Part 3

When all was ready, Set bade his brother and the seventy-two conspirators to a feast in his great banqueting-hall. When the feast was over, they sang the chant of Maneros, as was the custom, and slaves carried round cups of wine and threw garlands of flowers round the necks of the guests, and poured perfume upon them, till the hall was filled with sweet odours. And while their hearts were glad, slaves entered bearing the coffer, and all the guests cried out at the sight of its beauty.

Then Set stood up in his place and said, "He who lies down in this coffer and whom it fits, to that man I will give it." His words were sweet as honey, but in his heart was the bitterness of evil.

One after one, the conspirators lay down in the coffer with jests and laughter; for one it was too long, and for another it was too short, and for a third it was too wide, and for a fourth too narrow. Then came Osiris to take his turn, and he, all unsuspecting, lay down in it. At once the conspirators seized the lid and clapped it on; some nailed it firmly in its place, while others poured molten lead into all the openings lest he should breathe and live. Thus died the great Osiris, he who is called Unnefer the Triumphant, and by his death he entered into the Duat, and became King of the Dead and Ruler of those who are in the West.

The conspirators lifted the chest, which was now a coffin, and carried it to the river-bank. They flung it far into the water, and Hapi the Nile-god caught it and carried it upon his stream to the sea; the Great Green Waters received it and the waves bore it to Byblos and lifted it into a tamarisk-tree that grew by the shore. Then the tree shot forth great branches and put out leaves and flowers to make a fit resting-place for the God, and the fame of its beauty went throughout the land.

In Byblos ruled King Malkander and his wife, Queen Athenais. They came to the sea-shore to gaze upon the tree, for naught could be seen but leaves and blossoms which hid the coffin from all eyes. Then King Malkander gave command and the tree was cut down and carried to the royal palace to make a pillar therein, for it was worthy to be used in a king's house. All men wondered at its beauty, though none knew that it held the body of a God.

Now Isis feared Set exceedingly. His smooth words did not deceive her, and she knew of his enmity to Osiris, but the great King would not believe in his brother's wickedness. When the soul of Osiris passed from his body, at once Isis was aware that he was dead, though no man told her. She took her little son, whom men call Harpocrates or Horus the Child, and fled with him to the marshes of the Delta, and hid him in the city of Pé. Ancient and gray was this city of Pé and it stood on an island; there dwelt the goddess Uazet, whom men call also Buto and Latona, for she is worshipped under many names. Uazet took the child and sheltered him, and Isis by her divine power loosed the island from its moorings, and it floated on the surface of the Great Green Waters, so that no man could tell where to find it. For she feared the power of Set lest he should destroy the child as he had destroyed the father.

As the souls of men cannot rest until the funeral rites are performed and the funeral sacrifices offered, she journeyed, solitary and alone, to seek the body of her husband, and bury it as became his greatness. Many people did she meet, both men and women, but none had seen the chest, and in this matter her power was of no avail. Then she thought to ask the children, and at once they told her of a painted coffer floating on the Nile. And to this day children have prophetic power and can declare the will of the Gods and the things that are yet for to come.

Thus, asking always of the children, Isis came to Byblos. She sat by the Great Green Waters, and the maidens of Queen Athenais came to bathe and disport themselves in the waves. Then Isis spoke to them and braided their hair and adjusted their jewels; the breath of the Goddess was sweeter than the odours of the Land of Punt, and it perfumed the hair and the jewels and the garments of the maidens. When they returned to the palace, Queen Athenais asked them whence they had obtained the perfume, and they answered, "A woman, strange and sad, sat by the sea-shore when we went to bathe, and she braided our hair and adjusted our jewels, and from her came the perfume, though we know not how." Queen Athenais went to the shore to see the strange woman and conversed with her, and they spoke together as mothers speak, for each had a little son; the son of Isis was far away and the son of Athenais was sick unto death.

Then rose up Isis, the Mighty in Magic, the skilful Healer, and said, "Bring me to your son!" Together the Goddess and the Queen returned to the palace, and Isis took little Diktys in her arms and said, "I can make him strong and well, but in my own way will I do it, and none must interfere."

Every day Queen Athenais marvelled at her son. From a little puling babe he became a strong and healthy child, but Isis spoke no word and none knew what she did. Athenais questioned her maidens, and they answered, "We know not what she does, but this we know, that she feeds him not, and at night she bars the doors of the hall of the pillar, and piles the fire high with logs, and when we listen, naught can we hear but the twittering of a swallow."

