Then the chief gave him his daughter to wife; he gave him a house and
slaves, he gave him lands and cattle and all manner of good gifts.
The time passed. One day the youth told his wife of his fate, saying to
her, "I am doomed to three evil fates--to die by a crocodile, a serpent,
or a dog." And her heart was filled with a great dread. She said to him,
"Then let one kill the dog which follows thee." But he told her that
could not be, for he had brought it up from the time it was small.
At last the youth desired to travel to the land of Egypt, and his wife,
fearing for him, would not let him go alone, so one went with him. They
came to a town, and the crocodile of the river was there. Now in that
town was a great and mighty man, and he bound the crocodile and would
not suffer it to escape. When it was bound the mighty man was at peace
and walked abroad. When the sun rose the man went back to his house, and
this he did every day for two months.
After this as the days passed the youth sat at ease in his house. When
the night came he lay on his couch and sleep fell upon him. Then his
wife filled a bowl of milk and placed it by his side. Out from a hole
came a serpent, and it tried to bite the sleeping man, but his wife sat
beside him watching and unsleeping. And the servants, beholding the
serpent, gave it milk so that it drank and was drunk and lay helpless on
its back. Seeing this, with her dagger the wife dispatched it. Upon this
her husband woke and, understanding all, was astonished. "See," she said
to him, "thy god hath given one of thy dooms into thy hand. Surely he
shall also give thee the others!"
And then the youth made sacrifices to his god and praised him always.
One day after this the youth walked abroad in his fields, his dog
following him. And his dog chased after the wild game, and he followed
after the dog, who plunged into the river. He also went into the river,
and then out came the crocodile, who took him to the place where the
mighty man lived. And as he carried him the crocodile said to the youth,
"Behold, I am thy doom, following after thee...."
At this point the papyrus is so extensively mutilated that in all
probability we shall never know what happened to the prince. Was he at
last devoured by the crocodile? or perchance did his faithful dog lead
him into still graver danger? Let everyone concoct his own ending to the
tale!
The Visit of Ounamounou to the Coasts of Egypt
On the sixteenth day of the thirteenth month, the harvest month,
Ounamounou, the chief priest of the temple of Amen-Ra, departed on a
voyage to procure wood for the fashioning of the sacred barque of the
god.
"When I arrived at Tanis," he says, "I gave them the edicts of Amen-Ra,
which they read and decided to obey. I stayed at Tanis till the
fourteenth month of Shomou, when I embarked to voyage upon the Syrian
sea. When the ship arrived at Dora, city of Zakkala, the Prince of the
place, Badîl, sent bread, meat, and wine unto me.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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