n he
would have been obliged to supply the wood without remuneration. "I am,"
he proudly declared, "neither your servant nor the servant of him who
sent you here. If I cry out to the Lebanon the heavens open and the logs
lie here on the shore of the sea." He went on to say that if, of his
condescension, he now procured the timber Wenamon would have to provide
the ships and all the tackle. "If I make the sails of the ships for
you," said the prince, "they may be top-heavy and may break, and you
will perish in the sea when Amon thunders in heaven; for skilled
workmanship comes only from Egypt to reach my place of abode." This
seems to have upset the composure of Wenamon to some extent, and the
prince took advantage of his uneasiness to say, "Anyway, what is this
miserable expedition that they have had you make (without money or
equipment)?"

At this Wenamon appears to have lost his temper. "O guilty one!" he said
to the prince, "this is no miserable expedition on which I am engaged.
There is no ship upon the Nile which Amon does not own, and his is the
sea, and his this Lebanon of which you say, 'It is mine.' Its forests
grow for the barge of Amon, the lord of every ship. Why Amon-Ra himself,
the king of the gods, said to Herhor, my lord, 'Send me'; and Herhor
made me go bearing the statue of this great god. Yet see, you have
allowed this great god to wait twenty-nine days after he had arrived in
your harbour, although you certainly knew he was there. He is indeed
still what he once was: yes, now while you stand bargaining for the
Lebanon with Amon its lord. As for Amon-Ra, the king of the gods, he is
the lord of life and health, and he was the lord of your fathers, who
spent their lifetime offering to him. You also, you are the servant of
Amon. If you will say to Amon, 'I will do this,' and you execute his
command, you shall live and be prosperous and be healthy, and you shall
be popular with your whole country and people. Wish not for yourself a
thing belonging to Amon-Ra, king of the gods. Truly the lion loves his
own! Let my secretary be brought to me that I may send him to
Nesubanebded, and he will send you all that I shall ask him to send,
after which, when I return to the south, I will send you all, all your
trifles again."

"So spake I to him," says Wenamon in his report, as with a flourish of
his pen he brings this fine speech to an end. No doubt it would have
been more truthful in him to say, "So would I have