Athenais was filled with curiosity and hid herself at night in the great hall, and watched how Isis barred the doors and piled the logs upon the fire till the flames rose high and scorching. Then, sitting before the fire, she made a space between the blazing logs, a space that glowed red and crimson, and in that space she laid the child, and turning herself into the form of a swallow, she circled round the pillar, mourning and lamenting, and the lamentation was like the twittering of a swallow. Queen Athenais shrieked and snatched the child from the fire, and turned to flee. But before her stood Isis the Goddess, tall and terrible.

"O foolish mother!" said Isis. "Why didst thou seize the child? But a few days longer and all that is mortal in him would have been burnt away, and as the Gods would he have been, immortal and for ever young."

A great awe fell upon the Queen, for she knew that she looked upon one of the Gods. In humblest wise she and King Malkander prayed the Goddess to accept a gift. All the riches of Byblos were spread before her, but to her they were as naught.

"Give me," she said, "what this pillar holds and I shall be content." At once the workmen were summoned, and they took down the pillar, and split it open, and lifted out the coffin. And Isis took sweet spices and scented blossoms; these she strewed upon the pillar, then wrapped it in fine linen and gave it to the King and Queen. And all the people of Byblos worship it to this day, because once it held the body of a god.

But Isis took the coffin on a boat and sailed away from Byblos, and when the waves of the river Phaedrus, lashed by the wind, threatened to sweep the coffin away, she dried up the water by her magical spells. Then, in a solitary place, she opened the coffin, and, gazing upon the face of the dead God, she mourned and lamented.

Now some say that when Isis left Byblos she took Diktys with her, and that he fell out of the boat and was drowned. Others say that the sound of her lamentation was so terrible in its grief that his heart broke and he died. But I think that he remained in Byblos; and because he had lain in the arms of the Divine Mother, and had passed through the purifying fire, he grew up to be a great and noble King, ruling his people wisely.

Then Isis hid the coffin and set out for the city of Pé, where it stood on the floating island and where her little son Harpocrates was safe under the care of Uazet, the Goddess of the North Country. And while she was away, Set came hunting wild boars with his dogs. He hunted by moonlight, for he loved the night, when all evil red things are abroad; and the air was filled with the whoop and halloa of the huntsman and the cries of the dogs as they rushed after their quarry. And as he dashed past, Set saw the painted chest, the colours glinting and gleaming in the moonlight.

At that sight, hatred and anger came upon him like a red cloud, and he raged like a panther of the South. He dragged the coffin from the place where it was hidden and forced it open; he seized the body and tore it into fourteen pieces, and by his mighty and divine strength he scattered the pieces throughout the land of Egypt. And he laughed and said, "It is not possible to destroy the body of a God, but I have done what is impossible, I have destroyed Osiris." And his laughter echoed across the world, and those who heard it fled trembling.

When Isis returned, she found naught but the broken coffin, and knew that Set had done this thing. All her search was now to begin again. She took a little shallop made of papyrus-reeds lashed together, and sailed through the marshes to look for the pieces of Osiris' body, and all the birds and beasts went with her to help her; and to this day the crocodiles will not touch a boat of papyrus-reeds, for they think it is the weary Goddess still pursuing her search.

A mighty and a cunning enemy was hers, and by wisdom only could he be overcome; therefore, wheresoever she found a fragment of the divine body, she built a beautiful shrine and performed the funeral rites as though she had buried it there. But in truth she took the fragments with her; and when, after long wanderings, she had found all, by the mighty power of her magic she united them again as one body. For when Horus the Child should be grown to manhood, then he should fight with Set and avenge his father; and after he had obtained the victory Osiris should live again.

But until that day Osiris lives in the Duat, where he rules the Dead wisely and nobly as he ruled the living when on earth. For though Horus fights with Set and the battles rage furiously, yet the decisive victory is not yet accomplished, and Osiris has never returned to earth again.

VI

THE SCORPIONS OF ISIS

I am Isis, the great Goddess, the Mistress of Magic, the Speaker of Spells.

I came out of my house which my brother Set had given to me, for Thoth called to me to come, Thoth the twice great, mighty of truth in earth and in heaven. He called, and I came forth when Ra descended in glory to the western horizon of heaven, and it was evening.

And with me came the seven scorpions, and their names were Tefen and Befen, Mestet and Mestetef, Petet, Thetet, and Matet. Behind me were Tefen and Befen; on either side were Mestet and Mestetef; in front were Petet, Thetet, and Matet, clearing the way that none should oppose or hinder me. I called aloud to the scorpions, and my words rang through the air and entered into their ears, "Beware of the Black One, call not the Red One, look neither at children nor at any small helpless creature."

