[Illustration: 260.jpg STATUE OF MÎNEPHTAH]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Dévéria.
He is very strong, Binrî Mînephtah, sang the court poets, very wise are his projects--his words have as beneficial effect as those of Thot--everything which he does is completed to the end.--When he is like a guide at the head of his armies--his voice penetrates the fortress walls.--Very friendly to those who bow their backs--before Mîamun--his valiant soldiers spare him who humbles himself--before his courage and before his strength;--they fall upon the Libyans--they consume the Syrian;--the Shardana whom thou hast brought back by thy sword--make prisoners of their own tribes.--Very happy thy return to Thebes--victorious! Thy chariot is drawn by hand--the conquered chiefs march backwards before thee--whilst thou leadest them to thy venerable father--Amon, husband of his mother. And the poets amuse themselves with summoning Mâraîû to appear in Egypt, pursued as he was by his own people and obliged to hide himself from them. He is nothing any longer but a beaten man, and has become a proverb among the Labû, and his chiefs repeat to themselves: Nothing of the kind has occurred since the time of Râ. The old men say each one to his children: Misfortune to the Labû! it is all over with them! No one can any longer pass peacefully across the country; but the power of going out of our land has been taken from us in a single day, and the Tihonu have been withered up in a single year; Sûtkhû has ceased to be their chief, and he devastates their duars; there is nothing left but to conceal ones self, and one feels nowhere secure except in a fortress. The news of the victory was carried throughout Asia, and served to discourage the tendencies to revolt which were beginning to make themselves manifest there. The chiefs gave there their salutations of peace, and none among the nomads raised his head after the crushing defeat of the Libyans; Khâti is at peace, Canaan is a prisoner as far as the disaffected are concerned, the inhabitant of Ascalon is led away, Gezer is carried into captivity, Ianuâmîm is brought to nothing, the Israîlû are destroyed and have no longer seed, Kharu is like a widow of the land of Egypt.