REMARKS 139
We learn incidentally that the Egyptian frontier, even in the later years of Usertesen I., had not been pushed beyond the Wady Tumilat; for Sanehat travels south to the Roads of Horus, where he finds the frontier garrison, and leaves his Syrian friends; and there laden boats meet him, showing that it must have been somewhere along a waterway from the Nile. The abasement of Sanehat might well be due to natural causes, beside the reverence for the divine person of the king. The Egyptian court must have seemed oppressively splendid, with the brilliant and costly workmanship of Usertesen, to one who had lived a half-wild life for so many years; and, more than that, the recalling of all his early days and habits and friendships would overwhelm his mind and make it difficult to collect his thoughts. Sanehat's appearance was so much changed by his long hair, his age, and his strange dress, that his former mistress and com-
140 THE ADVENTURES OF SANEHAT
panions could not recognise him. The use of collars and sceptres in the song and dance is not clear to us. The sistra were, of course, to beat or rattle in time with the song; the sceptres or wands were perhaps the same as the engraved wands of ivory common in the XIIth Dynasty, or of blue glazed ware in XVIIIth, and would be used to wave or beat time with; but the use of the collar and counterpoise, or menat, is unexplained, though figures of dancers are shown holding a collar and menat, and such objects were found buried in the ceremonial foundation deposit of Tahutmes III. at Koptos. This song of the princesses is clearly in parallel phrases. First are four wishes for the king and queen, in four lines. Second, an ascription of wisdom and power, in two lines. Third, a comparison of the king to Ra, and of the queen to the great goddess, in two lines. Fourth, an ascription of righting power. Fifth, a petition for Sanehat, winding up with the statement of fear inspired by