A jackal swift of foot seeking what it may find.
the circuit of the land in one instant. . . . mighty will seneth on his enemies like a flame catching the ki-ki plant with the storm behind it, like the strong flame which bath tasted the fire, destroying, until every thing that is in it becometh ashes; a storm howling terribly on the sea, its waves like mountains, none can enter it, every one that is in it is engulphed in Duet.
Here and there among the hieroglyphic in scriptions are found memorials of the dead, in which the praises of the deceased are neatly strung together and balanced like beads in a necldace, and passages occur of picturesque nar rative worthy to rank as literature of the olden time. We may quote in this connection from the biographical epitaph of Ameny, who was governor of a province in middle Egypt for 25 years during the long reign of Usertesen I (about 2716 a.c.). This inscription not only recounts the achievements of Ameny and the royal favor which was shown him, but also tells us in detail of the capacity, goodness, charm, discretion and insight by which he attached to himself the love and respect of the whole court, and of the people over whom he ruled and for whose well-being he cared. Ameny says:— I was a professor of favor abounding in love, a ruler who loved his city. Moreover I passed years as ruler in the Oryx name. All the works of the house of the King came into my hand. Behold, the superintendent of the gangs of the domains of the herdsmen of the Oryx nome gave me 3,000 bulls of their draught stock. I was praised for it in the house of the King each year of stock-taking. I rendered all their works to the King's house• there were no arrears to me in any of his offices.
The entire Oryx nome served me in numerous attend ances. There was not the daughter of a poor man that I wronged, nor a widow that I oppressed. There was not a farmer that I chastised, not a herdsman whom I drove away. not a foreman of five whose men I took away for the works. There was not a pauper around me, there was not a hungry man of my time. When there came years of famine.
I arose and ploughed all the fields of the Oryx nome to its boundary south and north, giving life to its inhabitants, making its provisions. There was not a hungry man in it. I gave to the widow as to her that possessed a husband, and I favored not the elder above the younger in all that I gave. Thereafter great rises of the Nile took place, pro ducing wheat and barley, and producing all things abun dantly, but I did not exact the arrears of [arming.
Elsewhere in his tomb there are long lists of the virtues of Amenemhat, and from these the following may be selected both on account of picturesqueness of expression and the apprecia tion of fine character which they display:— Superintendent of all things which heaven gives and earth produces, overseer of horns, hoofs, feathers, and shells. . . . Master of the art of causing writing to speak. . . . Caressing of heart to all people, making to prosper the timid man, hospitable to all, escorting [travelers] up and down the river. . . . Knowing how to aid. arriving at time of need; free of planning evil, without greediness in his body, speaking words of truth. . . . Unique as a mighty hunter, the abode of the heart of the King. . • • speak ing the right when be judges between suitors, clear of speak. ing fraud, knowing how to proceed in the council of the elders, finding the knot in the skein. . . . Great of favors in the house of the King. contenting the heart on the day of making division, careful of his goings to his equals, gaining reverence on the day of weighing words, beloved of the officials of the palace.
The cursive forms of writing — hieratic from the earliest times, demotic in the latest were those in which records were committed to papyrus. This material has preserved to us documents of every kind, from letters and ledgers to works of religion and philosophy. To these, again, ((literature is a term rarely to be applied; yet the tales and poetry occasion ally met with on papyri are perhaps the most pleasing of all the productions of the Egyptian scribe.