Egyptologists -- Fiction; Horror tales; Love stories; Mummies -- Fiction
"All my ways were regulated even as the pace of an ibis. The
Hawk-headed Horus was my protector like amulets upon my body. I trained
the troops of my lord. I made his pylon 60 cubits long in the noble
rock of quartzite, most great in height and firm as heaven. I did
not imitate what had been done before. I was the royal scribe of the
recruits. Mustering was done under me. I was appointed Judge of the
Palace; overseer of all the prophets of the south and of the north. I
was appointed High Priest of Amen in the Capital--King of all the Gods.
I was made the eyes and ears of the king: keeper of my lord's heart and
fan-bearer at the King's right hand. Great men have come from afar to
bow themselves before me, bringing presents of ivory and gold, copper,
silver and emery, lazuli, malachite, green felspar and vases of mern
wood inlaid with white precious stones sometimes bearing gold at one
time 1000 deben (200 pounds weight). For my fame was carried abroad
even as the fame of the king, 'lord of the sweet wind.' And there
was spoken of me by the son of Paapis that my wisdom was of a divine
nature, because of my knowledge of futurities. Yet on the sixth day of
the month of Pakhons in the 18th year I desire to rest. My lord, at the
solicitation of the great royal wife and mother Nefertiti, has put off
the worship of his predecessors. The name of Amen is proscribed from
the country. Ra is proscribed from the country. Horus is proscribed
from the country. Aten is set up in their place and worshipped in the
land. My lord has even changed his name. Apiy is the high priest of the
new God that is from the Mesopotamian wilderness. Amen, king of the
Gods, dandled my lord and is forsaken and proscribed. I am an old man
and would rest: although my lord has not forsaken me. He has appointed
me overseer of all his works. Therefore, shall you carry me to the
temple of Kak, and give my body to the hands of the priests of Amen who
will wrap me in the linen sheets of Horus without removing my heart, my
entrails or my lungs. Then you shall carry me to Khizebh and enclose
me in the place prepared for me; and cover my tomb to a depth of five
fathoms with the sand of the desert at that hour when no man looks or
listens. Do this even as I command, and as royal scribe I trace the
order with my pen. But you shall place my papyri and the sign by which
I shall be known, and the stele of ivory engraved with the directions
to the priests of Amen who are to wake me from my sleep at the distant
hour, in the tomb that is prepared for my body in the temple of
Merenptah and in such manner that I shall there appear to sleep. And
all these things you shall do, or my curse shall pursue you and your
children and their children for the space of four hundred lives. Nor
shall you remove the endowment of my gifts nor touch them where they
lie under a penalty of great moment."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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