[Footnote 1:  He afterwards reigned as Amenemhat II.]

[Footnote 2:  Titles of Ameni repeated.]

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THETHA

This inscription is cut in hieroglyphs upon a large rectangular slab of limestone now preserved in the British Museum (No. 100).  It belongs to the period of the eleventh dynasty, when texts of the kind are very rare, and was made in the reign of Uahankh, or Antef.  It reads: 

Thetha, the servant in truth of the Horus Uahankh, the King of the South, the King of the North, the son of Ra, Antef, the doer of beneficent acts, living like Ra for ever, beloved by him from the bottom of his heart, holder of the chief place in the house of his lord, the great noble of his heart, who knoweth the matters of the heart of his lord, who attendeth him in all his goings, one in heart with His Majesty in very truth, the leader of the great men of the house of the king, the bearer of the royal seal in the seat of confidential affairs, keeping close the counsel of his lord more than the chiefs, who maketh to rejoice the Horus (i.e. the king) through what he wisheth, the favourite of his Lord, beloved by him as the mouth of the seal, the president of the place of confidential affairs, whom his lord loveth, the mouth of the seal, the chief after the king, the vassal, saith: 

I was the beloved one of his Lord, I was he with whom he was well pleased all day and every day.  I passed a long period of my life [that is] years, under the Majesty of my Lord, the Horus, Uahankh, the King of the South and North, the son of the Sun, Antef.  Behold, this country was subject unto him in the south as far as Thes, and in the north as far as Abtu of Then (Abydos of This).  Behold, I was in the position of body servant of his, and was an actual chief under him.  He magnified me, and he made my position to be one of great prominence, and he set me in the place beloved (?) for the affairs of his heart, in his palace.  Because of the singleness [of my heart] he appointed me to be a bearer of the royal seal, and the deputy of the registrary (?). [I] selected the good things of all kinds of the offerings brought to the Majesty of my Lord, from the South and from the North land whensoever a taxing was made, and I made him to rejoice at the assessment which was made everywhere throughout the country.  Now His Majesty had been afraid that the tribute, which was brought to His Majesty, my Lord, from the princes who were the overlords of the Red Country (Lower Egypt), would dwindle away in this country, and he had been afraid that the same would be the case in the other countries also.  He committed to me these matters, for he knew that my administration was able.  I rendered to him information about them, and because of my great knowledge of affairs never did anything escape that was not replaced.  I was one who lived in the heart of his Lord, in very truth, and I was a great noble after his own heart.  I was as cool water and