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THE QUEEN'S TRIAL
(p. 65)
TRANSLATED FROM THE
PAPYRI
SECOND
SERIES
XVIIIth TO XIXth
DYNASTY
EDITED BY
HON. D.C.L., LL.D.
EDWARDS PROFESSOR OF
EGYPTOLOGY, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON
ILLUSTRATED BY TRISTRAM
ELLIS
SECOND
EDITION
First Published .
. . September 1895 Second Edition . . . February
1913
PREFACE
AS the scope of the
first series of these Tales seems to have been somewhat
overlooked, a few words of introduction may not be out of place
before this second volume.
It seems that any
simple form of fiction is supposed to be a "fairy tale:" which
implies that it has to do with an impossible world of imaginary
beings. Now the Egyptian Tales are exactly the opposite of this,
they relate the doings and the thoughts of men and women who are
human--sometimes "very human," as Mr. Balfour said. Whatever
there is of supernatural elements is a very part of the beliefs
and motives of the
VI
people whose lives
are here pictured. But most of what is here might happen in some
corner of our own country to-day, where ancient beliefs may have
a home. So far, then, from being fairy tales there is not a
single being that could be termed a fairy in the whole of
them.
Another notion that
seems to be about is that the only possible object of reading any
form of fiction is for pure amusement, to fill an idle hour and
be forgotten and if these tales are not as amusing as some jester
of to-day, then the idler says, Away with them as a failure! For
such a person, who only looks to have the tedium of a vacuous
mind relieved, these tales are not in the least intended. But the
real and genuine charm of all fiction is that of enabling the
reader to place himself in the mental position of, another, to
see with the eyes, to feel with the thoughts, to reason with the
mind, of a wholly different being. All the greatest work has this
charm. It may be to place the reader
PREFACE vii
in new mental
positions, or in a different level of the society that he already
knows, either higher or lower; or it may be to make alive to him
a society of a different land or age. Whether he read "Treasure
Island" or "Plain Tales from the Hills," "The Scarlet Letter,"
"Old Mortality," or "Hypatia," it is the transplanting of the
reader into a new life, the doubling of his mental experience,
that is the very power of fiction. The same interest attaches to
these tales. In place of regarding Egyptians only as the builders
of pyramids and the makers of mummies, we here see the men and
women as they lived, their passions, their foibles, their
beliefs, and their follies. The old refugee Sanehat craving to be
buried with his ancestors in the blessed land, the enterprise and
success of the Doomed Prince, the sweetness of Bata, the
misfortunes of Ahura, these all live before us, and we can for a
brief half hour share the feelings and see with the eyes of those
who ruled the world when it was young. This is the
real
via
PREFACE
value of these
tales, and the power which still belongs to the oldest literature
in the world.
Erratum in First
Edition, 1st Series. Page 31, line 6 from below, for no It
read not I.
PAGE
THE TAKING OF JOPPA
. . . 1
REMARKS .... 7
THE DOOMED PRINCE . . 13
REMARKS . . . .28
ANPU AND BATA . . . 36
REMARKS . . . -65
SETNA AND THE MAGIC BOOK . . 87
REMARKS . . . .119
INDEX ..... 143
PAGE
THE QUEEN'S TRIAL .
. . Frontispiece
SMITING THE FOE . .
. . 4
THE TWO HUNDRED
SACKS . . -5
THE PRINCE'S HOUSE .
. . 14
GOING INTO THE
DESERT . . 16
THE CLIMBING SUITORS
. . 17
REACHING THE WINDOW
. . .21
LOVE'S RESCUE . . .
. 23
THE BOWL OF MILK . .
. .26
THE RETURN AT EVEN .
. '37
GOING TO THE FIELDS
. . 39
WAITING FOR CORN . .
. .40
THE DARK RETURN . .
. -43
THE AMBUSH. . . .
44
THE CANAL OF RA . .
. 47
XII
LIST OF
ILLUSTRATIONS
THE HOUSE IN THE
VALLEY . . . 50
THE PROPHECY . . .
-51
THE RAVISHING SEA .
. . -53
THE CHIEF FULLER OF
PHARAOH . . 54
THE REUNION . . . .
58
ANPU ON THE BULL . .
. -59
BATA'S PERSEA TREES
. . .62
AHURA'S APPEAL . . .
.88
READING THE
INSCRIPTIONS . . . 92
SENDING THE SILVER .
. -94
THE PRIESTS' WIVES .
. . -97
SLAYING THE SNAKE .
. -99
READING THE SPELL. .
. . 104
REMORSE .....
105
SETNA DEMANDING THE
ROLL . . 108
SETNA VANQUISHED . .
. . 109
APPLYING THE
TALISMAN . . . 110
SETNA VICTORIOUS . .
. .111
SETNA READING THE
ROLL . . .113
XVIIITH DYNASTY
THE TAKING OF JOPPA
THERE was once in
the time of King Men-kheper-ra a revolt of the servants of his
majesty who were in Joppa; and his majesty said, "Let Tahutia go
with his footmen and destroy this wicked Foe in Joppa." And he
called one of his followers, and said moreover, "Hide thou my
great cane, which works wonders, in the baggage of Tahutia that
my power may go with him."
Now when Tahutia
came near to Joppa, with all the footmen of Pharaoh, he sent unto
the Foe in Joppa, and said, "Be
2 THE TAKING OF
JOPPA
hold now his
majesty, King Men-kheper-ra, has sent all this great army against
thee; but what is that if my heart is as thy heart? Do thou come,
and let us talk in the field, and see each other face to face."
So Tahutia came with certain of his men; and the Foe in Joppa
came likewise, but his charioteer that was with him was true of
heart unto the king of Egypt. And they spoke with one another in
his great tent, which Tahutia had placed far off from the
soldiers. But Tahutia had made ready two hundred sacks, with
cords and fetters, and had made a great sack of skins with bronze
fetters, and many baskets: and they were in his tent, the sacks
and the baskets, and he had placed them as the forage for the
horses is put in baskets. For whilst the Foe in Joppa drank with
Tahutia, the people who were with him drank with the footmen of
Pharaoh, and made merry with them. And when their bout of
drinking was past, Tahutia said to the Foe in Joppa, "If it
please thee, while
THE TAKING OF JOPFA
3
I remain with the
women and children of thy own city, let one bring of my people
with their horses, that they may give them provender, or let one
of the Apuro run to fetch them." So they came, and hobbled their
horses, and gave them provender, and one found the great cane of
Men-kheper-ra (Tahutmes III.), and came to tell of it to Tahutia.
And thereupon the Foe in Joppa said to Tahutia, "My heart is set
on examining the great cane of Men-kheper-ra, which is named '. .
. tautnefer.' By the ka of the King Men-kheper-ra it will
be in thy hands to-day; now do thou well and bring thou it to
me." And Tahutia did thus, and he brought the cane of King
Men-kheper-ra. And he laid hold on the Foe in Joppa by his
garment, and he arose and stood up, and said, "Look on me, O Foe
in Joppa; here is the great cane of King Men-kheper-ra, the
terrible lion, the son of Sekhet, to whom Amen his father gives
power and strength." And he raised his hand and struck the
fore-
4 THE TAKING OF
JOPPA
head of the Foe in
Joppa, and he fell helpless before him. He put him in the sack of
skins and he bound with gyves the hands of the Foe in Joppa, and
put on his feet the fetters
SMITING THE
FOE
with four rings. And
he made them bring the two hundred sacks which he had cleaned,
and made to enter into them two hundred soldiers, and filled the
hollows with cords and fetters of wood, he sealed them with a
seal,
THE TAKING OF JOPPA
5
and added to them
their rope-nets and the poles to bear them. And he put every
strong footman to bear them, in all six hundred men, and said to
them, "When you come
into the town you
shall open your burdens, you shall seize on all the inhabitants
of the town, and you shall quickly put fetters upon
them,"
6 THE TAKING OF
JOPPA
Then one went out
and said unto the charioteer of the Foe in Joppa, "Thy master is
fallen; go, say to thy mistress, 'A pleasant message! For Sutekh
has given Tahutia to us, with his wife and his children; behold
the beginning of their tribute,' that she may comprehend the two
hundred sacks, which are full of men and cords and fetters." So
he went before them to please the heart of his mistress, saying,
"We have laid hands on Tahutia." Then the gates of the city were
opened before the footmen: they entered the city, they opened
their burdens, they laid hands on them of the city, both small
and great, they put on them the cords and fetters quickly; the
power of Pharaoh seized upon that city. After he had rested
Tahutia sent a message to Egypt to the King Men-kheper-ra his
lord, saying, "Be pleased, for Amen thy good father has given to
thee the Foe in Joppa, together with all his people, likewise
also his city. Send, therefore, people to take them as captives
that thou mayest fill
REMARKS 7
the house of thy
father Amen Ra, king of the gods, with men-servants and
maid-servants, and that they may be overthrown beneath thy feet
for ever and ever."
REMARKS
This tale of the
taking of Joppa appears to be probably on an historical basis.
Tahutia was a well-known officer of Tahutmes III.; and the
splendid embossed dish of weighty gold which the king presented
to him is one of the principal treasures of the Louvre museum. It
is ornamented with groups of fish in the flat bottom, and a long
inscription around the side.
Unfortunately the
earlier part of this tale has been lost; but in order to render
it intelligible I have restored an opening to it, without
introducing any details but what are alluded to, or necessitated,
by the existing story. The original text begins at the
star.
It is evident that
the basis of the tale is
8 THE TAKING OF
JOPPA
the stratagem of the
Egyptian general, offering to make friends with the rebel of
Joppa, while he sought to trap him. To a Western soldier such an
unblushing offer of being treacherous to his master the king
would be enough to make the good faith of his proposals to the
enemy very doubtful. But in the East offers of wholesale
desertion are not rare. In Greek history it was quite an open
question whether Athens or Persia would retain a general's
service; in Byzantine history a commander might be in favour with
the Khalif one year and with the Autokrator the next; and in the
present century the entire transfer of the Turkish fleet to
Mohammed Ali in 1840 is a grand instance of such a
case.
The scheme of taking
a fortress by means of smuggling in soldiers hidden in packages
has often recurred in history; but this taking of Joppa is the
oldest tale of the kind yet known. Following this we have the
wooden horse of Troy. Then comes in mediaeval
REMARKS 9
times the Arab
scheme for taking Edessa, in 1038 A.D., by a train of five
hundred camels bearing presents for the Autokrator at
Constantinople. The governor of Edessa declined to admit such
travellers, and a bystander, hearing some talking in the baskets
slung on the camels, soon gave the alarm, which led to the
destruction of the whole party; the chief alone, less hands,
ears, and nose, being left to take the tale back to Bagdad. And
in fiction there are the stories of a lady avenging her husband
by introducing men hidden in skins, and the best known version of
all in the "Arabian Nights," of Ali Baba and the
thieves.
It appears from the
tale that the conference of Tahutia with the rebel took place
between the town and the Egyptian army, but near the town. Then
Tahutia proposes to go into the town as a pledge of his
sincerity, while the men of the town were to supply his troops
with fodder. But he appears to have remained talking with
the
10 THE TAKING OF
JOPPA
rebel in the tent,
until the lucky chance of the stick turned up. This cleared the
way for a neater management of his plan, by enabling him to
quietly make away with the chief, without exciting his suspicions
beforehand.
The name of the cane
of the king is partly illegible; but we know how many actual
sticks and personal objects have their own names inscribed on
them. Nothing had a real entity to the Egyptian mind without an
individual name belonging to it.
The message sent by
the charioteer presupposes that he was in the secret; and he must
therefore have been an Egyptian who had not heartily joined in
the rebellion. From the conclusion we see that the captives taken
as slaves to Egypt were by no means only prisoners of war, but
were the ordinary civil inhabitants of the conquered cities,
"them of the city, both small and great."
The gold dish which
the king gave to the tomb of Tahuti is so splendid that it
deserves some notice, especially as it has
REMARKS
ii
never been published
in England. It is circular, about seven inches across, with
vertical sides an inch high. The inside of the bottom bears a
boss and rosette in the centre, a line of swimming fish around
that, and beyond all a chain of lotus flowers. On the upright
edge is an incised inscription, "Given in praise by the king of
Upper and Lower Egypt, Ra-men-kheper, to the hereditary
chief, the divine father, the beloved by God, filling the heart
of the king in all foreign lands and in the isles in the midst of
the great sea, filling stores with lazuli, electrum, and gold,
keeper of all foreign lands, keeper of the troops, praised by the
good gold lord of both lands and his ka,--the royal scribe
Tahuti deceased." This splendid piece of gold work was therefore
given in honour of Tahuti at his funeral, to be placed in his
tomb for the use of his ka. The weight of it is very
nearly a troy pound, being 5,729 grains or four utens. The
allusion on it to the Mediter-
12 THE TAKING OF
JOPPA
ranean wars of
Tahuti, "satisfying the king in all foreign lands and in the
isles in the midst of the great sea," is just in accord with this
tale of the conquest of Joppa.
Beside this golden
bowl there are many other objects from Tahuti's tomb which must
have been very rich, and have escaped plundering until this
century. A silver dish, broken, and a canopic jar of alabaster,
are in Paris; another canopic jar, a palette, a kohl vase, and a
heart scarab set in gold, are in Leyden; while in Darmstadt is
the dagger of this great general. This piece of a popular tale
founded on an incident of his Syrian wars has curiously survived,
while the more solid official records of his conquests has
perished in the wreck of history. His tomb even is unknown,
although it has been plundered; perhaps his active life of
foreign service did not give him that leisure to carve and
decorate it, which was so laboriously spent by the home-living
dignitaries of Thebes,
CLOSE OF THE XVIIIth
DYNASTY
THE DOOMED
PRINCE
THERE once was a
king to whom no son was born; and his heart was grieved, and he
prayed for himself unto the gods around him for a child. They
decreed that one should be born to him. And his wife, after her
time was fulfilled, brought forth a son. Then came the Hathors to
decree for him a destiny; they said, "His death is to be by the
crocodile, or by the serpent, or by the dog." Then the people who
stood by heard this, and they went to tell it to his majesty.
