Egyptian Tales, Translated from the Papyri: First series, IVth to XIIth dynastyPetrie, W. M. Flinders (William Matthew Flinders)
General
Egyptian Tales, Translated from the Papyri: First series, IVth to XIIth dynasty
Petrie, W. M. Flinders (William Matthew Flinders)
Egyptian literature -- Translations into English
"Leave all the riches that thou hast, and that are with thee,
altogether. When thou shalt come into Egypt behold the palace, and when
thou shalt enter the palace, bow thy face to the ground before the Great
House; thou shalt be chief among the companions. And day by day behold
thou growest old; thy vigour is lost, and thou thinkest on the day of
burial. Thou shalt see thyself come to the blessed state, they shall
give thee the bandages from the hand of Tait, the night of applying the
oil of embalming. They shall follow thy funeral, and visit the tomb on
the day of burial, which shall be in a gilded case, the head painted
with blue, a canopy of cypress wood above thee, and oxen shall draw
thee, the singers going before thee, and they shall dance the funeral
dance. The weepers crouching at the door of thy tomb shall cry aloud
the prayers for offerings: they shall slay victims for thee at the
door of thy pit; and thy pyramid shall be carved in white stone, in
the company of the royal children. Thus thou shalt not die in a
strange land, nor be buried by the Amu; thou shalt not be laid in a
sheep-skin when thou art buried; all people shall beat the earth, and
lament on thy body when thou goest to the tomb."
When this order came to me, I was in the midst of my tribe. When it was
read unto me, I threw me on the dust, I threw dust in my hair; I went
around my tent rejoicing and saying, "How may it be that such a thing
is done to the servant, who with a rebellious heart has fled to
strange lands? Now with an excellent deliverance, and mercy delivering
me from death, thou shall cause me to end my days in the palace."
_Copy of the answer to this order._
"The follower Sanehat says: In excellent peace above everything consider
of this flight that he made here in his ignorance; Thou, the Good God,
Lord of both Lands, Loved of Ra, Favourite of Mentu, the lord of Thebes,
and of Amen, lord of thrones of the lands, of Sebek, Ra, Horus, Hathor,
Atmu, and of his fellow-gods, of Sopdu, Neferbiu, Samsetu, Horus, lord
of the east, and of the royal uraeus which rules on thy head, of the
chief gods of the waters, of Min, Horus of the desert, Urrit, mistress
of Punt, Nut, Harnekht, Ra, all the gods of the land of Egypt, and of
the isles of the sea. May they give life and peace to thy nostril, may
they load thee with their gifts, may they give to thee eternity
without end, everlastingness without bound. May the fear of thee be
doubled in the lands of the deserts. Mayest thou subdue the circuit of
the sun's disc. This is the prayer to his master of the humble servant
who is saved from a foreign land.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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