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 lake where the ornament dropped was 12 cubits (between 18 and 19
feet), and when the water from one side was piled up on that on the
other, the total depth of the two sections taken together was, we are
told, 24 cubits. As soon as the ornament was restored to the maiden, the
magician recited further spells, and the water lowered itself, and
spread over the ground of the lake, and so regained its normal level.
His Majesty, King Seneferu, assembled his nobles, and having discussed
the matter with them, made a handsome gift to his clever magician. When
King Khufu had heard the story he ordered a large supply of funerary
offerings to be sent to the tomb of Seneferu, and bread, beer, flesh,
and incense to the tomb of Tchatchamānkh.
THE MAGICIAN TETA WHO RESTORED LIFE TO DEAD ANIMALS, ETC.
When Baiufrā had finished the story given above, Prince Herutataf, the
son of King Khufu, and a very wise man, with whose name Egyptian
tradition associated the discovery of certain chapters of the Book of
the Dead, stood up before his father to speak, and said to him, "Up to
the present thou hast only heard tales about the wisdom of magicians who
are dead and gone, concerning which it is quite impossible to know
whether they be true or not. Now, I want Thy Majesty to see a certain
sage who is actually alive during thy lifetime, whom thou knowest not."
His Majesty Khufu said, "Who is it, Herutataf?" And Prince Herutataf
replied, "He is a certain peasant who is called Teta, and he lives in
Tet-Seneferu. He is one hundred and ten years old, and up to this very
day he eats five hundred bread-cakes (_sic_), and a leg of beef, and
drinks one hundred pots of beer. He knows how to reunite to its body a
head which has been cut off, he knows how to make a lion follow him
whilst the rope with which he is tied drags behind him on the ground,
and he knows the numbers of the Apet chambers (?) of the shrine (?) of
Thoth." Now His Majesty had been seeking for a long time past for the
number of the Apet chambers (?) of Thoth, for he had wished to make
something like it for his "horizon."[1] And King Khufu said to his son
Herutataf, "My son, thou thyself shalt go and bring the sage to me";
thereupon a boat was made ready for Prince Herutataf, who forthwith set
out on his journey to Tet-Seneferu, the home of the sage. When the
prince came to the spot on the river bank that was nearest to the
village of Teta, he had the boat tied up, and he continued his journey
overland seated in a sort of sedan chair made of ebony, which was
carried or slung on bearing poles made of costly _sesentchem_ wood
inlaid or decorated with gold. When Herutataf arrived at the village,
the chair was set down on the ground, and he got out of it and stood up
ready to greet the old man, whom he found lying upon a bed, with the
door of his house lying on the ground. One servant stood by the bed
holding the sage's head and fanning him, and another was engaged in
rubbing his feet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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