with that of the Papyrus Ebers.
26. Writing tablet of wood covered with stucco (Pls. LXXVII., LXXVIII.). The text on the obverse contains a letter, perhaps not an original document, but an exercise. This supposition is borne out by the fact that the text on the reverse of the tablet is written in a clumsy handwriting.
The beginning of the text can be restored by the help of an ostracon in the Berlin Museum (P. 12366); the lacunae at the beginning of lines 8-10 are, however, wanting. The text is, moreover, very faulty, so that the following translation, in which I was fortunate enough to have Prof. Erman’s help, is only given with reservations:—
‘(1) The servant speaks to his lord, [from whom he desires to receive life, prosperity, and health] throughout the length (2) of eternity, for ever, just as [this] servant[59] desires. Mayest thou be justified before (3) the Spirits[60] of Heliopolis and before the gods. [May they grant thee] all good [things] every day, (4) as I desire it, so that [all] thy affairs [under the protection] of Month, (5) the Lord of Thebes, may be as I desire; may Ptah, Lord of Memphis, rejoice his heart (that of the person addressed) with a very good life, (6) as well as a good old age, and that he may attain to a state of worthiness, so that his worthiness may come before Month, (7) Lord of Thebes, as I desire it, in peace, and great comfort. But this letter [(8) which thou hast written me, as far as that is concerned, give thyself] with regard to it, [no anxiety]. I shall be of thy mind. Mayest thou be gracious towards (?) NBT ... (9)......... this......, causing to send out ... (10)...... with myrrh of Punt and pleasing odours of God’s Land,[61] (11) clothed in the d’jw-garment, which (?) I make. The poor man, he sees (12)............ thou seest thy wife there ill[62] as she weeps (13) over thee. She weeps over thee. Thy fish of the night, thy bird of the (14) day.’
This unintelligible passage contains a play on words between rmj, ‘weeping’ (Coptic