A new study of the probably fictive letter preserved on limestone tablet Cairo 38258 shows that the indigenous rebel pharaohs did 'Egyptianize' their chancellery by appointing their allies in high positions. A court title such as 'pharaoh's letter scribe', otherwise only appearing in Demotic literary texts, thus reappears in a documentary context. The chronological problems of the revolt, for which this document has hitherto almost exclusively been used, are also addressed.