CHAPTER XIII

THE HIERATIC TEXTS OF TOMB NO. 37

BY GEORGE MÖLLER

89. _Wooden stela of Ihŷ_ (Pl. LXXV). This tablet is composed of two boards held together by pegs or dowels, and covered with a fine coat of stucco, the surface of which has been polished to receive the writing. Upon it are the following representations:--Above, to the right, is drawn the sacred Barque of Sokaris; below, to the left, is figured the deceased with staff and sceptre, and before him, a boy offering a goose, a table with offerings, a lotus-flower, loaves of bread, joints of meat, &c. The legend is in the hieratic writing typical of the Hyksos period, and reads:--

‘Ihŷ comes in the boat of Sokaris; to him has been granted justification.[56] He is favoured of the Lord of the Shrine.[57] A _perkheru_-offering in bread and wild fowl to the veteran in the presence of Ptah, Ihŷ, justified.’

Below the figure of deceased is:--

‘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 [Illustration: Coptic script]), and _rm_, ‘fish’ (Coptic, Boh. [Illustration: Coptic script]): the last words have indeed passed into a proverb.

The reverse of the tablet was much written over, and in places it is obvious that there have been erasures. In two places were portions of repetitions of the text on the obverse (lines 11, 12), also a list of names in the same handwriting, showing that it was all the work of the same person, like the text on the reverse of 21.

The text is badly damaged, the most intelligible is the second line: ‘If the boy comes to the barrack if he be weeping....’ Evidently, from first to last, this text concerns a nurse. The reverse contains a list of four names which, as we have already mentioned, occur also in the text of No. 26, and in the same handwriting.