[Illustration: 032b.jpg PAINTED TABLETS IN THE HALL OF HARPS]
Wood for building or for ornamental work--pine,cypress, yew, cedar, and oak,* musical instruments,** helmets, leathern jerkins covered with metal scales, weapons of bronze and iron,*** chariots,**** dyed and embroidered stuffs,^ perfumes,^^ dried cakes, oil, wines of Kharû, liqueurs from Alasia, Khâti, Singar, Naharaim, Amurru, and beer from Qodi.^^^
* Building and ornamental woods are often mentioned in the inscriptions of Thûtmosis III. A scene at Karnak represents Seti I. causing building-wood to be cut in the region of the Lebanon. A letter of the King of Alasia speaks of contributions of wood which several of his subjects had to make to the King of Egypt.
** Some stringed instruments of music, and two or three kinds of flutes and flageolets, are designated in Egyptian by names borrowed from some Semitic tongue--a fact which proves that they were imported; the wooden framework of the harp, decorated with sculptured heads of Astartô, figures among the objects coming from Syria in the temple of the Theban Anion.
*** Several names of arms borrowed from some Semitic dialect have been noticed in the texts of this period. The objects as well as the words must have been imported into Egypt, e.g. the quiver, the sword and javelins used by the charioteers. Cuirasses and leathern jerkins are mentioned in the inscriptions of Thûtmosis III.
**** Chariots plated with gold and silver figure frequently among the spoils of Thûtmosis III.: the Anastasi Papyrus, No. 1, contains a detailed description of Syrian chariots-- Markabûti--with a reference to the localities whore certain parts of them were made;--the country of the Amurru, that of Aûpa, the town of Pahira. The Tel el-Amarna correspondence mentions very frequently chariots sent to the Pharaoh by the King of Babylon, either as presents or to be sold in Egypt; others sent by the King of Alasia and by the King of Mitanni.
^ Some linen, cotton, or woollen stuffs are mentioned in the _Anastasi Papyrus_, No. 4, and elsewhere as coming from Syria. The Egyptian love of white linen always prevented their estimating highly the coloured and brocaded stuffs of Asia; and one sees nowhere, in the representations, any examples of stuffs of such origin, except on furniture or in ships equipped with something of the kind in the form of sails.