Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 13
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Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 13
Literature -- Collections
"It came to pass that I opposed the priest, saying: 'Beware of this
thing that thou hast spoken before him! Thou hast brought to me the
strife of the nome of Thebes;[89] I have found it cruel.' I caused my
hand to stay[90] with Naneferkaptah, in order not to let him go to
Koptos. He did not hearken to me; he went before Pharaoh and related
before Pharaoh everything that the priest had said to him--all. Pharaoh
said to him, 'What is it that thou desirest?'
"He said to him, 'Cause to be given to me the royal pleasure boat with
its equipment: I will take Ahura and Merab her boy to the south with me;
I will fetch this roll without delaying.'
"They gave him the royal pleasure-boat with its equipment, and we went
up on board it; we set sail and reached Koptos. And they made report of
it before the priests of Isis of Koptos and the high priest of Isis;
they came down to meet us, they delayed not to meet Naneferkaptah; their
women came down to meet me also. We went up on shore; we went into the
temple of Isis and Harpokrates, and Naneferkaptah caused to be brought
ox, goose, and wine; he made a burnt-offering and a drink-offering
before Isis of Koptos and Harpokrates. We were taken to a house
exceeding beautiful, filled with all good things, and Naneferkaptah
spent four days making a good day with the priests of Isis of Koptos,
the women of the priests of Isis making a good day with myself.
"Came the morning of our fifth day: Naneferkaptah caused to be brought
to him pure wax.[91] He made a boat, furnished with its crew and its
tackle. He read a spell to them, he caused them to live, he gave them
breath, he cast them into the sea. He loaded the royal pleasure-boat of
Pharaoh with sand; he caused the boat to be brought, he went on board. I
sat by the sea of Koptos, saying, 'I will discover what will become of
him.'
"He said, 'Boatmen, row on with me as far as the place in which this
roll is.' And they rowed by night as by midday.
"And when he reached it, in three days, he threw sand before him, then
there became a space of dry land. And when he found a mile of serpents
and scorpions, and every kind of creeping thing encompassing the box in
which the roll was, and when he found a snake of eternity encompassing
the box, he read a spell to the mile of serpents, scorpions, and every
kind of creeping thing that was around the box, and suffered them not to
leap up. He went to the place in which was the snake of eternity; he
made battle with it, he slew it. It lived; it made its form again. He
made battle with it again for a second time; he slew it: it lived. He
made battle with it again for a third time; he made it in two pieces; he
put sand between one piece and its fellow. It died; it did not make its
form ever again.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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