Egyptian Tales, Translated from the Papyri: Second series, XVIIIth to XIXth dynastyPetrie, W. M. Flinders (William Matthew Flinders)
History
Egyptian Tales, Translated from the Papyri: Second series, XVIIIth to XIXth dynasty
Petrie, W. M. Flinders (William Matthew Flinders)
Egyptian literature -- Translations into English
"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
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
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 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 eaten anything, and had done nothing on earth, but sat like
one who is gone to the grave.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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