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
Anheru hastened down into the tomb; he laid the talismans on the body of
Setna, he [Setna] sprang to heaven at the moment named.[100] Setna
caused his hand to go after the roll, he took it. It came to pass that
Setna went up from the tomb, Light walking before him and Darkness
walking behind him, and Ahura weeping after him, saying, "Hail to thee,
King Darkness! Farewell to thee, King Light! All consolation is gone
that was in the tomb."
Said Naneferkaptah to Ahura, "Be not troubled of soul; I will make him
bring this book hither, there being a fork for a staff in his hand,
there being a pan of fire on his head."[101]
And Setna came up from the tomb, he made it fast behind him in its
manner.
Setna went before Pharaoh, he related before him of the thing that had
happened to him with the roll. Said Pharaoh to Setna, "Take this roll to
the tomb of Naneferkaptah in the manner of a prudent man, else he will
make thee bring it, there being a fork for a staff in thine hand, there
being a pan of fire on thine head."
Not did Setna hearken to him. It came to pass that Setna had no habit on
earth but unrolling the roll and reading it before everybody.
After these things there was a day when Setna passed time in the court
of Ptah, and saw a woman beautiful exceedingly, there being no woman of
her beauty. There were ornaments of much gold upon her, there were
children and women walking behind her, there were fifty-two persons of
chiefs of households assigned to her. The hour that Setna saw her he
knew not the place on earth where he was. Setna called to his attendant
youth, saying, "Go quickly to the place where this woman is; learn what
comes under her command."
The attendant youth went quickly to the place where the woman was, he
addressed the handmaid who walked behind her, he asked her, saying,
"What person is this woman?" She said to him, "She is Tabubua, the
daughter of the prophet of Bast, lady of Ankhtaui, she having come
hither to pray before Ptah the great god."
The youth went back to Setna, he related before him of everything that
she had told him--all.
[In his infatuation for this woman, Setna forgets all decorum
and all duty, and follows her home to Bubastis, and "ashamed
was every one that was about Setna." To win the favor of
Tabubua, he hands over to her all his possessions and the
inheritance of his children; and at length she demands that
his children should be put to death to prevent disputes.]
Setna said, "Let there be done unto them the abomination that has
entered thy heart."
She caused his children to be slain before his face; she caused them to
be cast down from the window before the dogs and the cats. They devoured
their flesh, he hearing them, he drinking with Tabubua.
[Setna awakens from the trance in which he has in imagination
sunk to such depths of wickedness, to find himself lying naked
in a strange place.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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