‘(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. [Illustration: hieroglyph] ‘Three people were concerned-- [Illustration: hieroglyph] Amenemheb, [Illustration: hieroglyph] Amen-em-ene, [Illustration: hieroglyph] Amon-neb, [Illustration: hieroglyph][63]........ (a woman), [Illustration: hieroglyph]....... (a woman), [Illustration: hieroglyph] [Amen]-nekht (a man), [Illustration: hieroglyph] Beki (a man).’ 21. Small writing tablet of wood covered with stucco (Pl. LXXVI. 1 and 2). At the left side of the obverse is a hole for a string. The reverse is mended with a piece of bark. Obverse:--[Illustration: hieroglyph][64] 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. [Illustration: hieroglyph] Amenemheb, [Illustration: hieroglyph] Amen-nekht, [Illustration: hieroglyph] Amen-em-ene, [Illustration: hieroglyph] Amen-neb. CHAPTER XIV VEGETABLE REMAINS FOUND IN THE EXCAVATIONS (PL. LXXIX)