his neighbour; I carried out work of every kind.  I counted everything that was due to the Palace in the South twice, and all the labour that was due to the Palace in the South I counted twice.  I served the office of Prince, ruling as a Prince ought to rule in the South; the like of this was never before done in the South.  I acted in such a way that His Majesty praised me for it.  His Majesty sent me to the Land of Abhat to bring back a sarcophagus, “the lord of the living one,” with its cover, and a beautiful and magnificent pyramidion for the Queen’s pyramid [which is called] Khanefer Merenra.  His Majesty sent me to Abu to bring back a granite door and its table for offerings, with slabs of granite for the stele door and its framework, and to bring back granite doors and tables for offerings for the upper room in the Queen’s pyramid, Khanefer Merenra.  I sailed down the Nile to the pyramid Khanefer Merenra with six lighters, and three barges, and three floats(?), accompanied by one war boat.  Never before had any [official] visited Abhat and Abu with [only] one war boat since kings have reigned.  Whensoever His Majesty gave an order for anything to be done I carried it out thoroughly according to the order which His Majesty gave concerning it.

“His Majesty sent me to Het-nub to bring back a great table for offerings of rutt stone (quartzite sandstone?) of Het-nub.  I made this table for offerings reach him in seventeen days.  It was quarried in Het-nub, and I caused it to float down the river in a lighter.  I cut out the planks for him in acacia wood, sixty cubits long and thirty cubits broad; they were put together in seventeen days in the third month (May-June) of the Summer Season.  Behold, though there was no water in the basins (?) it arrived at the pyramid Khanefer Merenra in peace.  I performed the work throughout in accordance with the order which the Majesty of my Lord had given to me.  His Majesty sent me to excavate five canals in the South, and to make three lighters, and four barges of the acacia wood of Uauat.  Behold, the governors of Arthet, Uauat, and Matcha brought the wood for them, and I finished the whole of the work in one year. [When] they were floated they were loaded with huge slabs of granite for the pyramid Khanefer Merenra; moreover, all of them were passed through these five canals ... because I ascribed more majesty, and praise (?), and worship to the Souls of the King of the South and North, Merenra, the ever living, than to any of the gods....  I carried out everything according to the order which his divine Ka gave me.

“I was a person who was beloved by his father, and praised by his mother, and gracious to his brethren, I the Duke, a real Governor[1] of the South, the vassal of Osiris, Una.”

[Footnote 1:  i.e. his title was not honorary.]

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF HERKHUF