BIBLICAL LIBRARIES
to claim cedar as tribute due but Zakar Baal, "Had the Journal (roll) of his fathers brought" in and read to Wenamon. This proved that the previous senclings had been paid for heavily by the then Kings of Egypt. The result was that Wenamon had to go back to Egypt, taking only seven logs as a sort of sample, and return with means of payment which included among other things, "five hundred rolls of papyrus and five hundred oxhides" (probably leather rolls). Then 300 men and 300 oxen were put on the work and when the last of the cut timber was ready, Zakar-Baal notified Wenamon, at the same time mentioning that the last preceding messengers from Egypt had been kept seventeen years. "They died in their place" he added and then "He said to his butler, Take him and let him see their tomb, wherein they sleep." Wenamon politely declined this grim suggestion, hinted that Zakar-Baal is now
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