ABSTRACT
THE king of the two Egypts, Ousirmilri-sotpounri, son of the Sun, Ramsisou-Miamoun, who, like the sun, gives life eternally-usually called Se sousri (Sesostris) by his subjects-is anxiously expecting the arrival of a courier from Syria. The last accounts received from that country were bad. The 1'oyal messengers who go there every year to collect the tribute complain of being insulted, even ill-treated, by the inhabitants of the great cities; bands of the Shasu," posted in the gorges of Lebanon, have recommenced robbing the caravans from Babylon and Kbaloupou;t the princes of Zahi and Amaourou are drilling their militia and hastily repairing the walls of their fortresses; lastly, Motour, the old king of the Khita, has mysteriously disappeared in some palace revolution, and his successor, Khitasir, seems little inclined to respect treaties. Pharaoh, more anxious than he cares to own, has therefore resolved
this very morning to go to the temple of Amen, in order to see the god and to consult with him. He wears a state costume suitable to the occasion: short drawers of pleated linen gauze, ornamented at the back by a jackal's tail, and in front by a kind of stiff apron of gold and coloured enamel, a long robe of fine linen with short sleeves, peaked sandals, a head· dress of white, striped with red, ornamented with the urmus (Fig. 27.) His equerry, Menni, waited for him in the
great court of the palace, ready to drive him as usual. Rameses dismisses him with a gesture, and seizing the reins with a firm hand, he springs into the chariot. The large folding gates of the palace are at once thrown open, and the king drives through them at a gallop, or, to use the correct expression, , shows himself under the gateway of lapis-lazuli like the sun when he rises in the morning in the eastern horizon of heaven to inundate the world with his rays.'
