The Literature of the Ancient EgyptiansBudge, E. A. Wallis (Ernest Alfred Wallis), Sir
History
The Literature of the Ancient Egyptians
Budge, E. A. Wallis (Ernest Alfred Wallis), Sir
Egyptian literature -- History and criticism; Egyptian literature -- Translations into English
The first story describes an event which happened in the reign of Nebka,
a king of the third dynasty. It was told by Prince Khāfrā to King Khufu
(Cheops). The magician was called Ubaaner,[1] and he was the chief
Kher-heb in the temple of Ptah of Memphis, and a very learned man. He
was a married man, but his wife loved a young man who worked in the
fields, and she sent him by the hands of one of her maids a box
containing a supply of very fine clothes. Soon after receiving this gift
the young man proposed to the magician's wife that they should meet and
talk in a certain booth or lodge in her garden, and she instructed the
steward to have the lodge made ready for her to receive her friend in
it. When this was done, she went to the lodge, and she sat there with
the young man and drank beer with him until the evening, when he went
his way. The steward, knowing what had happened, made up his mind to
report the matter to his master, and as soon as the morning had come, he
went to Ubaaner and informed him that his wife had spent the previous
day drinking beer with such and such a young man. Ubaaner then told the
steward to fetch him his casket made of ebony and silver-gold, which
contained materials and instruments used in working magic, and when it
was brought him, he took out some wax, and fashioned a figure of a
crocodile seven spans long. He then recited certain magical words over
the crocodile, and said to it, "When the young man comes to bathe in my
lake thou shalt seize him." Then giving the wax crocodile to the
steward, Ubaaner said to him, "When the young man goes down to the lake
to bathe according to his daily habit, thou shalt throw the crocodile
into the water after him." Having taken the crocodile from his master
the steward departed.
[Footnote 1: This name means "splitter of stones." It will be remembered
that the late Sir H.M. Stanley was called the "stone-splitter," because
of his great strength of deed and word.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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