Then his majesty's heart sickened
14 THE DOOMED
PRINCE
very greatly. And
his majesty caused a house to be built upon the desert; it was
furnished with people and with all good things of the royal
house, that the child
THE PRINCE'S
HOUSE
should not go
abroad. And when the child was grown, he went up upon the roof,
and he saw a dog; it was following a man who was walking on the
road. He spoke to his
THE DOOMED PRINCE
15
page, who was with
him, "What is this that walks behind the man who is coming along
the road?" He answered him, "This is a dog." The child said to
him, "Let there be brought to me one like it." The page went to
repeat it to his majesty. And his majesty said, "Let there be
brought to him a little pet dog, lest his heart be sad." And
behold they brought to him the dog.
Then when the days
increased after this, and when the child became grown in all his
limbs, he sent a message to his father saying, "Come, wherefore
am I kept here? Inasmuch as I am fated to three evil fates, let
me follow my desire. Let God do what is in His heart." They
agreed to all he said, and gave him all sorts of arms, and also
his dog to follow him, and they took him to the east country, and
said to him, "Behold, go thou whither thou wilt." His dog was
with him, and he went northward, following his heart in the
desert, while he
i6
THE DOOMED
PRINCE
lived on all the
best of the game of the desert. He went to the chief of
Naha-raina.
And behold there had
not been any born
GOING INTO THE
DESERT
to the chief of
Naharaina, except one daughter. Behold, there had been built for
her a house; its seventy windows were seventy cubits from the
ground. And the chief caused to be brought all the
sons
THE CLIMBING
SUITORS
THE DOOMED PRINCE
19
of the chiefs of
the land of Khalu, and said to them, "He who reaches the window
of my daughter, she shall be to him for a wife."
And many days after
these things, as they were in their daily task, the youth rode by
the place where they were. They took the youth to their house,
they bathed him, they gave provender to his horses, they brought
all kinds of things for the youth, they perfumed him, they
anointed his feet, they gave him portions of their own food; and
they spake to him, "Whence comest thou, goodly youth?" He said to
them, "I am son of an officer of the land of Egypt; my mother is
dead, and my father has taken another wife. And when she bore
children, she grew to hate me, and I have come as a fugitive from
before her." And they embraced him, and kissed him.
And after many days
were passed, he said to the youths, "What is it that ye do here?"
And they said to him, "We spend our time
20 THE DOOMED
PRINCE
in this: we climb
up, and he who shall reach the window of the daughter of the
chief of Naharaina, to him will he given her to wife." He said to
them, "If it please you, let me behold the matter, that I may
come to climb with you." They went to climb, as was their daily
wont: and the youth stood afar off to behold; and the face of the
daughter of the chief of Naharaina was turned to them. And
another day the sons came to climb, and the youth came to climb
with the sons of the chiefs. He climbed, and he reached the
window of the daughter of the chief of Naharaina. She kissed him,
she embraced him in all his limbs.
And one went to
rejoice the heart of her father, and said to him, "One of the
people has reached the window of thy daughter." And the prince
inquired of the messenger, saying, "The son of which of the
princes is it?" And he replied to him, "It is the son of an
officer, who has come as a fugitive from the land of Egypt,
fleeing from before his
REACHING THE
WINDOW
THE DOOMED PRINCE
23
stepmother when she
had children." Then the chief of Naharaina was exceeding angry;
and he said, "Shall I indeed give my daughter to the Egyptian
fugitive? Let him go back
LOVE'S
RESCUE
whence he came." And
one came to tell the youth, "Go back to the place thou earnest
from." But the maiden seized his hand; she swore an oath by God,
saying, "By the
24 THE DOOMED
PRINCE
being of Ra
Harakhti, if one takes him from me, I will not eat, I will not
drink, I shall die in that same hour." The messenger went to tell
unto her father all that she said. Then the prince sent men to
slay the youth, while he was in his house. But the maiden said,
"By the being of Ra, if one slay him I shall be dead ere the sun
goeth down. I will not pass an hour of life if I am parted from
him." And one went to tell her father. Then the prince made them
bring the youth with the maiden. The youth was seized with fear
when he came before the prince. But he embraced him, he kissed
him all over, and said, "Oh! tell me who thou art; behold, thou
art to me as a son." He said to him, "I am a son of an officer of
the land of Egypt; my mother died, my father took to him a second
wife; she came to hate me, and I fled a fugitive from before
her." He then gave to him his daughter to wife; he gave also to
him a house, and serfs, and fields, also cattle and all manner of
good things.
THE DOOMED PRINCE
25
But after the days
of these things were passed, the youth said to his wife, "I am
doomed to three fates--a crocodile, a serpent, and a dog." She
said to him, "Let one kill the dog which belongs to thee." He
replied to her, "I am not going to kill my dog, which I have
brought up from when it was small." And she feared greatly for
her husband, and would not let him go alone abroad.
And one went with
the youth toward the land of Egypt, to travel in that country.
Behold the crocodile of the river, he came out by the town in
which the youth was. And in that town was a mighty man. And the
mighty man would not suffer the crocodile to escape. And when the
crocodile was bound, the mighty man went out and walked abroad.
And when the sun rose the mighty man went back to the house; and
he did so every day, during two months of days.
Now when the days
passed after this, the youth sat making a good day in his
house.
26
THE DOOMED
PRINCE
And when the evening
came he lay down on his bed, sleep seized upon his limbs; and his
wife filled a bowl of milk, and placed it by his side. Then came
out a serpent from his hole, to bite the youth; behold his
wife
T.£.
THE BOWL OF
MILK
was sitting by him,
she lay not down. Thereupon the servants gave milk to the
serpent, and he drank, and was drunk, and lay upside down. Then
his wife made it to perish with the blows of her dagger.
And
THE DOOMED PRINCE
27
they woke her
husband, who was astonished; and she said unto him, "Behold thy
God has given one of thy dooms into thy hand; He will also give
thee the others." And he sacrificed to God, adoring Him, and
praising His spirits from day to day.
And when the days
were passed after these things, the youth went to walk in the
fields of his domain. He went not alone, behold his dog was
following him. And his dog ran aside after the wild game, and he
followed the dog. He came to the river, and entered the river
behind his dog. Then came out the crocodile, and took him to the
place where the mighty man was. And the crocodile said to the
youth, "I am thy doom, following after thee. ..."
[Here the papyrus
breaks off.]
28 THE DOOMED
PRINCE
REMARKS
This tale is
preserved in one of the Harris papyri (No. 500) in the British
Museum. It has been translated by Goodwin, Chabas, Maspero, and
Ebers. The present version is adapted from that of Maspero, with
frequent reference by Mr. Griffith to the original.
The marvellous
parentage of a fated or gifted hero is familiar in Eastern tales,
and he is often described as a divine reward to a long-childless
king. This element of fate or destiny is, however, not seen
before this age in Egyptian ideas; nor, indeed, would it seem at
all in place with the simple, easygoing, joyous life of the early
days. It belongs to an age when ideals possess the mind, when man
struggles against his circumstances, when he wills to be
different from what he is. Dedi or the shipwrecked sailor think
nothing about fate, but live day by day as life comes to them.
There is here, then,
REMARKS 29
a new element, that
of striving and of unrest, quite foreign to the old Egyptian
mind. The age of this tale is shown plainly in the incidents. The
prince goes to the chief of Naharaina, a land probably unknown to
the Egyptians until the Asiatic conquests of the XVIIIth Dynasty
had led them to the upper waters of the Euphrates. In earlier
days Sanehat fled to the frontier at the Wady Tumilat, and was
quite lost to Egypt when he settled in the south of Palestine.
But when the Doomed Prince goes out of Egypt he goes to the chief
of Naharaina, as the frontier State. This stamps the tale as
subsequent to the wars of the Tahutimes family, and reflects
rather the peaceful intercourse of the great monarch Amenhotep
the Third. If it belonged to the Ramessides we should not hear of
Naharaina, which was quite lost to them, but rather of Dapur
(Tabor) and Kadesh, and of the Hittites as the familiar frontier
power.
The Hathors here
appear as the Fates,
3°
THE DOOMED
PRINCE
instead of the
goddesses Isis, Nebhat, Mes-khent, and Hakt, of the old tale in
the IVth Dynasty (see first series, p. 33); and we find in the
next tale of Anpu and Bata, in the XlXth Dynasty, that the seven
Hathors decree the fate of the wife of Bata. That Hathor should
be a name given to seven deities is not strange when we see that
Hathor was a generic name for a goddess. There was the Hathor of
foreign lands, such as Punt or Sinai; there was the Hathor of
home towns, as Dendera or Atfih; and Hathor was as widely known,
and yet as local, as the Madonna. In short, to one of the races
which composed the Egyptian people Hathor was the term for any
goddess, or for a universal goddess to whom all others were
assimilated. Why and how this title "house of Horus " should be
so general is not obvious.
The variety of fate
here predicted is like the vagueness of the fate of Bata's wife,
by "a sharp death." It points to the Hathors
REMARKS 31
predicting as seers,
rather than to their having the control of the future. It bears
the stamp of the oracle of Delphi, rather than that of a divine
decree. In this these goddesses differ greatly from the Parcae,
whose ordinances not even Zeus could withstand, as Lucian lets us
know in one of the most audacious and philosophical of the
dialogues. The Hathors seem rather to deal with what we should
call luck than with fate: they see the nature of the close of
life from its beginning, without either knowing or controlling
its details.
In this tale we meet
for the first time the idea of inaccessible and mysterious
buildings; and from the resort to this element or curiosity in
describing both the prince and the princess, it appears as if it
were then a new motive in story-telling, and had not lost its
power. To modern ears it is, of course, done to death since the
"Castle of Otranto"; though as a minor element it can still be
gently used by the poet and novelist in a
32 THE DOOMED
PRINCE
moated grange, a
house in a marsh or a maze. Another point of wonder, so well
known in later times, is the large and mystic number of windows,
like the 365 windows attributed to great buildings of the present
age. It would not be difficult from these papyrus tales to start
an historical dictionary of the elements of fiction: a kind of
analysis that should be the death of much of the venerable
stock-in-trade.
We see coming in
here, more strongly than before, the use of emotions and the
force of character. The generous friendship of the sons of the
Syrian chiefs; then the burst of passionate love from the chiefs
daughter, which saves the prince's life twice over from her
father, and guards him afterwards from his fates; again, the
devotion of the prince to his favourite dog, in spite of all
warnings--these show a reliance on personal emotion and feeling
in creating the interest of the tale, quite different from the
mere interest of incident which was employed
REMARKS 33
earlier. The reason
which the prince alleges for his leaving Egypt is also a touch of
nature, the wish of a mother to oust her stepson in order to make
way for her own children, one of the deepest and most elemental
feelings of feminine nature.
The mighty man and
the crocodile are difficult to understand, the more so as the
tale breaks off in the midst of that part. It appears also as if
there had been some inversion of the paragraphs; for, first, we
read that the wife would not let the prince go alone, and one
goes with him toward Egypt, and the crocodile of the Nile
(apparently) is mentioned; then he is said to be sitting in his
house with his wife; then he goes in the fields of his domain and
meets the crocodile. It may be that a passage has dropped out,
describing his wife's accompanying him to settle in Egypt. But
the mighty man--that is another puzzle. He binds a crocodile, and
goes out while he is bound, but by night. The point of this is
not clear. It may have 4-
34 THE DOOMED
PRINCE
been, however, that
the mighty man went back to the house when the sun was high, that
he might not lose his shadow. In Arabia there was a belief that a
hyasna could deprive a man of speech and motion by stepping on
his shadow--analogous to the belief in many other lands of the
importance of preserving the shadow, and avoiding the shadowless
hour of high noon (Frazer, "Golden Bough," p. 143). Hence the
strength of the mighty man, and his magic power over the
crocodile, would perhaps depend on his not allowing his shadow to
disappear. And though Egypt is not quite tropical, yet shadows do
practically vanish in the summer, the shadow of the thin branches
of a tall palm appearing to radiate round its root without the
stem casting any shade.
The use of milk to
entice serpents is still well known in Egypt; and when a serpent
appeared in some of my excavations in a pit, the men proposed to
me to let down a saucer of milk to entice it out, that they might
kill it.
REMARKS 35
The close of the
tale would have explained much that is now lost to us. The
crocodile boasts of being the fate of the prince; but his dog is
with him, and one can hardly doubt that the dog attacks the
crocodile. There is also the mighty man to come in and manage the
crocodile. Then the dog is left to bring about the catastrophe.
Or does the faithful wife rescue him from all the fates? Hardly
so, as the prediction of the Hathors comes strictly to pass in
the tale of Anpu and Bata. Let us hope that another copy may be
found to give us the clue to the working of the Egyptian mind in
this situation.
XIXTH DYNASTY
ANPU AND BATA.
ONCE there were two
brethren, of one mother and one father; Anpu was the name of the
elder, and Bata was the name of the younger. Now, as for Anpu he
had a house, and he had a wife. But his little brother was to him
as it were a son; he it was who made for him his clothes; he it
was who followed behind his oxen to the fields; he it was who did
the ploughing; he it was who harvested the corn; he it was who
did for him all the matters that were in the field. Behold,
his
younger brother grew to
be an excellent 36
ANPU AND
BATA
37
worker, there was
not his equal in the whole land; behold, the spirit of a god was
in him.
Now after this the
younger brother fol-
THE RETURN AT
EVEN
lowed his oxen in
his daily manner; and every evening he turned again to the house,
laden with all the herbs of the field, with milk and with wood,
and with all things of
38 ANPU AND
BATA
the field. And he
put them down before his elder brother, who was sitting with his
wife; and he drank and ate, and he lay down in his stable with
the cattle. And at the dawn of day he took bread which he had
baked, and laid it before his elder brother; and he took with him
his bread to the field, and he drave his cattle to pasture in the
fields. And as he walked behind his cattle, they said to him,
"Good is the herbage which is in that place; " and he listened to
all that they said, and he took them to the good place which they
desired. And the cattle which were before him became exceeding
excellent, and they multiplied greatly.
