[These proverbs were evidently set in a short story, calculated to point the moral that obedience to wise teaching leads to preferment. The introductory part has gone with the beginning of the document; but here at the end of the book there is a passage showing that they were composed by a wazir, _i. e._, by the chief administrative official of the kingdom. He read them to his children; one of whom, it seems, named Kagemni, afterwards succeeded to the wazirship. The following is the translation of this concluding text.] The wazir caused his children to be summoned when he had finished the conduct of men;[263] they rejoiced greatly at coming; therefore when he said to them:--"Verily, all things that are in writing on this roll, obey them as I say [them];[264] do not pass beyond what is commanded," they [the children] cast themselves upon their bellies and read them even as they were written; they were good within them[265] more than anything that is in the whole land; their uprising and their downsitting was according thereto. Then the majesty of King Huni moored his ship;[266] then was set up the majesty of King Sneferu as the good King in this whole land. Then Kagemni was appointed governor of the royal city, and wazir. _This is its arrival._[267] [Huni was the last king of the IIId Dynasty, Seneferu the founder of the IVth Dynasty, and Kagemni is a name found in some of the earliest inscribed tombs; but the language, at least of this last paragraph, betrays the style of the Middle Kingdom. The proverbs themselves may be much earlier. After a blank the second text begins.] THE INSTRUCTION OF PTAHHETEP [This is another collection of proverbs, in sixteen pages, and with the rubrics marked. Small fragments from a duplicate copy of this book of proverbs show considerable variation from the Prisse text, and prove the corruptness and uncertainty of the latter. It is however quite complete. We are able to give a list of the contents of the sections, most of which are very brief, and to append to the headings translations of a considerable proportion of the whole. Further study will doubtless throw light on much that is still obscure. General Title and Introduction: The wazir Ptahhetep addresses the King, and recounts the evils of old age.[268] Having received the command to take his son into his office of wazir, he desires to teach him the rules of conduct observed in the time when the gods reigned over Egypt. The King approves, and bids him commence his instruction.] _Instruction of the governor of the royal city, and wazir Ptahetep, before the majesty of King Assa, who liveth forever and ever_ The governor of the royal city, and wazir Ptahhetep, saith:--