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 dealing with a much more dangerous proposition and diplomatically suggested that he ought to be glad and make a public record of this noteworthy transaction. "Why not have a tablet made," he says, and suggests the text of the inscription. "Then in future days," he says, "when a messenger comes from the land of Egypt ... and reads thy name upon the stela, thou shalt receive water in the West, like the gods." Here we have the roll register and the tablet or stela.

The papyrus and leather suggest the fact, obvious from other sources, that in Syria-Palestine the clay tablets of the Amarna period are already superseded by papyrus and leather.