Brugsch, Heinrich: Egypt under the pharaohs: a history derived entirely from the monuments (London, 1891)

290 INSCRIPTION AT KUBAN ch. xii.

As soon as they had been brought before the divine benefactor, they
lifted up their hands to praise his name with speeches in his honour,
and to pray before his beautiful countenance. And the king de-
scribed to them the condition of this land, in order to take (13) their
advice upon it, with the view of boring wells on the road. And
they spake before the king : ' Thou art like the sun. Everything
succeeds with thee. What thy heart desires, that comes to pass.
When thou conceivest a wish in the night, it is accomplished as
soon as the earth becomes light (again). We have hastened to thee
to do what there is to do, for (14) great is the number of thy
astonishing works, since thou hast appeared as king in the country.
We heard nothing, we saw nothing, and yet what is there, it was
done just as it is. All the sayings of thy mouth are like the words
of Horemkhu. Thy tongue is a balance ; thy lips are a standard
measure (15) according to the just scales of the god Tehuti. Where
is that hidden which thou didst not know ? Where is the wise man
who might be like thee 1 There is no place found, which thou hast
not seen ; there is no land which thou hast not trodden. Every-
thing excellent found an entrance into thy ears since (16) thou wast
an Adon of this land. Thou didst act with wisdom when thou didst
still sit in the egg. In thy time of childhood that happened which
thou saidst, for the welfare of the land. When thou grewest up to
boyhood with the lock of hair of youth, no memorial saw the light
without thy command. (17) No business was carried out without
thy knowledge. Thou wast raised to be an overseer (Rohir) of this
land, when thou wast a youth and didst count ten full years. All
buildings went forward under thy hand, and the laying of their
foundation stones was carried out. When thou spakest to the
water : Come upon the mountain, then appeared the rain (18)
immediately at thy command. Thou art like the Sun-god. As the
body of the Creator, so is that which he begets. Truly thou art the
living likeness of Ra, the heir of thy father Tmu of Heliopolis.
Taste is on thy tongue, feeling is in thy heart. The place of thy
tongue is the shrine of truth. The divinity sits on thy lips, and all
thy words will be performed for ever. (19) What thy understand-
ing has done is like the works of Ptah, the fashioner of the works of
art. Thou art ever he whose intentions are all carried out, whose
words are all fulfilled, thou our great lord and ruler ! As regards
the land of Akita, may a decision be made according to the counsel
taken concerning it.'

Then spake the king's son of the miserable land of Cush, (20)
saying thus before the king : ' (The land) is in this state. It is
accursed for want of water since the time of Ra. People die of
thirst in it. All former kings wished to bore wells in it, but they