20 ANNUAL ADDRESS—PROFESSOR SAYCE. 
planting (of the gardens), and have planted the trees... . 
I am the servant of the king my iord [whocomes] from 
executing the commands of the king my lord [and] the com- 
mands of Didu my father; (everything) do I observe until 
his return home . . . he has sent a soldier, and let me come 
unto thee.” 
It is clear from the letter that Didu, or David, occupied a 
high position in the court of the Pharaoh, and, like his son, 
appears to have been employed in laying out the gardens 
attached to the palace of the Egyptian king. It is even 
possible that he may have been a Hebrew; at all events, the 
name has never yet been found in a Phcenician inscription, 
while we know that it was borne by Israelites. Aziru, too, 
is probably the Biblical Hzer. 
Phoenicia seems to have been the furthest point to the 
north to which the direct government of Egypt extended. 
At any rate, the letters which came to the Egyptian monarch 
. from Syria and Mesopotamia were sent to him by princes 
who called themselves his “brothers,” and not by officials 
who were the “servants” of the king. Doubtless, many of 
these princes were but semi-independent, and in case of war 
were required to assist the Egyptian Government. One of 
those in most frequent correspondence with the Pharaoh was 
the King of Alasiya, a country which lay to the east of Arvad, 
in the district afterwards occupied by Homs and Hamath, 
though it also seems to have possessed a port on the sea- 
coast. The name of the country has been read ‘“‘Arosha” and 
“ Arsa”’ by Egyptologists; but the cuneiform texts now furnish 
us with its true pronunciation. A. very perfectly-preserved 
tablet at Boulaq, containing a letter from the King of Alasiya, 
has a docket attached to it in Egyptian hieratic characters, 
which reads: “ The correspondence of the prince of the country 
of Alasha.”’ The letter is as follows: ‘‘T'o the king of Mitsri 
(Egypt), my lord, I speak by letter, I, the king of the country 
of Alasiya, thy brother. Jam at peace, and unto thee may 
there be peace! ‘To thy house, thy daughters, thy son,* thy 
wives, thy multitudinous chariots, thy horses, and in thy land 
of Mitsri may there be peace! O my brother, my ambassador 
has carefully conveyed a costly gift for them, and has lis- 
tened to thy salutation. This man is my/minister, O my 
brother. Carefully has he conveyed to them the costly gift. 
My minister has not brought my ship along with them.” 
There is another letter in the Boulaq Museum which is clearly 
* Perhaps we may infer, from the mention of the Pharaoh’s son, that the 
letter was addressed to Amenophis III., and not to Amenophis IV. 
