The funeral that is promised accords with the burials of the XIIth
Dynasty: the gilded case, the head painted blue, and the canopy of
cypress wood, are all known of this period, but would be out of place in
describing a Ramesside burial.
Sanehat's reply is a full course of the usual religious adulation, and
differs in this remarkably from his petition. In fact it is hard to
be certain where his petition begins; possibly the opening of it has
been lost out of the text in copying from a mutilated papyrus; or
possibly it was sent merely as a memorandum of Sanehat's position and
desires, without venturing to address it personally to the king; or
even it may have not been allowable then to make such petitions
formally, so as to leave the initiative to the king's free will, just
as it is not allowable nowadays to question royalty, but only to
answer when spoken to.
The proposal to bring forward his fellow-sheikhs as witnesses of his
unabated loyalty is very curious, and seems superfluous after
Usertesen's assurances. Beyond Abisha of the Amu at Beni Hasan, these
are the only early personal names of Syrians that we know. The Fenkhu in
this connection can hardly be other than the Phoenicians; and, if so,
this points to their being already established in southern Syria at
this date. But these chiefs were not allowed to come forward; and it
seems to have been the policy of Egypt to keep the Syrians off as much
as possible, not a single man who came with Sanehat being allowed to
cross the frontier.
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