Mar.4] SOCIETYOF BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGY. [1890.maybe a derived formsignifyingpraeputium: it must be distinguished
from ft ^j^ ^ (==i!). A curiously similarphrasein Saneha, 1. 190,
fukh-nk-baaut (I quote from Maspero's transcription, Melanges
d'arc/uologie,p. 157), has probably an entirely differentmeaning.
Thefirst half maynowbe translated, " He was ruler of his city as
a babe of his circumcision," i.e., a newly circumcised* infant.
b. Ay^. J "o is papilla, the nipple of the breast, "\, being here
a more specialdeterminative. Theonlypossiblerenderingseemsto
be, " as a child of his breast," meaning"a suckling."
Thetwo phrases are therefore :
a. " He ruled his city while he was yet an infant at the time of
its circumcision."
b. " He performed a royal mission (?), his plumes (of office ?)
wavingwhilehe was yet a babe at its mother's breast"
The precise meaning of apt sufen hasnot been discovered.
Thechildmayhavebeennominallypresidentof the court in some
royalenquiryundertakenat the command of the king.
Dominion in extreme infancy was attributed to kings, e.g.,
UsertesenI,f and subjects alsopridedthemselveson the early age at
whichtheycommencedfeudalruleor a distinguished career.
Cf. Siut III, 13, Tefaba's son \a \k,s&\°c==\
" ruledwhena cubit long,"i.e., as a new-born babe,f And Siut V, 2 1 ,* Cf. Hdt., II, 37 and 104, for the custom in Egypt.
+ " He has ruled fromthe egg," Saneha,1. 68, much as we say "a born
ruler."
\ The meaningof this phrase,differentlyinterpretedby Maspero, Rnttt
Critique, 18S9, p. 417, "en homme equitable,"is assured by the passage
I "ein Kindvoneiner Elle" in the Westcar Papyrus,
as quoted by Erman, Die Sprache des Pap. Westcar,p. 139 (for the context, see
Erman, Aegypten, p. 501) ; v& 1 is a word of the most indefinitemeaning.
Lastly,I learn, on the best medical authority,that 21 inches is the average length
of new-born infantsin England, so that the idiom of the Egyptians wasvery-
correct,especiallyas their babiesprobablymeasured a trifle lessthan those
of the tall northern peoples.
266