Now at the time of
ploughing his elder brother said unto him, "Let us make ready for
ourselves a goodly yoke of oxen for ploughing, for the land has
come out from the water, it is fit for ploughing. Moreover, do
thou come to the field with corn, for we will begin the ploughing
in the morrow morning." Thus said he to him; and
ANPU AND BATA
39
his younger brother
did all things as his elder brother had spoken unto him to do
them.
And when the morn
was come, they went to the fields with their things; and their
hearts were pleased exceedingly with their task in the beginning
of their work. And
GOING TO THE
FIELDS
it came to pass
after this that as they were in the field they stopped for corn,
and he sent his younger brother, saying, "Haste thou, bring to us
corn from the farm." And the younger brother found the wife of
his elder brother, as she was sitting tiring her hair. He said to
her, "Get up, and give to me
40 ANPU AND
BATA
corn, that I may run
to the field, for my elder brother hastened me; do not delay."
She said to him, "Go, open the bin, and thou shalt take to
thyself according to thy will, that I may not drop my locks of
hair while I dress them."
WAITING FOR
CORN
The youth went into
the stable; he took a large measure, for he desired to take much
corn; he loaded it with wheat and barley; and he went out
carrying it. She said to
ANPU AND BATA
41
him, "How much of
the corn that is wanted, is that which is on thy shoulder?" He
said to her, "Three bushels of barley, and two of wheat, in all
five; these are what are upon my shoulder: " thus said he to her.
And she conversed with him, saying, "There is great strength in
thee, for I see thy might every day." And her heart knew him with
the knowledge of youth. And she arose and came to him, and
conversed with him, saying, "Come, stay with me, and it shall be
well for thee, and I will make for thee beautiful garments." Then
the youth became like a panther of the south with fury at the
evil speech which she had made to him; and she feared greatly.
And he spake unto her, saying, "Behold thou art to me as a
mother, thy husband is to me as a father, for he who is elder
than I has brought me up. What is this wickedness that thou hast
said to me? Say it not to me again. For I will not tell it to any
man, for I will not let it be uttered by the mouth of any man."
He lifted up
42 ANPU AND
BATA
his burden, and he
went to the field and came to his elder brother; and they took up
their work, to labour at their task.
Now afterward, at
eventime, his elder brother was returning to his house; and the
younger brother was following after his oxen, and he loaded
himself with all the things of the field; and he brought his oxen
before him, to make them lie down in their stable which was in
the farm. And behold the wife of the elder brother was afraid for
the words which she had said. She took a parcel of fat, she
became like one who is evilly beaten, desiring to say to her
husband, "It is thy younger brother who has done this wrong." Her
husband returned in the even, as was his wont of every day; he
came unto his house; he found his wife ill of violence; she did
not give him water upon his hands as he used to have, she did not
make a light before him, his house was in darkness, and she was
lying very sick. Her husband said to her, "Who has spoken with
thee?"
ANPU AND
BATA
43
Behold she said, "No
one has spoken with me except thy younger brother. When he came
to take for thee corn he found me sitting alone; he said to me,
'Come, let us
THE DARK
RETURN
stay together, tie
up thy hair:' thus spake he to me. I did not listen to him, but
thus spake I to him: 'Behold, am I not thy mother, is not thy
elder brother to thee as a father?' And he feared, and he beat me
to stop me from making report to thee, and if thou lettest him
live I shall die. Now
44
ANPU AND
BATA
behold he is coming
in the evening; and I complain of these wicked words, for he
would have done this even in daylight."
And the elder
brother became as a panther of the south; he sharpened his knife;
he
THE
AMBUSH
took it in his hand;
he stood behind the door of his stable to slay his younger
brother as he came in the evening to bring his cattle into the
stable.
Now the sun went
down, and he loaded
ANPU AND BATA
45
himself with herbs
in his daily manner. He came, and his foremost cow entered the
stable, and she said to her keeper, "Behold thou thy elder
brother standing before thee with his knife to slay thee; flee
from before him." He heard what his first cow had said; and the
next entering, she also said likewise. He looked beneath the door
of the stable; he saw the feet of his elder brother; he was
standing behind the door, and his knife was in his hand. He cast
down his load to the ground, and betook himself to flee swiftly;
and his elder brother pursued after him with his knife. Then the
younger brother cried out unto Ra Harakhti, saying, "My good
Lord! Thou art he who divides the evil from the good." And Ra
stood and heard all his cry; and Ra made a wide water between him
and his elder brother, and it was full of crocodiles; and the one
brother was on one bank, and the other on the other bank; and the
elder brother smote twice on his hands at not
46 ANPU AND
BATA
slaying him. Thus
did he. And the younger brother called to the elder on the bank,
saying, "Stand still until the dawn of day; and when Ra ariseth,
I shall judge with thee before Him, and He discerneth between the
good and the evil. For I shall not be with thee any more for
ever; I shall not be in the place in which thou art; I shall go
to the valley of the acacia."
Now when the land
was lightened, and the next day appeared, Ra Harakhti arose, and
one looked unto the other. And the youth spake with his elder
brother, saying, "Wherefore earnest thou after me to slay me in
craftiness, when thou didst not hear the words of my mouth? For I
am thy brother in truth, and thou art to me as a father, and thy
wife even as a mother: is it not so? Verily, when I was sent to
bring for us corn, thy wife said to me, 'Come, stay with me;' for
behold this has been turned over unto thee into another wise."
And he caused him to understand of all that happened with him and
his
ANPU AND
BATA
47
wife. And he swore
an oath by Ra Har-akhti, saying, "Thy coming to slay me by deceit
with thy knife was an abomination." Then the youth took a knife,
and cut off of his flesh, and cast it into the water, and the
fish swallowed it. He failed; he became
THE CANAL OF
RA
faint; and his elder
brother cursed his own heart greatly; he stood weeping for him
afar off; he knew not how to pass over to where his younger
brother was, because of the crocodiles. And the younger brother
called unto him, saying, "Whereas thou hast devised
48 ANPU AND
BATA
an evil thing, wilt
thou not also devise a good thing, even like that which I would
do unto thee? When thou goest to thy house thou must look to thy
cattle, for I shall not stay in the place where thou art; I am
going to the valley of the acacia. And now as to what thou shalt
do for me; it is even that thou shalt come to seek after me, if
thou perceivest a matter, namely, that there are things happening
unto me. And this is what shall come to pass, that I shall draw
out my soul, and I shall put it upon the top of the flowers of
the acacia, and when the acacia is cut down, and it falls to the
ground, and thou comest to seek for it, if thou searchest for it
seven years do not let thy heart be wearied. For thou wilt find
it, and thou must put it in a cup of cold water, and expect that
I shall live again, that I may make answer to what has been done
wrong.. And thou shalt know of this, that is to say, that things
are happening to me, when one shall give to thee a cup of beer in
thy hand,
ANPU AND BATA
49
and it shall be
troubled; stay not then, for verily it shall come to pass with
thee."
And the youth went
to the valley of the acacia; and his elder brother went unto his
house; his hand was laid on his head, and he cast dust on his
head; he came to his house, and he slew his wife, he cast her to
the dogs, and he sat in mourning for his younger
brother.
Now many days after
these things, the younger brother was in the valley of the
acacia; there was none with him; he spent his time in hunting the
beasts of the desert, and he came back in the even to lie down
under the acacia, which bore his soul upon the topmost flower.
And after this he built himself a tower with his own hands, in
the valley of the acacia; it was full of all good things, that he
might provide for himself a home.
And he went out from
his tower, and he 5
50 ANPU AND
BATA
met the Nine Gods,
who were walking forth to look upon the whole land. The Nine Gods
talked one with another, and they said unto him, "Ho! Bata, bull
of the Nine Gods, art thou remaining alone? Thou
THE HOUSE IN THE
VALLEY
hast left thy
village for the wife of Anpu, thy elder brother. Behold his wife
is slain. Thou hast given him an answer to all that was
transgressed against thee." And their hearts were vexed for him
exceedingly. And Ra Harakhti said to Khnumu, "Behold,
ANPU AND BATA
51
frame thou a woman
for Bata, that he may not remain alive alone." And Khnumu made
for him a mate to dwell with him.
THE
PROPHECY
She was more
beautiful in her limbs than any woman who is in the whole land.
The essence of every god was in her. The seven Hathors came to
see her: they said
52 ANPU AND
BATA
with one mouth, "She
will die a sharp death."
And Bata loved her
very exceedingly, and she dwelt in his house; he passed his time
in hunting the beasts of the desert, and brought and laid them
before her. He said, "Go not outside, lest the sea seize thee;
for I cannot rescue thee from it, for I am a woman like thee; my
soul is placed on the head of the flower of the acacia; and if
another find it, I must fight with him." And he opened unto her
his heart in all its nature.
Now after these
things Bata went to hunt in his daily manner. And the young girl
went to walk under the acacia which was by the side of her house.
Then the sea saw her, and cast its waves up after her. She betook
herself to flee from before it. She entered her house. And the
sea called unto the acacia, saying, "Oh, would that I could seize
her!" And the acacia brought a lock from her hair, and the sea
carried it to Egypt, and
ANPU AND
BATA
53
dropped it in the
place of the fullers of Pharaoh's linen. The smell of the lock of
hair entered into the clothes of Pharaoh; and they were wroth
with the fullers of Pharaoh, saying, "The smell of ointment is in
the clothes of Pharaoh." And the people were rebuked every day,
they knew not what they
THE RAVISHING
SEA
should do. And the
chief fuller of Pharaoh walked by the bank, and his heart was
very evil within him after the daily quarrel with him. He stood
still, he stood upon the sand opposite to the lock of hair, which
was in the water, and he made one enter into the water and bring
it to him; and there was
54
ANPU AND
BATA
found in it a smell,
exceeding sweet. He took it to Pharaoh; and they brought
the scribes and the wise men, and they said unto Pharaoh, "This
lock of hair belongs to a
THE CHIEF FULLER OF
PHARAOH
daughter of Ra
Harakhti: the essence of every god is in her, and it is a tribute
to thee from another land. Let messengers go to every strange
land to seek her: and as for
ANPU AND BATA
55
the messenger who
shall go to the valley of the acacia, let many men go with him to
bring her." Then said his majesty, "Excellent exceedingly is what
has been said to us;" and they sent them. And many days after
these things the people who were sent to strange lands came to
give report unto the king: but there came not those who went to
the valley of the acacia, for Bata had slain them, but let one of
them return to give a report to the king. His majesty sent many
men and soldiers, as well as horsemen, to bring her back. And
there was a woman amongst them, and to her had been given in her
hand beautiful ornaments of a woman. And the girl came back with
her, and they rejoiced over her in the whole land.
And his majesty
loved her exceedingly, and raised her to high estate; and he
spake unto her that she should tell him concerning her husband.
And she said, "Let the acacia
56 ANPU AND
BATA
be cut down, and let
one chop it up." And they sent men and soldiers with their
weapons to cut down the acacia; and they came to the acacia, and
they cut the flower upon which was the soul of Bata, and he fell
dead suddenly.
And when the next
day came, and the earth was lightened, the acacia was cut down.
And Anpu, the elder brother of Bata, entered his house, and
washed his hands; and one gave him a cup of beer, and it became
troubled; and one gave him another of wine, and the smell of it
was evil. Then he took his staff, and his sandals, and likewise
his clothes, with his weapons of war; and .he betook himself
forth to the valley of the acacia. He entered the tower of his
younger brother, and he found him lying upon his mat; he was
dead. And he wept when he saw his younger brother verily lying
dead. And he went out to seek the soul of his younger brother
under the acacia tree, under which his younger brother lay in the
evening.
ANPU AND BATA
57
He spent three years
in seeking for it, but found it not. And when he began the fourth
year, he desired in his heart to return into Egypt; he said "I
will go to-morrow morn: " thus spake he in his heart.
Now when the land
lightened, and the next day appeared, he was walking under the
acacia; he was spending his time in seeking it. And he returned
in the evening, and laboured at seeking it again. He found a
seed. He returned with it. Behold this was the soul of his
younger brother. He brought a cup of cold water, and he cast the
seed into it: and he sat down, as he was wont. Now when the night
came his soul sucked up the water; Bata shuddered in all his
limbs, and he looked on his elder brother; his soul was in the
cup. Then Anpu took the cup of cold water, in which the soul of
his younger brother was; Bata drank it, his soul stood again in
its place, and he became as he had been. They embraced each
other, and they conversed together.
58 ANPU AND
BATA
And Bata said to his
elder brother, "Behold I am to become as a great bull, which
bears every good mark; no one knoweth its history, and thou must
sit upon my back. When the sun arises I shall be in the place
where my wife is, that I may return answer to her; and
THE REUNION
thou must take me to
the place where the king is. For all good things shall be done
for thee; for one shall lade thee with silver and gold, because
thou bringest me to Pharaoh, for I become a great marvel, and
they shall rejoice for me in all the land. And thou shalt go to
thy village."
ANPU AND
BATA
59
And when the land
was lightened, and the next day appeared, Bata became in the form
which he had told to his elder brother. And Anpu sat upon his
back until the dawn. He
ANPU ON THE
BULL
came to the place
where the king was, and they made his majesty to know of him; he
saw him, and he was exceeding joyful with him. He made for him
great offerings, saying,
60 ANPU AND
BATA
"This is a great
wonder which has come to pass." There were rejoicings over him in
the whole land. They presented unto him silver and gold for his
elder brother, who went and stayed in his village. They gave to
the bull many men and many things, and Pharaoh loved him
exceedingly above all that is in this land.
And after many days
after these things, the bull entered the purified place; he stood
in the place where the princess was; he began to speak with her,
saying, "Behold, I am alive indeed." And she said to him, "And,
pray, who art thou?" He said to her, "I am Bata. I perceived when
thou causedst that they should destroy the acacia of Pharaoh,
which was my abode, that I might not be suffered to live. Behold,
I am alive indeed, I am as an ox." Then the princess feared
exceedingly for the words that her husband had spoken to her. And
he went out from the purified place.
And his majesty was
sitting, making a
ANPU AND BATA
61
good day with her:
she was at the table of his majesty, and the king was exceeding
pleased with her. And she said to his majesty, "Swear to me by
God, saying, 'What thou shalt say, I will obey it for thy sake.'"
He hearkened unto all that she said, even this. "Let me eat of
the liver of the ox, because he is fit for nought:" thus spake
she to him. And the king was exceeding sad at her words, the
heart of Pharaoh grieved him greatly. And after the land was
lightened, and the next day appeared, they proclaimed a great
feast with offerings to the ox. And the king sent one of the
chief butchers of his majesty, to cause the ox to be sacrificed.
And when he was sacrificed, as he was upon the shoulders of the
people, he shook his neck, and he threw two drops of blood over
against the two doors of his majesty. The one fell upon the one
side, on the great door of Pharaoh, and the other upon the other
door. They grew as two great Persea trees, and each of them was
excellent.
62
ANPU AND
BATA
And one went to
tell unto his majesty, "Two great Persea trees have grown, as a
great marvel of his majesty, in the night by the side of the
great gate of his majesty." And
BATA'S PERSEA
TREES
there was rejoicing
for them in all the land, and there were offerings made to
them.
And when the days
were multiplied after these things, his majesty was adorned with
the blue crown, with garlands of flowers on
ANPU AND BATA
63
his neck, and he was
upon the chariot of pale gold, and he went out from the palace to
behold the Persea trees: the princess also was going out with
horses behind his majesty. And his majesty sat beneath one of the
Persea trees, and it spake thus with his wife: "Oh thou deceitful
one, I am Bata, I am alive, though I have been evilly entreated.
I knew who caused the acacia to be cut down by Pharaoh at my
dwelling. I then became an ox, and thou causedst that I should be
killed."
And many days after
these things the princess stood at the table of Pharaoh, and the
king was pleased with her. And she said to his majesty, "Swear to
me by God, saying, 'That which the princess shall say to me I
will obey it for her.'" And he hearkened unto all she said. And
he commanded, "Let these two Persea trees be cut down, and let
them be made into goodly planks." And he hearkened unto all she
said. And after this his majesty sent skilful craftsmen, and
they
64 ANPU AND
BATA
cut down the Persea
trees of Pharaoh; and the princess, the royal wife, was standing
looking on, and they did all that was in her heart unto the
trees. But a chip flew up, and it entered into the mouth of the
princess; she swallowed it, and after many days she bore a son.
And one went to tell his majesty, "There is born to thee a son."
And they brought him, and gave to him a nurse and servants; and
there were rejoicings in the whole land. And the king sat making
a merry day, as they were about the naming of him, and his
majesty loved him exceedingly at that moment, and the king raised
him to be the royal son of Kush.
Now after the days
had multiplied after these things, his majesty made him heir of
all the land. And many days after that, when he had fulfilled
many years as heir, his majesty flew up to heaven. And the heir
said, "Let my great nobles of his majesty be brought before me,
that I may make them to know all that has happened to me." And
they brought
REMARKS 65
also before him his
wife, and he judged with her before him, and they agreed with
him. They brought to him his elder brother; he made him
hereditary prince in all his land. He was thirty years king of
Egypt, and he died, and his elder brother stood in his place on
the day of burial.
Excellently
finished in peace, for the ka of the scribe of the
treasury Kagabu, of the treasury of Pharaoh, and for the scribe
Hora, and the scribe Meremapt. Written by the scribe Anena, the
owner of this roll. He who speaks against this roll, may Tahuti
smite him.
REMARKS
This tale, which is
perhaps, of all this
series, the best
known in modern times, has
often been
published. It exists only in one
papyrus, that of
Madame d'Orbiney, pur-
6
66 ANPU AND
BATA
chased by the
British Museum in 1857. The papyrus had belonged to Sety II. when
crown prince, and hence is of the XlXth Dynasty. Most of the
great scholars of this age have worked at it: De Rouge, Goodwin,
Renouf, Chabas, Brugsch, Ebers, Maspero, and Groff have all made
original studies on it. The present translation is, however, a
fresh one made by Mr. Griffith word for word, and shaped as
little as possible by myself in editing it. The copy followed is
the publication by Birch in "Select Papyri," part ii. pls. ix. to
xix. Before considering the details of the story, we should
notice an important question about its age and composition. That
it is as old as the XlXth Dynasty in its present form is certain
from the papyrus; but probably parts of it are older. The idyllic
beauty of the opening of it, with the simplicity and directness
of the ideas, and the absence of any impossible or marvellous
feature, is in the strongest opposition to the latter part, where
marvel is piled on marvel in
REMARKS 67
pointless profusion.
In the first few pages there is not a word superfluous or an idea
out of place in drawing the picture. That we have to do with an
older story lengthened out by some inartistic compiler, seems
only too probable. And this is borne out by the colophon. In the
tales of the Shipwrecked Sailor, and of Sanehat, the colophon
runs--"This is finished from beginning to end, even as it was
found in the writing," and the earlier of these two tales follows
this with a blessing on the transcriber. But, apparently
conscious of his meddling, the author of Anpu and Bata ends with
a curse: "Written by the scribe Anena, the owner of this roll. He
who speaks against this roll, may Tahuti smite him." This points
to a part of it at least being newly composed in Ramesside times;
while the delicate beauty of the opening is not only far better
than the latter part, but is out of harmony with the forced and
artificial taste of the XlXth Dynasty. At the same time, the
careful drawing of character is hardly akin to the simple,
matter-
68 ANPU AND
BATA
of-fact style of
Sanehat, and seems more in keeping with the emotional style of
the Doomed Prince. If we attribute the earlier part to the
opening of the XVIIIth Dynasty--the age of the pastoral scenes of
the tombs of El Kab, which are the latest instances of such
sculptures in Egypt--we shall probably be nearest to the
truth.
The description of
Bata is one of the most beautiful character-drawings in the past.
The self-denial and sweet innocence of the lad, his sympathy with
his cattle, "listening to all that they said," and allowing them
their natural wishes and ways, is touchingly expressed. And those
who know Egypt will know that Bata still lives there--several
Batas I have known myself. His sweetness of manner, his devotion,
his untiringly earnest work, his modesty, his quietness, makes
Bata to be one of the most charming friends. Bata I have met in
many places, Bata I have loved as one of the flowers of human
nature, and Bata I hope often to meet again in divers
REMARKS 69
forms and varied
incarnations among the fellah lads of Egypt.
The touches of
description of Bata are slight, and yet so pointed. His growing
to be an excellent worker; his return at evening laden with all
the produce, just as may be seen now any evening as the lads come
in bearing on their backs large bundles of vegetables for the
house, and of fodder for the home-driven cattle; his sleeping
with his cattle in the stable; his zeal in rising before dawn to
make the daily bread for his brother, ready to give him when he
arose; and then his driving out the cattle to pasture--all
contrasts with his elder brother's life of ease. The making of
the bread was rightly the duty of Anpu's wife; she ought to have
risen to grind the corn long before dawn, as the millstones may
now be heard grinding in the dark, morning by morning; she ought
to have baked the bread ready for the toiler who spent his whole
day in the field. But it was the ever-willing Bata who did the
work of the house as well as
yo ANPU AND
BATA
the work of the
farm. "Behold the spirit of a god was in him."
The driving in of
the cattle at night is still a particular feature of Egyptian
life. About an hour before sunset the tether ropes are drawn in
the fields, and the cattle file off, with a little child for a
leader--if any; the master gathers up the produce that is
required, some buffalo is laden with a heap of clover, or a lad
carries it on his back, for the evening feed of the cattle, and
all troop along the path through the fields and by the canal. For
two or three miles the road becomes more and more crowded with
the flocks driven into it from every field, a long haze of dust
lies glowing in the crimson glory of sunset over the stream of
cows and buffaloes, sheep and goats, that pour into the village.
Each beast well knows his master and his crib, and turns in at
the familiar gate to the stable under the house, or by the side
of the hut; and there all spend the night. Not a hoof is left out
in the field; the last belated stragglers come in
REMARKS 71
while the gleam of
amber still edges the night-blue sky behind the black horizon.
Then the silent fields lie under the brightening moon, glittering
with dew, untrodden and deserted. It is not cold or climate that
leads men to this custom, but the unsafety of a country bordered
by unseen deserts, whence untold men may suddenly appear and
ravage all the plain.
The ploughing scene
next follows, on "the land coming out from the water"; as the
inundation goes down the well-known banks and ridges appear, "the
back-bones of the land," as they were so naturally called; and
when the surface is firm enough to walk on--with many a pool and
ditch still full--the ploughing begins on the soft dark
clay
The catastrophe of
the story--the black gulf of deceit that suddenly opens under
Bata's feet--has always been seen to be strikingly like the story
of Joseph. And--as we have noticed--there is good reason for the
early part of this tale belonging to about the beginning of the
XVIIIth Dynasty, so it
72 ANPU AND
BATA
is very closely
allied in time as well as character to the account of Joseph. In
this part again is one of those pointed touches, which show the
power of the poet--for a poem in prose this is--"her heart knew
him with the knowledge of youth."
On reaching the
mistaken revenge of Anpu, we see the sympathy of Bata with his
cattle, and his way of reading their feelings, returned to him
most fittingly by the cows perceiving the presence of the
treachery. "He heard what his first cow had said; and the next
entering she also said likewise."
After this we find a
change; instead of the simple and natural narrative, full of
human feeling, and without a touch of impossibility, every
subsequent episode involves the supernatural; Ra creating a wide
water, the extraction of the soul of Bata, his miraculous wife,
and all the transformations--these have nothing in common with
the style or ideas of the earlier tale.
Whence this later
tangle came, and how
REMARKS 73
much of it is drawn
from other sources, we can hardly hope to explain from the
fragments of literature that we have. But strangely there is a
parallel which is close enough to suggest that the patchwork is
due to popular mythology. In the myths of Phrygia we meet with
Atys or Attis, of whom varying legends are told. Among these we
glean that he was a shepherd, beautiful and chaste; that he fled
from corruption; that he mutilated himself; lastly he died under
a tree, and afterwards was revived. All this is a duplicate of
the story of Bata. And looking further, we see parallels to the
three subsequent transformations. Drops of blood were shed from
the Atys-priest; and Bata, in his first transformation as a bull,
sprinkles two drops of blood by the doors of the palace. Again,
Atys is identified with a tree, which was cut down and taken into
a sanctuary; and Bata in his second transformation is a Persea
tree which is cut down and used in building. Lastly, the mother
of Atys is said to have been a
74 ANPU AND
BATA
virgin, who bore him
from placing in her bosom a ripe almond or pomegranate; and in
his third transformation Bata is born from a chip of a tree being
swallowed by the princess. These resemblances in nearly all the
main points are too close and continuous to be a mere chance,
especially as such incidents are not found in any other Egyptian
tale, nor in few--if any--other classical myths. It is not
impossible that the names even may have been the same; for Bata,
as we write it, was pronounced Vata (or Vatiu or Vitiou, as
others would vocalise it), and the digamma would disappear in the
later Greek form in which we have Atys.
The most likely
course seems to have been that, starting with a simple Egyptian
tale, the resemblance to the shepherd of the Asiatic myth, led to
a Ramesside author improving the story by tacking on the branches
of the myth one after another, and borrowing the name. If this be
granted, we have here in Bata the earliest indications of the
elements
REMARKS 75
of the Atys
mysteries, a thousand years before the Greek versions.
Returning now from
the general structure to the separate incidents, we note the
expression of annoyance where the elder brother "smote twice on
his hands." This gesture is very common in Egypt now, the two
hands being rapidly slid one past the other, palm to palm,
vertically, grating the fingers of one hand over the other; the
right hand moving downwards, and the left a little up. This
implies that there is nothing, that a thing is worthless, that a
desired result has not been attained, or annoyance at want of
success; but the latter meanings are now rare, and more latent
than otherwise, and this tale points to the gesture being
originally one of positive anger, though it has been transferred
gradually to express mere negative results.
The valley of the
acacia would appear from the indications to have been by the sea,
and probably in Syria; perhaps one of the half-desert wadis
toward Gaza was in the writer's
76 ANPU AND
BATA
mind. The idea of
Bata taking out his heart, and placing it on the flower of a
tree, has seemed hopelessly unintelligible. But it depends on
what we are to understand by the heart in Egyptian. Two words are
well known for it, hati and ah; and as it is
unlikely that these should be mere synonyms, we have a
presumption that one of them does not mean the physical heart,
but rather the mental heart. We are accustomed to the same
mixture of thought; and far the more common usage in English is
not to employ the name to express the physical heart, but for the
will, as when we say "good-hearted";--for the spring of action,
"broken-hearted ";--for the feelings, "hard-hearted";--for the
passions, "an affair of the heart";--or for the vigour, as when a
man in nature or in act is "hearty" The Egyptian, with his
metaphysical mind, took two different words where we only use
one; and when we read of placing the heart (hati) out of a
man, we are led at once by the analogy of beliefs in
REMARKS 77
other races to
understand this as the vitality or soul. In the "Golden Bough"
Mr. Frazer has explained this part of natural metaphysics; and in
this, and the following points, I freely quote from that work as
a convenient text-book. The soul or vitality of a man is thought
of as separable from the body at will, and therefore communicable
to other objects or positions. In those positions it cannot be
harmed by what happens to the body, which is therefore deathless
for the time. But if the external seat of the soul be attacked or
destroyed, the man immediately dies. This is illustrated from the
Norse, Saxons, Celts, Italians, Greeks, Kabyles, Arabs, Hindus,
Malays, Mongolians, Tartars, Magyars, and Slavonians. It may
well, then, be considered as a piece of inherent psychology: and
following this interpretation, I have rendered "heart" in this
sense "soul" in the translation.
The Nine Gods who
meet Bata are one of the great cycles of divinities, which were
dif-
78 ANPU AND
BATA
ferently reckoned in
various places. Khnumu is always the formative god, who makes man
upon the potter's wheel, as in the scene in the temple of Luqsor.
And even in natural birth it was Khnumu who "gave strength to the
limbs," as in the earlier "Tales of the Magicians." The character
of the wife of Bata is a very curious study. The total absence of
the affections in her was probably designed as in accord with her
non-natural formation, as she could not inherit aught from human
parents. Ambition appears as the only emotion of this being; her
attacks on the transformations of Bata are not due to dislike,
but only to fear that he should claim her removal from her high
station; she "feared exceedingly for the words that her husband
had spoken to her." Her Lilith nature is incapable of any craving
but that for power.
The action here of
the seven Hathors we have noticed in the remarks on the previous
tale of the Doomed Prince. The episode of the sea is very
strange; and if we need find
REMARKS 79
some rationalising
account of it, we might suppose it to be a mythical form of a
raid of pirates, who, not catching the woman, carried off
something of hers, which proved an object of contention in Egypt.
But such renderings are unlikely, and we may the rather expect to
find some explanation in a mythological parallel.
The carrying of the
lock of hair to Pharaoh, and his proclaiming a search for the
owner, is plainly an early form of the story of the little
slipper, whose owner is sought by the king. The point that she
could not be caught except by setting another woman to tempt her
with ornaments, anticipates the modern novelist's saying, "Set a
woman to catch a woman."
The sudden death of
Bata, so soon as the depository of his soul was destroyed, is a
usual feature in such tales about souls. But it is only in the
Indian forms quoted by Mr. Frazer that there is any revival of
the dead; and in no case is there any transformation like that of
Bata. Perhaps none but
80 ANPU AND
BATA
an Egyptian or a
Chinese would have credited Anpu with wandering up and down for
four years seeking the lost soul. But the idea of returning the
soul in water to the man is found as a magic process in North
America ("Golden Bough," i. 141).
The first
transformation of Bata, into a bull, is clearly drawn from the
Apis bull of Memphis. The rejoicings at discovering a real
successor of Apis are here, the rejoicings over Bata, who is the
Apis bull, distinguished as he says by "bearing every good mark."
These marks on the back and other parts were the tokens of the
true Apis, who was sought for anxiously through the country on
the death of the sacred animal who had lived in the sanctuary.
The man who, like Anpu, brought up a true Apis to the temple
would receive great rewards and honours.
The scene where the
princess demands the grant of a favour is repeated over again by
Esther at her banquet, and by the daughter of Herodias. It is the
Oriental way of doing
REMARKS 81
business. But the
curious incongruity of making a great feast with offerings to the
ox before sacrificing it, appears inexplicable until we note the
habits of other peoples in slaying their sacred animals at
certain intervals. This tale shows us what is stated by Greek
authors, that the Egyptians slew the sacred Apis at stated times,
or when a new one was discovered with the right marks. The annual
sacrifice of a sacred ram at Thebes shows that the Egyptians were
familiar with such an idea. And though it was considered by the
writer of this tale as a monstrous act, yet the offerings and
festivity which accompanied it are in accordance with the strange
fact found by Mariette, that in the three undisturbed Apis
burials which he discovered there were only fragments of bone,
and in one case a head, carefully embalmed with bitumen and
magnificent offerings of jewellery. The divine Apis was eaten as
a sacred feast.
The reason that the
princess desires the liver is strangely explained by a present
belief 7
82 ANPU AND
BATA
on the Upper Nile.
The Darfuris think that the liver is the seat of the soul
("Golden Bough," ii. 88); and hence if she ate the liver she
would destroy the soul of Bata, or prevent it entering any other
incarnation.
The next detail is
also curiously significant. If a bull was being sacrificed we
should naturally suppose the blood would flow, and that a few
drops would not be noticed. Here, however, two drops are said to
fall, and this was when the bull "was upon the shoulders of the
people." Now it is a very general idea that blood must not be
allowed to fall upon the ground; the eastern and southern
Africans will not shed the blood of cattle ("Golden Bough," i.
182); and strangely the Australians avoid the falling of blood to
the ground by placing the bleeding persons upon the shoulders of
other men. This parallel is so close to the Egyptian tale that it
seems as if the bull was borne "on the shoulders of the people,"
that his blood should not fall to the ground; yet in spite
of
REMARKS 83
this precaution "he
shook his neck, and he threw two drops of blood over against the
doors of his majesty." In these drops of blood was the soul of
Bata, in spite of the princess having eaten his liver; and we
know how among Jews, Arabs, and other peoples, the blood is
regarded as the vehicle of the soul or life.
The evidence of tree
worship is plainer here than perhaps in any other passage of
Egyptian literature. The people rejoice for the two Persea trees,
"and there were offerings made to them."
The blue crown worn
by the king was the war cap of leather covered with scales of
copper: it is often found made in dark blue glaze for statuettes,
and it seems probable that the copper was superficially
sulphurised to tint it. Such head-dress was usually worn by kings
when riding in their chariots. The pale gold or electrum here
mentioned was the general material for decorating the royal
chariot.
84 ANPU AND
BATA
The miraculous birth
of Bata in his third transformation is, as we have noticed,
closely paralleled by the birth of Atys from the almond. The idea
at the root of this is that of self-creation or self-existence,
as in the usual Egyptian phrase, "bull of his mother."
The king flying up
to heaven is a regular expression for his death: "the hawk has
soared," "the follower of the god has met his maker," so Sanehat
describes it (see ist series, pp. 97, 98).
This hawk-form of
the king may be connected with the hawk bearing the double crown
which is perched on the top of the ka name of each king.
That hawk is not Horus, nor even the king deified as Horus,
because the emblem of life is given to it by other gods (as by
Set on a lintel of XVIIIth Dynasty from Nubt), and therefore the
hawk is the human king who could perish, and not an immortal
divinity. Further, this hawk-king is always perched on the top of
the drawing of the doorway to the sepulchre
REMARKS
85
which bears the
ka name of the king; and when we see the drawings of the
ba bird or soul flying down the well to the sepulchre, it
appears as if the hawk were the royal ba bird (ordinary
men having a ba bird with a human head); and that the
well-known first title of each king represents the royal soul or
ba bird perched on the door of the sepulchre, resting on
his way to and from the visit to the corpse below. The soul or
ba of the king at his death thus flew away as a hawk to
meet the sun.
The veil drawn over
the fate of the inhuman princess is well conceived. That she
should die a sharp death has been foretold; but how Bata should
slay the divine creation--his wife--his mother--is a matter that
the scribe reserves in silence; we only read that "he judged with
her before him, and the great nobles agreed with him." That
judgment is best left among the things unwritten,
86 ANPU AND
BATA
The strange manner
in which we can see incident after incident in the latter part of
the tale, each to refer to some ceremony or belief, even
imperfect as our knowledge of such must be, and the evidence that
the whole being of Bata is a transference of the myth of Atys,
must lead us to look on this, the marvellous portion, as woven
out of a group of myths, ceremonies, and beliefs which were
joined and explained by the formation of such a tale. How far it
is due to purely Egyptian ideas, indicated by the Apis bull and
the analogies in present African beliefs, and how far it is
Asiatic and belonging to Atys, it would be premature to decide.
But from the weird confusion and mystery of these
transformations, we turn back with renewed pleasure to the simple
and sweet picture of peasant life, and the beauty of Bata, and we
see how true a poet the Egyptian was in feeling and in
expression.
XIXth DYNASTY,
PTOLEMAIC WRITING
SETNA AND THE MAGIC
BOOK
THE mighty King
User.maat.ra (Ra-meses the Great) had a son named Setna
Kha.em.uast who was a great scribe, and very learned in all the
ancient writings. And he heard that the magic book of Thoth, by
which a man may enchant heaven and earth, and know the language
of all birds and beasts, was buried in the cemetery of Memphis.
And he went to search for it with his brother An.he.hor.eru; and
when they found the tomb of the king's son, Na.nefer.ka.ptah, son
of the king of Upper
88 SETNA AND THE MAGIC
BOOK
and Lower Egypt,
Mer.neb.ptah, Setna opened it and went in.
Now in the tomb was
Na.nefer.ka.ptah, and with him was the ka of his wife
Ahura;
AHURA'S
APPEAL.
for though she was
buried at Koptos, her ka dwelt at Memphis with her
husband, whom she loved. And Setna saw them seated before their
offerings, and the book lay
AHURA'S TALE
89
between them. And
Na.nefer.ka.ptah said to Setna, "Who are you that break into my
tomb in this way?" He said, "I am Setna, son of the great King
User.maat.ra, living for ever, and I come for that book which I
see between you." And Na.nefer.ka.ptah said, "It cannot be given
to you." Then said Setna, "But I will carry it away by
force."
Then Ahura said to
Setna, "Do not take this book; for it will bring trouble on you,
as it has upon us. Listen to what we have suffered for
it."
AHURA'S TALE
"We were the two
children of the King Mer.neb.ptah, and he loved us very much, for
he had no others; and Na.nefer.ka.ptah was in his palace as heir
over all the land. And when we were grown, the king said to the
queen, 'I will marry Na.nefer.ka.ptah
90 SETNA AND THE MAGIC
BOOK
to the daughter of a
general, and Ahura to the son of another general.' And the queen
said, 'No, he is the heir, let him marry his sister, like the
heir of a king, none other is fit for him.' And the king said,
'That is not fair; they had better be married to the children of
the general.'
"And the queen said,
'It is you who are not dealing rightly with me.' And the king
answered, 'If I have no more than these two children, is it right
that they should marry one another? I will marry Na.nefer.ka.ptah
to the daughter of an officer, and Ahura to the son of another
officer. It has often been done so in our family.'
"And at a time when
there was a great feast before the king, they came to fetch me to
the feast. And I was very troubled, and did not behave as I used
to do. And the king said to me, 'Ahura, have you sent some one to
me about this sorry matter, saying, "Let me be married to my
elder brother"? 'I said to him, 'Well, let me marry the
son
AHURA'S TALE
91
of an officer, and
he marry the daughter of another officer, as it often happens so
in our family.' I laughed, and the king laughed. And the king
told the steward of the palace, 'Let them take Ahura to the house
of Na.nefer.ka.ptah to-night, and all kinds of good things with
her.' So they brought me as a wife to the house of
Na.nefer.ka.ptah; and the king ordered them to give me presents
of silver and gold, and things from the palace.
"And
Na.nefer.ka.ptah passed a happy time with me, and received all
the presents from the palace; and we loved one another. And when
I expected a child, they told the king, and he was most heartily
glad; and he sent me many things, and a present of the best
silver and gold and linen. And when the time came, I bore this
little child that is before you. And they gave him the name of
Mer-ab, and registered him in the book of the 'House of
life.'
"And when my brother
Na.nefer.ka.ptah
92 SETNA AND THE MAGIC
BOOK
went to the cemetery
of Memphis, he did nothing on earth but read the writings that
are in the catacombs of the kings, and the tablets of the 'House
of life,' and the
READING THE
INSCRIPTION.
inscriptions that
are seen on the monuments, and he worked hard on the writings.
And there was a priest there called Nesi-ptah; and as
Na.nefer.ka.ptah went into a
AHURA'S TALE
93
temple to pray, it
happened that he went behind this priest, and was reading the
inscriptions that were on the chapels of the gods. And the priest
mocked him and laughed. So Na.nefer.ka.ptah said to him, 'Why are
you laughing at me?' And he replied, 'I was not laughing at you,
or if I happened to do so, it was at your reading writings that
are worthless. If you wish so much to read writings, come to me,
and I will bring you to the place where the book is which Thoth
himself wrote with his own hand, and which will bring you to the
gods. When you read but two pages in this you will enchant the
heaven, the earth, the abyss, the mountains, and the sea; you
shall know what the birds of the sky and the crawling things are
saying; you shall see the fishes of the deep, for a divine power
is there to bring them up out of the depth. And when you read the
second page, if you are in the world of ghosts, you will become
again in the shape you were in on earth. You will
94 SETNA AND THE MAGIC
BOOK
see the sun shining
in the sky, with all the gods, and the full moon.'
"And
Na.nefer.ka.ptah said, 'By the life of the king! Tell me of
anything you want
SENDING THE
SILVER.
done and I'll do it
for you, if you will only send me where this book is.' And the
priest answered Na.nefer.ka.ptah, 'If you want to go to the place
where the book is, you must
AHURA'S TALE
95
give me a hundred
pieces of silver for my funeral, and provide that they shall bury
me as a rich priest.' So Na.nefer.ka.ptah called his lad and told
him to give the priest a hundred pieces of silver; and he made
them do as he wished, even everything that he asked for. Then the
priest said to Na.nefer.ka.ptah, 'This book is in the middle of
the river at Koptos, in an iron box; in the iron box is a bronze
box; in the bronze box is a sycamore box; in the sycamore box is
an ivory and ebony box; in the ivory and ebony box is a silver
box; in the silver box is a golden box, and in that is the book.
It is twisted all round with snakes and scorpions and all the
other crawling things around the box in which the book is; and
there is a deathless snake by the box.' And when the priest told
Na.nefer.ka.ptah, he did not know where on earth he was, he was
so much delighted.
"And when he came
from the temple he told me all that had happened to him.
And
96 SETNA AND THE MAGIC
BOOK
he said, 'I shall go
to Koptos, for I must fetch this book; I will not stay any longer
in the north.' And I said, 'Let me dissuade you, for you prepare
sorrow and you will bring me into trouble in the Thebaid.' And I
laid my hand on Na.nefer.ka.ptah, to keep him from going to
Koptos, but he would not listen to me; and he went to the king,
and told the king all that the priest had said. The king asked
him, 'What is it that you want?' and he replied, 'Let them give
me the royal boat with its belongings, for I will go to the south
with Ahura and her little boy Mer-ab, and fetch this book without
delay.' So they gave him the royal boat with its belongings, and
we went with him to the haven, and sailed from there up to
Koptos.
"Then the priests of
Isis of Koptos, and the high priest of Isis, came down to us
without waiting, to meet Na.nefer.ka.ptah, and their wives also
came to me. We went into the temple of Isis and Harpokrates;
and
AHURA'S TALE
97
Na.nefer.ka.ptah
brought an ox, a goose, and some wine, and made a burnt-offering
and a drink-offering before Isis of Koptos and Harpokrates. They
brought us to a very
THE PRIESTS'
WIVES.
fine house, with
all good things; and Na.nefer.ka.ptah spent four days there and
feasted with the priests of Isis of Koptos, and the wives of the
priests of Isis also made holiday with me.
8
98 SETNA AND THE MAGIC
BOOK
"And the morning of
the fifth day came; and Na.nefer.ka.ptah called a priest to him,
and made a magic cabin that was full of men and tackle. He put
the spell upon it, and put life in it, and gave them breath, and
sank it in the water. He filled the royal boat with sand, and
took leave of me, and sailed from the haven: and I sat by the
river at Koptos that I might see what would become of him. And he
said, 'Workmen, work for me, even at the place where the book
is.' And they toiled by night and by day; and when they had
reached it in three days, he threw the sand out, and made a shoal
in the river. And then he found on it entwined serpents and
scorpions and all kinds of crawling things around the box in
which the book was; and by it he found a deathless snake around
the box. And he laid the spell upon the entwined serpents and
scorpions and all kinds of crawling things which were around the
box, that they should not come out. And he went to the deathless
snake, and fought with
AHURA'S TALE
99
him, and killed him;
but he came to life again, and took a new form. He then fought
again with him a second time; but he came to life again, and took
a third form. He then cut him in two parts, and put
sand
SLAYING THE
SNAKE.
between the parts,
that he should not appear again.
"Na.nefer.ka.ptah
then went to the place where he found the box. He uncovered a box
of iron, and opened it; he found then a box of bronze, and opened
that; then he found
100 SETNA AND THE MAGIC
BOOK
a box of sycamore
wood, and opened that; again, he found a box of ivory and ebony,
and opened that; yet, he found a box of silver, and opened that;
and then he found a box of gold; he opened that, and found the
book in it. He took the book from the golden box, and read a page
of spells from it. He enchanted the heaven and the earth, the
abyss, the mountains, and the sea; he knew what the birds of the
sky, the fish of the deep, and the beasts of the hills all said.
He read another page of the spells, and saw the sun shining in
the sky, with all the gods, the full moon, and the stars in their
shapes; he saw the fishes of the deep, for a divine power was
present that brought them up from the water. He then read the
spell upon the workmen that he had made, and taken from the
haven, and said to them, 'Work for me, back to the place from
which I came.' And they toiled night and day, and so he came back
to the place where I sat by the river of Koptos; I had not drunk
nor
AHURA'S TALE
101
eaten anything, and
had done nothing on earth, but sat like one who is gone to the
grave.
"I then told
Na.nefer.ka.ptah that I wished to see this book, for which we had
taken so much trouble. He gave the book into my hands; and when I
read a page of the spells in it I also enchanted heaven and
earth, the abyss, the mountains, and the sea; I also knew what
the birds of the sky, the fishes of the deep, and the beasts of
the hills all said. I read another page of the spells, and I saw
the sun shining in the sky with all the gods, the full moon, and
the stars in their shapes; I saw the fishes of the deep, for a
divine power was present that brought them up from the water. As
I could not write, I asked Na.nefer.ka.ptah, who was a good
writer, and a very learned one; he called for a new piece of
papyrus, and wrote on it all that was in the book before him. He
dipped it in beer, and washed it off in the liquid; for he knew
that if it were washed off, and he
102 SETNA AND THE MAGIC
BOOK .
drank it, he would
know all that there was in the writing.
"We returned back to
Koptos the same day, and made a feast before Isis of Koptos and
Harpokrates. We then went to the haven and sailed, and went
northward of Koptos. And as we went on Thoth discovered all that
Na.nefer.ka.ptah had done with the book; and Thoth hastened to
tell Ra, and said, 'Now know that my book and my revelation are
with Na.nefer.ka.ptah, son of the King Mer.neb.ptah. He has
forced himself into my place, and robbed it, and seized my box
with the writings, and killed my guards who protected it.' And Ra
replied to him, 'He is before you, take him and all his kin.'He
sent a power from heaven with the command, 'Do not let
Na.nefer.ka.ptah return safe to Memphis with all his kin.' And
after this hour, the little boy Mer-ab, going out from the awning
of the royal boat, fell into the river: he called on Ra, and
everybody who was on the bank raised a cry.
Na.nefer.ka.
AHURA'S TALE
103
ptah went out of the
cabin, and read the spell over him; he brought his body up
because a divine power brought him to the surface. He read
another spell over him, and made him tell of all what happened to
him, and of what Thoth had said before Ra.
"We turned back with
him to Koptos. We brought him to the Good House, we fetched the
people to him, and made one embalm him; and we buried him in his
coffin in the cemetery of Koptos like a great and noble
person.
"And
Na.nefer.ka.ptah, my brother, said, 'Let us go down, let us not
delay, for the king has not yet heard of what has happened to
him, and his heart will be sad about it.' So we went to the
haven, we sailed, and did not stay to the north of Koptos. When
we were come to the place where the little boy Mer-ab had fallen
in the water, I went out from the awning of the royal boat, and I
fell into the river. They called Na.nefer.ka.ptah, and he came
out from the cabin of the royal
104 SETNA AND THE MAGIC
BOOK
boat; he read a
spell over me, and brought my body up, because a divine power
brought me to the surface. He drew me out, and read the spell
over me, and made me tell him
READING THE
SPELL.
of all that had
happened to me, and of what Thoth had said before Ra. Then he
turned back with me to Koptos, he brought me to the Good House,
he fetched the people to me, and made one embalm me, as great and
noble people are buried, and laid me in the tomb where Mer-ab my
young child was.
AHURA'S TALE
105
"He turned to the
haven, and sailed down, and delayed not in the north of Koptos.
When he was come to the place where we fell
re.
REMORSE.
into the river, he
said to his heart, 'Shall I not better turn back again to Koptos,
that I may lie by them? For, if not, when I go down to Memphis,
and the king asks after
106 SETNA AND THE MAGIC
BOOK
his children, what
shall I say to him? Can I tell him, "I have taken your children
to the Thebaid, and killed them, while I remained alive, and I
have come to Memphis still alive"?' Then he made them bring him a
linen cloth of striped byssus; he made a band, and bound the book
firmly, and tied it upon him. Na.nefer.ka.ptah then went out of
the awning of the royal boat and fell into the river. He cried on
Ra; and all those who were on the bank made an outcry, saying,
'Great woe! Sad woe! Is he lost, that good scribe and able man
that has no equal?'
"The royal boat went
on, without any one on earth knowing where Na.nefer.ka.ptah was.
It went on to Memphis, and they told all this to the king. Then
the king went down to the royal boat in mourning, and all the
soldiers and high priests and priests of Ptah were in mourning,
and all the officials and courtiers. And when he saw
Na.nefer.ka.ptah, who was in the inner cabin of the
AHURA'S TALE
107
royal boat--from his
rank of high scribe--he lifted him up. And they saw the book by
him; and the king said, 'Let one hide this book that is with
him.' And the officers of the king, the priests of Ptah, and the
high priest of Ptah, said to the king, 'Our Lord, may the king
live as long as the sun! Na.nefer.ka.ptah was a good scribe, and
a very skilful man.' And the king had him laid in his Good House
to the sixteenth day, and then had him wrapped to the
thirty-fifth day, and laid him out to the seventieth day, and
then had him put in his grave in his resting-place.
"I have now told you
the sorrow which has come upon us because of this book for which
you ask, saying, 'Let it be given to me.' You have no claim to
it; and, indeed, for the sake of it, we have given up our life on
earth."
And Setna said to
Ahura, "Give me the
108 SETNA AND THE MAGIC
BOOK
book which I see
between you and Na.nefer.ka.ptah; for if you do not I will take
it by force." Then Na.nefer.ka.ptah rose from his seat and said,
"Are you Setna, to whom
SETNA DEMANDING THE
ROLL.
my wife has told of
all these blows of fate, which you have not suffered? Can you
take this book by your skill as a good scribe? If, indeed, you
can play games with
SETNA AND THE MAGIC
BOOK 109
me, let us play a
game, then, of 52 points." And Setna said, "I am ready," and the
board and its pieces were put before him. And Na.nefer.ka.ptah
won a game from Setna; and he put the spell upon him,
and
SETNA
VANQUISHED.
defended himself
with the game board that was before him, and sunk him into the
ground above his feet. He did the same at the second game, and
won it from Setna, and sunk him into the ground to his
waist.
110 SETNA AND THE MAGIC
BOOK
He did the same at
the third game, and made him sink into the ground up to his ears.
Then Setna struck Na.nefer.ka.ptah a great blow with his hand.
And Setna called his brother An.he.hor.eru and said to
him,
APPLYING THE
TALISMAN.
"Make haste and go
up upon earth, and tell the king all that has happened to me, and
bring me the talisman of my father Ptah, and my magic
books."
And he hurried up
upon earth, and told
SETNA AND THE MAGIC BOOK
111
the king all that
had happened to Setna. The king said, "Bring him the talisman of
his father Ptah, and his magic books." And An.he.hor.eru hurried
down into the tomb;
SETNA
VICTORIOUS.
he laid the
talisman on Setna, and he sprang up again immediately. And then
Setna reached out his hand for the book, and took it. Then--as
Setna went out from the
112 SETNA AND THE MAGIC
BOOK
tomb--there went a
Light before him, and Darkness behind him. And Ahura wept at him,
and she said, "Glory to the King of Darkness! Hail to the King of
Light! all power is gone from the tomb." But Na.nefer.ka.ptah
said to Ahura, "Do not let your heart be sad; I will make him
bring back this book, with a forked stick in his hand, and a
fire-pan on his head." And Setna went out from the tomb, and it
closed behind him as it was before.
Then Setna went to
the king, and told him everything that had happened to him with
the book. And the king said to Setna, "Take back the book to the
grave of Na.nefer.ka.ptah, like a prudent man, or else he will
make you bring it with a forked stick in your hand, and a
fire-pan on your head." But Setna would not listen to him; and
when Setna had unrolled the book he did nothing on earth but read
it to everybody.
[Here follows a
story of how Setna, walking in the court of the temple of Ptah,
met
SETNA AND THE MAGIC
BOOK 113
Tabubua, a
fascinating girl, daughter of a priest of Bast, of Ankhtaui; how
she repelled his advances, until she had beguiled him into giving
up all his possessions, and
SETNA READING THE
ROLL.
slaying his
children. At the last she gives a fearful cry and vanishes,
leaving Setna bereft of even his clothes. This would seem to be
merely a dream, by the disappearance of Tabubua, and by Setna
finding 9
114 SETNA AND THE MAGIC
BOOK
his children alive
after it all; but on the other hand he comes to his senses in an
unknown place, and is so terrified as to be quite ready to make
restitution to Na.nefer.ka.ptah. The episode, which is not
creditable to Egyptian society, seems to be intended for one of
the vivid dreams which the credulous readily accept as half
realities.]
So Setna went to
Memphis, and embraced his children for that they were alive. And
the king said to him, "Were you not drunk to do so?" Then Setna
told all things that had happened with Tabubua and Na.nefer.
ka.ptah. And the king said, "Setna, I have already lifted up my
hand against you before, and said, 'He will kill you if you do
not take back the book to the place you took it from.' But you
have never listened to me till this hour. Now, then, take the
book to Na.nefer.ka.ptah, with a forked stick in your hand, and a
fire-pan on your head."
So Setna went out
from before the king, with a forked stick in his hand, and a
fire-
SETNA AND THE MAGIC
BOOK 115
pan on his head. He
went down to the tomb in which was Na.nefer.ka.ptah. And Ahura
said to him, "It is Ptah, the great god, that has brought you
back safe." Na.nefer.ka.ptah laughed, and he said, "This is the
business that I told you before." And when Setna had praised
Na.nefer.ka.ptah, he found it as the proverb says, "The sun was
in the whole tomb." And Ahura and Na.nefer.ka.ptah besought Setna
greatly. And Setna said, "Na.nefer.ka.ptah, is it aught
disgraceful (that you lay on me to do)?" And Na.nefer.ka.ptah
said, "Setna, you know this, that Ahura and Mer-ab, her child,
behold! they are in Koptos; bring them here into this tomb, by
the skill of a good scribe. Let it be impressed upon you to take
pains, and to go to Koptos to bring them here." Setna then went
out from the tomb to the king, and told the king all that
Na.nefer.ka.ptah had told him.
The king said,
"Setna, go to Koptos and bring back Ahura and Mer-ab."
He
116 SETNA AND THE MAGIC
BOOK
answered the king,
"Let one give me the royal boat and its belongings." And they
gave him the royal boat and its belongings, and he left the
haven, and sailed without stopping till he came to
Koptos.
And they made this
known to the priests of Isis at Koptos and to the high priest of
Isis; and behold they came down to him, and gave him their hand
to the shore. He went up with them and entered into the temple of
Isis of Koptos and of Harpo-krates. He ordered one to offer for
him an ox, a goose, and some wine, and he made a burnt-offering
and a drink-offering before Isis of Koptos and Harpokrates. He
went to the cemetery of Koptos with the priests of Isis and the
high priest of Isis. They dug about for three days and three
nights, for they searched even in all the catacombs which were in
the cemetery of Koptos; they turned over the steles of the
scribes of the "double house of life," and read the inscriptions
that they found on them. But
SETNA AND THE MAGIC
BOOK 117
they could not find
the resting-place of Ahura and Mer-ab.
Now Na.nefer.ka.ptah
perceived that they could not find the resting-place of Ahura and
her child Mer-ab. So he raised himself up as a venerable, very
old, ancient, and came before Setna. And Setna saw him, and Setna
said to the ancient, "You look like a very old man, do you know
where is the resting-place of Ahura and her child Mer-ab?" The
ancient said to Setna, "It was told by the father of the father
of my father to the father of my father, and the father of my
father has told it to my father; the resting-place of Ahura and
of her child Mer-ab is in a mound south of the town of Pehemato
(?)" And Setna said to the ancient, "Perhaps we may do damage to
Pehemato, and you are ready to lead one to the town for the sake
of that." The ancient replied to Setna, "If one listens to me,
shall he therefore destroy the town of Pehemato! If they do not
find Ahura and her child
118 SETNA AND THE MAGIC
BOOK
Mer-ab under the
south corner of their town may I be disgraced." They attended to
the ancient, and found the resting-place of Ahura and her child
Mer-ab under the south corner of the town of Pehemato. Setna laid
them in the royal boat to bring them as honoured persons, and
restored the town of Pehemato as it originally was. And
Na.nefer.ka.ptah made Setna to know that it was he who had come
to Koptos, to enable them to find out where the resting-place was
of Ahura and her child Mer-ab.
So Setna left the
haven in the royal boat, and sailed without stopping, and reached
Memphis with all the soldiers who were with him. And when they
told the king he came down to the royal boat. He took them as
honoured persons escorted to the catacombs, in which
Na.nefer.ka.ptah was, and smoothed down the ground over
them.
This is the
completed writing of the tale of Setna Kha.em.uast, and
Na.nefer.ka.-ptah, and
REMARKS 119
his wife Ahura,
and their Mid Mer-ab. It was written in the 35th year, the
month Tybi.
REMARKS
This tale of Setna
only exists in one copy, a demotic papyrus in the Ghizeh Museum.
The demotic was published in facsimile by Mariette in 1871, among
"Les Papyrus du Musee de Boulaq; " and it has been translated by
Brugsch, Revillout, Maspero, and Hess. The last version--"Der
Demotische Roman von Stne Ha-m-us, von J. J. Hess"--being a full
study of the text with discussion and glossary, has been followed
here; while the interpretation of Maspero has also been kept in
view in the rendering of obscure passages.
Unhappily the
opening of this tale is lost, and I have therefore restored it by
a recital of the circumstances which are referred to in what
remains. Nothing has been introduced
120 SETNA AND THE MAGIC
BOOK
which is not
necessarily involved or stated in the existing text. The limit of
this restoration is marked by ]; the papyrus beginning with the
words, "It is you who are not dealing rightly with
me."
The construction is
complicated by the mixture of times and persons; and we must
remember that it was written in the Ptolemaic period concerning
an age long past. It stood to the author much as Tennyson's
"Harold" stands to us, referring to an historical age, without
too strict a tie to facts and details. Five different acts, as we
may call them, succeed one another. In the first act--which is
entirely lost, and here only outlined--the circumstances which
led Setna of the XlXth Dynasty to search for the magic book must
have been related. In the second act Ahura recites the long
history of herself and family, to deter Setna from his purpose.
This act is a complete tale by itself, and belongs to a time some
generations before Setna; it is here supposed to belong to the
time of Amenhotep
REMARKS 121
III., in the
details of costume adopted for illustration. The third act is
Setna's struggle as a rival magician to Na.nefer.ka.ptah, from
which he finally comes off victorious by his brother's use of a
talisman, and so secures possession of the coveted magic book.
The fourth act--which I have here only summarised--shows how
Na.nefer.ka.ptah resorts to a bewitchment of Setna by a sprite,
by subjection to whom he loses his magic power. The fifth act
shows Setna as subjected to Na.nefer.ka.ptah, and ordered by him
to bring the bodies of his wife and child to Memphis into his
tomb.
While, therefore,
the sentimental climax of the tale--the restoration of the unity
of the family in one tomb--belongs to persons of the XVIIIth
Dynasty, the action of the tale is entirely of the XlXth Dynasty,
for what happened in the XVIIIth Dynasty (second act) is all
related in the XlXth. And the actual composition of it belongs to
Ptolemaic times, not only on the evidence of the
manuscript,
122 SETNA AND THE MAGIC
BOOK
but also of the
language; this being certified by the importance of Isis and
Horus at Koptos, which is essentially a late worship
there.
Turning now to the
details, we may note that the statement that Setna Kha.em.uast
was a son of User.maat.ra (or Ramessu II.) occurs in the fourth
act which is here only summarised. Among the sons of Ramessu
historically known, the Prince Kha.em.uast (or "Glory-in-Thebes
") was the most important; he appears to have been the eldest
son, exercising the highest offices during his father's life.
That the succession fell on the thirteenth son, Mer.en.ptah, was
doubtless due to the elder sons having died during the
preternaturally long reign of Ramessu.
The other main
personage here is Na.nefer.ka.ptah (or "Excellent is the
ka of Ptah "), who is said to be the son of a King
Mer.neb. ptah. No such name is known among historical kings; and
it is probably a popular corruption or abbreviation. It was
pro-
REMARKS 123
nounced Minibptah,
the r being dropped in early times. It would seem most like
Mine-ptah or Mer.en.ptah, the son and successor of Ramessu II.;
but as the date of Mer.neb.ptah is supposed to be some
generations before that, such a supposition would involve a great
confusion on the scribes' part. Another possibility is that it
represents Amenhotep III., Neb.maat.ra.mer.ptah, pronounced as
Nimu-rimiptah, which might be shortened to Neb. mer.ptah or
Mer.neb.ptah. Such a time would well suit the tale, and that
reign has been adopted here in fixing the style of the dress of
Ahura and her family.
This tale shows how
far the ka or double might wander from its body or tomb.
Here Ahura and her child lie buried at Koptos, while her
husband's tomb is at Memphis. But that does not separate them in
death; her ka left her tomb and went down to Memphis to
live with the ka of her husband in his tomb. Thus, when
Setna forces the tomb of Na.nefer.ka.ptah, he finds Ahura seated
by
124 SETNA AND THE MAGIC
BOOK
him with the
precious magic roll between them and the child Mer-ab; and the
voluble Ahura recounts all their history, and weeps when the roll
is carried away by Setna. Yet all the time her body is at Koptos,
and the penalty imposed on Setna is that of bringing her body to
the tomb where her ka already was dwelling. If a ka
could thus wander so many hundred miles from its body to gratify
its affections, it would doubtless run some risks of starving, or
having to put up with impure food; or might even lose its way,
and rather than intrude on the wrong tomb, have to roam as a
vagabond ka. It was to guard against these misfortunes
that a supply of formulas were provided for it, by which it
should obtain a guarantee against such misfortunes--a kind of
spiritual directory or guide to the unprotected; and such
formulas, when once accepted as valid, were copied, repeated,
enlarged, and added to, until they became the complex and
elaborate work--The Book of the Dead, Perhaps nothing
else
REMARKS 125
gives such a view
of the action of the ka as this tale of Setna.
There is here also
an insight into the arrangement of marriages in Egypt. It does
not seem that anything was determined about a marriage during
childhood; it is only when the children are full-grown that a
dispute arises between the king and queen as to their disposal.
But the parents decide the whole question. It is, of course, well
known that the Egyptians had no laws against consanguinity in
marriages; on the contrary, it was with them, as with the
Persians, essential for a king to marry in the royal family, and
also usual for private persons to marry in their family. Even to
the present day in Egypt, although sister-marriage has
disappeared, yet it is the duty of a man to marry his first
cousin or some one in the family. The very idea of relationship
being any possible impediment to marriage was un-thought of by
the Egyptian; his favourite concrete expression for a
self-existent or self-
126 SETNA AND THE MAGIC
BOOK
created
being--"husband of his mother "--shows this
unmistakably.
The objection made
by the king to the marriage of Na.nefer.ka.ptah and Ahura turns
on the point that he has only these two children, and hence, if
they marry the children of the generals, there will be two
families instead of only one to ensure future posterity. The
queen, however, talks the king over on the matter. The cause of
Ahura's being troubled at the feast is not certain, but the king
evidently supposes that she has been pleading to be allowed to
marry her beloved brother, and when taxed with it she only
expresses her willingness to give way to his exogamic views. The
brief sentence, "I laughed and the king laughed," seems to mean
that she pleased and amused her father so that he gave way, and
immediately told the steward to arrange for her marriage as she
desired. I have here abbreviated a few needlessly precise
details. We also learn, by the way, that there was a regular
registry of births, in which Mer-ab was entered.
REMARKS 127
It appears that the
court was considered to be at Memphis, and not at Thebes. This
would not have been so arranged had this been written in the
Ramesside times, but under the Ptolemies Memphis was the seat of
the court--when not at Alexandria. The name of the priest,
Nesi-ptah, also shows another anachronism. Such a name was not
usual till some time after the XlXth Dynasty. Another touch of
late times is in the antiquarian curiosity of Na.nefer.ka.ptah
about ancient writings, "He did nothing on earth but read the
writings that are in the catacombs of the kings, and the tablets
of the House of Life." In the XlXth Dynasty there is no sign of
interest in such records, but in the Renascence ancient things
came into fashion, all the old titles were revived, the old style
was copied, and very long genealogies were worked up and carved
in the inscriptions. In such an age many a dilettante rich
young man would amuse himself, as in this tale, with reading
inscriptions
128 SETNA AND THE MAGIC
BOOK
and hunting up his
family genealogy from the tombstones and the
registers.
The firm belief in
magic which underlies all this tale might perhaps be thought to
be inappropriate to the enlightenment of Greek times. We have
seen how in the earliest tales magic is a mainspring of the
action, and it is at first sight surprising that its sway should
last through so many thousands of years. But there may well have
been a recrudescence of such beliefs, along with the revival of
interest in the earlier history. The enormous spread and
popularity of Gnosticism--the belief in the efficacy of words and
formulas to control spirits and their actions--in the centuries
immediately after this, shows how ingrained magic ideas were, and
how ready to sprout up when the counterbalancing interests of the
old mythology were gone, and their place taken by the intangible
spirituality of Platonism and the early Christian
atmosphere.
A most Egyptian
turn is given where the
REMARKS 129
priest bargains for
a large payment for his funeral, and to be buried as a rich
priest. The enclosing of the magic roll in a series of boxes has
many parallels. In an Indian tale we read: "Round the tree are
tigers and bears and scorpions and snakes; on the top of the tree
is a very fat great snake; on his head is a little cage; in the
cage is a bird; and my soul is in that bird" ("Golden Bough," ii.
300). In Celtic tales the series-idea also occurs. The soul of a
giant is in an egg, the egg is in a dove, the dove is in a hare,
the hare is in a wolf, and the wolf is in an iron chest at the
bottom of the sea ("Golden Bough," ii. 314). The Tartars have
stories of a golden casket containing the soul, inside a copper
or silver casket ("Golden Bough," ii. 324). And the Arabs tell of
a soul put in the crop of a sparrow, and the sparrow in a little
box, and this in another small box, and this put into seven other
boxes, and these in seven chests, and the chest in a coffer of
marble ("Golden 10
130 SETNA AND THE MAGIC
BOOK
Bough," ii. 318).
The notion, therefore, of a series of boxes, one enclosing
another, and the whole guarded by dangerous animals, is well
known as an element in tales. The late date is here shown by the
largest and least precious of the boxes being of iron, which was
rarely, if ever, used in Ramesside times, and was not common till
the Greek age.
The magic
engineering of Na.nefer.ka. ptah is very curious. The cabin or
air-chamber of men in model, who are let down to work for him,
suggests that Egyptians may have used the principle of a
diving-bell or air-chamber for reaching parts under water.
Certainly the device of raising things by dropping down sand to
be put under them is still practised. An immense sarcophagus at
Gizeh was raised from a deep well by natives who thrust sand
under it rammed tight by a stick, and by this simple kind of
hydraulic press raised it a hundred feet to the surface. In this
way the magic men of Na.nefer.ka.ptah raised up the chest
when
REMARKS 131
they had discovered
it by means of the sand which he poured over from the
boat.
There is some
picturesqueness in this tale, though it has not the charm of the
earlier compositions. The scene of Ahura sitting for three days
and nights, during the combat, watching by the side of the river,
where she "had not drunk or eaten anything, and had done nothing
on earth but sat like one who is gone to the grave," is a
touching detail.
The light on the
education of women is curious. Ahura can read the roll, but she
cannot write. We are so accustomed to regard reading and writing
as all one subject that the distinction is rare; but with a
writing comprising so many hundred signs as the Egyptian, the art
of writing or draw-Ing all the forms, and knowing which to use,
is far more complex than that of reading. There are now ten
students who can read an inscription for one who could compose it
correctly. Here a woman of the highest rank is supposed to be
able to read, but not
132 SETNA AND THE MAGIC
BOOK
to write; that is
reserved for the skill of "a good writer, and a very learned
one."
The writing of
spells and then washing the ink off and drinking it is a familiar
idea in the East. Modern Egyptian bowls have charms engraved on
them to be imparted to the drink, and ancient Babylonian bowls
are inscribed with the like purpose.
An insight into the
powers of the gods is here given us. The Egyptian did not
attribute to them omniscience. Thoth only discovered what
Na.nefer.ka.ptah had done as they were sailing away, some days
after the seizure of the book. And even Ra is informed by the
complaint of Thoth. If Ra were the physical sun it would be
obvious that he would see all that was being done on earth; it
would rather be he who would inform Thoth. The conception of the
gods must therefore have been not pantheistic or materialist, but
solely as spiritual powers who needed to obtain information, and
who only could act through intermediaries. Further,
REMARKS 133
nothing can be done
without the consent of Ra; Thoth is powerless over men, and can
only ask Ra, as a sort of universal magistrate, to take notice of
the offence. Neither god acts directly, but by means of a power
or angel, who takes the commission to work on men. How far this
police-court conception of the gods is due to Greek or foreign
influence can hardly be estimated yet. It certainly does not seem
in accord with the earlier appeals to Ra, and direct action of
Ra, in "Anpu and Bata."
The power of spells
is limited, as we have just seen the abilities of the gods were
limited. The most powerful of spells, the magic book of Thoth
himself, cannot restore life to a person just drowned. All that
Na. nefer.ka.ptah can do with the spell is to cause the body to
float and to speak, but it remains so truly dead that it is
buried as if no spell had been used. Now it was recognised that
the ka could move about and speak to living persons, as
Ahura does to
134 SETNA AND THE MAGIC
BOOK
Setna. Hence all
that the spells do is not to alter the course of nature, but only
to put the person into touch and communication with the
ever-present supernatural, to enable him to know what the birds,
the fishes, and the beasts all said, and to see the
unseen.
Modern conceptions
of the spiritual are so bound up with the sense of omnipresence
and omniscience that we are apt to read those ideas into the gods
and the magic of the ancients. Here we have to deal with gods who
have to obtain information, and who order powers to act for them,
with spells which extend the senses to the unseen, but which do
not affect natural results and changes.
The inexorable fate
in this tale which brings one after another of the family to die
in the same spot is not due to Greek influence, though it seems
akin to that. In the irrepressible transmigrations of Bata, and
the successive risks of the Doomed Prince, the same ideas are
seen working in the
REMARKS 135
Egyptian mind. The
remorse of Na.nefer.ka.ptah is a stronger touch of conscience and
of shame than is seen in early times.
There is an
unexplained point in the action as to how Na.nefer.ka.ptah, with
the book upon him, comes up from the water, after he is drowned,
into the cabin of the royal boat. The narrator had a difficulty
to account for the recovery of the body without the use of the
magic book, and so that stage is left unnoticed. The successive
stages of embalming and mourning are detailed. The sixteen days
in the Good House is probably the period of treatment of the
body, the time up to the thirty-fifth day that of wrapping and
decoration of the mummy cartonnage, and then the thirty-five days
more of lying in state until the burial.
We now reach the
third act, of Setna's struggle to get the magic roll. Here the
strange episode comes in of the rival magicians gambling; it
recalls the old tale of Rampsinitus descending into Hades and
play-
136 SETNA AND THE MAGIC
BOOK
ing at dice with
Ceres, and the frequent presence of draught-boards in the tombs,
shows how much the ka was supposed to relish such
pleasures. The regular Egyptian game-board had three rows of ten
squares, or thirty in all. Such are found from the XIIth Dynasty
down to Greek times; but this form has now entirely disappeared,
and the man-galah of two rows of six holes, or the
tab of four rows of nine holes, have taken its place. Both
of these are side games, where different sides belong to opposite
players. The commoner siga is a square game, five rows of
five, or seven rows of seven holes, and has no personal sides.
The ancient game was played with two, or perhaps three, different
kinds of men, and the squares were counted from one end along the
outer edge; but what the rules were, or how a game of fifty-two
points was managed, has not yet been explained.
The strange scene
of Setna being sunk into the ground portion by portion, as he
loses
REMARKS 137
successive games,
is parallel to a mysterious story among the dervishes in
Palestine. They tell how the three holy shekhs of the Dervish
orders, Bedawi, Erfa'i, and Desuki, went in succession to Baghdad
to ask for a jar of water of Paradise from the Derwisha Bint
Bari, who seems to be a sky-genius, controlling the meteors. The
last applicant, Desuki, was refused like the others; so he said,
"Earth! swallow her," and the earth swallowed her to her knees;
still she gave not the water, so he commanded the earth, and she
was swallowed to her waist; a third time she refused, and she was
swallowed to her breasts; she then asked him to marry her, which
he would not; a fourth time she refused the water and was
swallowed to her neck. She then ordered a servant to bring the
water ("Palestine Exploration Statement, 1894," p. 32). The
resemblance is most remarkable in two tales two thousand years
apart; and the incident of Bint Bari asking the dervish to marry
her has its connection with this tale. Had
138 SETNA AND THE MAGIC
BOOK
the dervish done so
he would--according to Eastern beliefs--have lost his magic power
over her, just as Setna loses his magic power by his alliance
with Tabubua, to which he is tempted by Na.nefer.ka.ptah, in
order to subdue him. The talisman here is a means of subduing
magic powers, and is of more force than that of Thoth, as Ptah is
greater than he.
The fourth act
recounts the overcoming of the power of Setna by
Na.nefer.ka.ptah, who causes Tabubua to lead to the loss of his
superior magic, and thus to subdue him to the magic of his rival.
Ankhtaui, here named as the place of Tabubua, was a quarter of
Memphis, which is also named as the place of the wife of Uba-aner
in the first tale.
The fifth act
describes the victory of Na.nefer.ka.ptah, and his requiring
Setna to reunite the family in his tomb at Memphis. The contrast
between Ahura's pious ascription to Ptah, and her husband's
chuckle at
REMARKS 139
seeing his magic
successful, is remarkable. Setna at once takes the position of an
inferior by addressing praises to Na.nefer.ka.ptah: after which
the tomb became bright as it was before he took away the magic
roll. Setna then having made restitution, is required to give
some compensation as well.
The search for the
tomb of Ahura and Mer-ab is a most tantalising passage. The great
cemetery of Koptos is the scene, and the search occupies three
days and nights in the catacombs and on the steles. Further, the
tomb was at the south corner of the town of Pehemato, as Maspero
doubtfully reads it. Yet this cemetery is now quite unknown, and
in spite of all the searching of the native dealers, and the
examination which I have made on the desert of both sides of the
Nile, it is a mystery where the cemetery can be. The statement
that the tomb was at the south corner of a town pretty well
excludes it from the desert, which runs north and
140 SETNA AND THE MAGIC
BOOK
south there. And it
seems as if it might have been in some raised land in the plain,
like the spur or shoal on which the town of Koptos was built. If
so it would have been covered by the ten to twenty feet rise of
the Nile deposits since the time of its former use.
The appearance of
the ancient to guide Setna gives some idea of the time that
elapsed between then and the death of Ahura. The ancient, who
must be allowed to represent two or three generations, says that
his great-grandfather knew of the burial, which would take it
back to five or six generations. This would place the death of
Ahura about 150 years before the latter part of the reign of
Ramessu II., say 1225 B.C.: thus, being taken back to about 1375
B.C., would make her belong to the generation after Amenhotep
III., agreeing well with Mer.neb. ptah, being a corruption of the
name of that king. No argument could be founded on so slight a
basis; but at least there is no contra-
REMARKS 141
diction in the
slight indications which we can glean.
The fear of Setna
is that this apparition may have come to bring him into trouble
by leading him to attack some property in this town; and Setna is
particularly said to have restored the ground as it was before,
after removing the bodies.
The colophon at the
end is unhappily rather illegible. But the thirty-fifth year
precludes its belonging to the reign of any Ptolemy, except the
IInd or the VIIIth; and by the writing Maspero attributes it to
the earlier of these reigns.
INDEX
ACACIA,
48-57
Ahura tells her
history, 89; before the king, 90; marriage of, 91; waiting at
Koptos, 100; read, but wrote not, 101, 131; death of, 103; tomb
of, 117; re-buried, 118; wanderings of, 124
Amenhotep III.,
123
Angels, use of,
133
Anhehoreru, 87;
raises Setna, no
Anpu and Bata, 36,
&c.; tale composite, 66, 72, 74> 86
Anpu, wife of, 40;
ambush of, 44, 72; seeks the soul, 56-7; rides the bull,
59
Apis bull, 60, 80;
killed, 61, 81; eaten, 61-81; burials, 81
Atys, myth of, 73-5,
86
BA-BIRD, royal, 84
Bast, priest of, 113
Bata character of,
36, 68-9, 73; a type now seen, 68; temptation of, 41, 73;
mutilation of, 47, 73; death of, 56, 79; transformed as a bull,
58, 80; killed, 61, 82; transformed as a tree, 61, 73; killed,
63; trahsiormed as a child, 64, 74, 84; dies, 65; wife of,
created, 51, 78; taken away, 55; at the king's table, 61, 63, 80;
rides with the king, 63; vengeance on Bata, 61, 63; condemned,
65, 85; nature of, 78
Beer frothing, a
portent, 48, 56
Blood, drops of, 61,
73, 82; not to fall on ground, 82; seat of life, 83
Blue crown, 62,
83
Book of the Dead,
124
Boxes nested, 95,
129
Bread-making, 38,
69
Brothers, tale of
two, 36
144
INDEX
Bull of Bata,
58
Burial customs, 107,
135
CABIN submerged, 98,
130 Cane of Tahutmes III., 3 Captives made of civilians, 6, 10
Cattle, attention to, 38, 45, 72;
driven in at night,
70 Cemetery, search in, 116, 139 Chip, swallowed by princess, 64
Colophons, 65, 67, 118, 141 Concealment of soldiers, 4, 8
Crocodile, fate of prince, 25, 27,
33-5
DAILY tasks of
the fellah, 69 Daughter of chief, 16-23 Dervish shekhs,
137 Desertion, wholesale, 8 Dog of doomed prince, 15,
25,
27
Dogs eat the dead,
49 Doomed prince, 13-27; date of,
29 d'Orbiney
papyrus, 65
EDESSA, scheme for
taking, 9
Education,
131
Embalming, periods
of, 107,
'35
Emotional element, 32,
68, 72,
131
Enchantment by
reading, 93, 100, 133
FATE inevitable,
15, 103, 106, 134; predicted, 13, 25; nature of, 30
Favours, asking of,
61, 63, So Firepan on head, 112, 114 Forked stick, 112,
114 Fortresses taken by stratagem, 8 Frazer, Mr., "Golden
Bough,"
77
Frontiers of Egypt,
29 Fullers of Pharaoh, 53
GAME of 52 points,
108, 135 Gesture with hands, 75 Gnosticism, 128 Gods, nine, 50;
powers of, 132 "Golden Bough " quoted, 77,
&c. Golden dish
of Tahutia, 11
HAIR, lock of, 52-4,
79; tiring,
39.40
Hathor, generic
name, 30 Hathor's decree a fate, 13, 29,
51 Hawk, royal
ba, 84; on ka
name, 84 Heart, or
soul, removed, 76!
two words for, 76
Hero, parentage of, 28 Hospitality of Syrians, 19 House,
mysterious, 16, 31
INSCRIPTIONS,
reading, 92, 116,
127
Inundation, end of,
38, 71 Iron box, 95, 130 Isis of Koptos, 96, 116, 122
JOPPA, taking of,
1-7
INDEX
Joseph, story of,
71 Judgment of Bata's wife, 65
KA, name of
kings, 84; of
Ahura at Memphis,
88, 123;
wandering, 123
Khaemuast, 87, 122 Khalu, sons of chiefs of, 19 Khnumu frames a
woman, 51,
78
King flying to
heaven, 84 King's ba as a hawk, 84 Koptos, book in river
at, 95;
sailing to, 96;
priests at, 96;
tombs in, 115, 139
Kush, royal son of, 64
LIGHT in the tomb, 112,
115,
139
Liver eaten, 61, 81
Lock of hair, 52-54 Luck, 31
MAGIC book, 87, 93,
100;
cabin, 98, 130;
belief in, 128
Marriage destroys
magic power,
US, 137-8
Marriages, consanguineous, 90,
125
Memphis a
court-city, 127 Menkheperra, 1-3, 6 Merab born, 91; death of,
102;
reveals the gods,
103; burial
of, 103; reburial
of, 118 Merneb ptah, king, 88, 89, 122 Mighty man and crocodile,
25,
33
Milk for serpent,
26, 34 Mourning, 49, 106
NAHARAINA, 16, 29
Naming-day of child, 64 Naneferkaptah, 87; married, 91; reads
inscriptions, 92; gets the book, 100; beats Setna, 109; appears
to Setna, 117, 140; name of, 122 Nesi ptah, priest, 92,
127
OFFERINGS to Isis,
97, 116 Omnipresence unknown, 134
PARCAE irresistible,
31 Pehematu, 117 Persea trees, 61-3, 73, 83 Ploughing,
preparation for, 38,
71 Ptah, talisman
of, no
RA, appeal to, 45;
swearing by, 24, 47; decrees vengeance, 102; makes a wide canal,
45, 72; the supreme god, 102, 133; not the sun, 132
Ramessu II., 87,
122
Reading and writing,
101, 131
Registry of births,
126
Remorse, 105-6,
135
SACK of skins,
4
Sacks borne on
poles, 5
Sand for raising
objects, 98,
130 Sea
personified, 52, 79
It
146
INDEX
Serpent, fate of
prince, 13, 26; enticed by milk, 26, 34; guardians, 98, 129;
division of, 99
Setna Khaemuast,
122; tale in five acts, 120; enters tomb, 88; demands the roll,
89, 107; sunk in ground, 109, 137; seizes the roll, in; reads the
roll, 112; his power undone, 113, 121, 138; restores the roll,
114; reparation by, 115; goes to Koptos, 116; finds the tombs,
118; reburies Ahura, 118 Sety II., 66
Shadow may not be
lost, 34 Silver, hundred pieces of, 95;
box, 95 Sinking of
vanquished person,
109, 137
Sister-marriage, 90,
125 Smiting on the hands, 45 Snakes protect box, 95, 98 Soul,
extraction of, 48, 76, 77; placing of, 48-9, 52, 77; falls with
acacia, 56, 79; in a seed, 57; in water, 57, So; restored to
Bata, 57
Spells washed into
drink, lot, 132; read over dead, 103, 104; power limited,
133
Succubus,
113
Sutekh, god of
Joppa, 6
TABUBUA, 113,
138
Tahutia, 1-12; dish
of, 10;
funeral furniture,
12 Tahutmes III., 3 Talisman applied, no, 138 Thoth, magic book
of, 87, 93,
100; discovers
robbery, 102,
132
Tower of Bata, 49
Treachery of Tahutia, 8 Tree-worship, 62, 73, 83 Two brothers,
tale of, 36
WATER, vehicle for
soul, 57,
80 Windows, mystic,
number of,
16, 32
Woman tempts woman,
55> 79 Writing rarer than reading,
101, 131; washed
into drink,
101
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Egyptian Tales, Second Series by W. M. Flinders Petrie *** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EGYPTIAN TALES, SECOND SERIES *** This file should be named egpt210h.htm or egpt210h.zip Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, egpt211h.htm VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, egpt210ah.htm Produced by Eric Eldred Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we usually do not keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections, even years after the official publication date. Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. 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