fire in the house of my Lord.  The shoulders of the great ones bent [before me].  I did not thrust myself in the train of the wicked, for which men are hated.  I was a lover of what was good, and a hater of what was evil.  My disposition was that of one beloved in the house of my Lord.  I carried out every course of action in accordance with the urgency that was in the heart of my Lord.  Moreover, in the matter of every affair which His Majesty caused me to follow out, if any official obstructed me in truth I overthrew his opposition.  I neither resisted his order, nor hesitated, but I carried it out in very truth.  In making any computation which he ordered, I made no mistake.  I did not set one thing in the place of another.  I did not increase the flame of his wrath in its strength.  I did not filch property from an inheritance.  Moreover, as concerning all that His Majesty commanded to set before him in respect of the royal household (or harim), I kept accounts of everything which His Majesty desired, and I gave them unto him, and I made satisfactory all their statements.  Because of the greatness of my knowledge nothing ever escaped me.

I made a mekha boat for my town, and a sehi boat, so that I might attend in the train of my Lord, and I was one of the number of the great ones on every occasion when travel or journeying had to be performed, and I was held in great esteem, and entreated most honourably.  I provided my own equipment from the possessions which His Majesty, the Horus Uahankh, the King of the South, the King of the North, the son of the Sun, Antef, who liveth like Ra for ever, gave unto me because of the greatness of his love for me, until he departed in peace to his horizon (i.e. the tomb).  And when his son, that is to say, the Horus Nekhtneb-Tepnefer, the King of the South, the King of the North, the son of Ra, Antef, the producer of beneficent acts, who liveth for ever like Ra, entered his house, I followed him as his body-companion into all his beautiful places that rejoiced [his] heart, and because of the greatness of my knowledge there was never anything wanting (?).  He committed to me and gave into my hand every duty that had been mine in the time of his father, and I performed it effectively under His Majesty; no matter connected with any duty escaped me.  I lived the [remainder] of my days on the earth near the King, and was the chief of his body-companions.  I was great and strong under His Majesty, and I performed everything which he decreed.  I was one who was pleasing to his Lord all day and every day.

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AAHMES (AMASIS),
THE NAVAL OFFICER

This inscription is cut in hieroglyphs on the walls of the tomb of Aahmes at Al-Kab in Upper Egypt; this distinguished marine flourished in the reigns of the first kings of the eighteenth dynasty, about 1600 B.C.  The text reads: 

The captain of the transport men, Aahmes, the son of Abana, the truth-speaker, saith:  O all men, I will declare unto you, and will inform you concerning the favours that were conferred upon me.  Seven times was I given gold in the sight of the whole land, and likewise slaves, both male and female, and grants of land for estates to be held by me in perpetuity were also made to me.  Thus the name of a man bold and brave in his deeds shall not be extinguished in this land for ever!  He saith: