Pharaoh Sneferu, weary and sighing for amusement or relaxation from affairs of State, was advised by his scribe to go rowing with the loveliest women of his harem on the lake. “I will go with thee, august One,” said the scribe, “the green banks with the trees and flowers, the splash of the water under the oars will charm thine eyes and bring thee happiness.” For the excursion twenty beautiful young women were selected (twenty was a number of the negative or female side of the Moon, quabalistically expressed as “the Awakening”). They rowed the Pharaoh’s boat with oars of ebony and gold, singing sweetly as they went, and his heart was glad. But with the turning of the boat the helmswoman’s hair was touched by her steering oar and a green jewel she wore fell into the water. She became silent and raised her oar from the water, the other women doing likewise. “Why cease?” asked the Pharaoh. “Let us continue.” They answered: “O Pharaoh, the steerer has stopped and her oar is raised from the water.” “Why is this so?” questioned the Pharaoh. “O Majesty, my beautiful green jewel has sunk beneath the waters.” “What of that?” he replied. “Continue. I will present you with a new jewel.” “O Majesty,” said the girl, “no jewel can replace my own green jewel.” So the Pharaoh turned to his scribe. “What can we do?” he asked. “This girl has lost her green jewel and will have no other.” The scribe uttered magical words over the lake and the waters divided as two walls. Between these walls the scribe descended and, having found the jewel, came up again into the boat, gave the green jewel to the helmswoman and spoke to the waters which closed up again. The Pharaoh was gratified, giving rich gifts to the scribe at whose power all marvelled. When the Pharaoh Khufu heard this legend from Prince Khafra he enjoined that offerings should grace the sepulchres of the Pharaoh Sneferu and his great scribe, the magician. This allegorical story, like many others of the kind, is full of hidden meaning and the connection of this boat with its twenty female rowers, its two (unit of the Moon) Illustrious Ones, the Pharaoh and the Scribe, the green vegetation on the banks of the lake, the lake itself, the division of the waters and the green jewel make the meaning especially clear to students of symbology. In astrological enumeration from the earliest time the sign Cancer was said to rule the great oceans, the deep blue of which may have influenced the Midrash Bemidbah in its allotment of colour, and in certain hermetic ceremonies connected with the soul’s entry into matter through the Gate of Cancer from the blue ocean of the incorruptible Heavens.