Then I wandered through the Land of Egypt, Tefen and Befen behind me, Mestet and Mestetef on either side of me, Petet, Thetet, and Matet before me; and we came to Per-sui, where the crocodile is God, and to the Town of the Two Sandals, which is the city of the Twin Goddesses. Here it is that the swamps and marshes of the North Country begin, where there are fields of papyrus-reeds, and where the marshmen dwell; from here to the Great Green Waters is the North Land.

Then we came near houses where the marsh-people dwelt, and the name of one of the women was "Glory," though some called her "Strength" also. She stood at her door, and from afar she saw me coming, wayworn and weary, and I would fain have sat me down in her house to rest. But when I would have spoken to her, she shut the door in my face, for she feared the seven scorpions that were with me.

I went farther, and one of the marshwomen opened her door to me, and in her house I rested. But Mestet and Mestetef, Petet, Thetet, and Matet, and Befen also, they came together and laid their poison upon the sting of Tefen; thus the sting of Tefen had sevenfold power. Then returned Tefen to the house of the woman Glory, she who had closed her door against me; the door was still shut, but between it and the threshold was a narrow space. Through this narrow space crept Tefen and entered the house, and stung with a sting of sevenfold power the son of the woman Glory. So fierce and burning was the poison that the child died and fire broke out in the house.

Then the woman Glory cried and lamented, but no man hearkened to her, and Heaven itself sent water upon her house. A great marvel was this water from Heaven, for the time of the inundation was not yet.

Thus she mourned and lamented, and her heart was full of sorrow when she remembered how she had shut her door in my face when, weary and wayworn, I would have rested in her house. And the sound of her grief came to my ears, and my heart swelled with sorrow for her sorrow, and I turned back and went with her to where her dead child lay.

And I, Isis, the Mistress of magic, whose voice can awake the dead, I called aloud the Words of Power, the Words that even the dead can hear. And I laid my arms upon the child that I might bring back Life to the lifeless. Cold and still he lay, for the sevenfold poison of Tefen was in him. Then did I speak magical spells to the poison of the scorpions, saying, "O poison of Tefen, come out of him and fall upon the ground! Poison of Befen, advance not, penetrate no farther, come out of him, and fall upon the ground! For I am Isis, the great Enchantress, the Speaker of spells. Fall down, O poison of Mestet! Hasten not, poison of Mestetef! Rise not, poison of Petet and Thetet! Approach not, poison of Matet! For I am Isis, the great Enchantress, the Speaker of spells. The child shall live, the poison shall die! As Horus is strong and well for me, his mother, so shall this child be strong and well for his mother!"

Then the child recovered, and the fire was quenched, and the rain from heaven ceased. And the woman Glory brought all her wealth, her bracelets and her neck-ornaments, her gold-work and silver-work, to the house of the marshwoman, and laid them at my feet in token of repentance that she had shut the door upon me when, weary and wayworn, I had come to her house.

And to this day men make dough of wheat-flour kneaded with salt and lay it upon the wound made by the sting of a scorpion, and over it they recite the Words of Power which I recited over the child of the woman Glory when the sevenfold poison was in him. For I am Isis, the great Enchantress, the Mistress of magic, the Speaker of spells.

VII

THE BLACK PIG

The reason why the city of Pé was given to Horus, I know and I will tell you.

Between Horus and Set there is enmity and hatred, war and battle. Ever the fight goes on and the combatants rage furiously, and victory is not yet declared to either, though the Gods are with Horus.

Now Set is cunning and crafty, and seeks to conquer by subtlety rather than by courage and skill in the fray; and such power is his that he can take what form he will and deceive both men and Gods. This is the power of Set, but the power of Horus is not the same; for to Horus belong righteousness and truth; deceit and falsehood are not in him. Whoso gazes into the blue eyes of Horus can see the future reflected there, and both Gods and men seek Horus to learn what shall come to pass.

It came to the knowledge of Set that Ra would consult with Horus, and it seemed to him that an opportunity was at hand to injure Horus, so he took upon himself the form of a Black Pig. Fierce was his aspect, long and sharp his tushes, and his colour was the blackness of the thundercloud; savage and evil was his look, and struck fear into the hearts of men.

Then came the Majesty of Ra to Horus and spoke to him saying, "Let me look in thine eyes and behold what is to come." And he gazed into the eyes of Horus, and their colour was that of the Great Green Waters when the summer sky shines upon them. And while he gazed, the Black Pig passed by.

Ra knew not that it was the Evil God, and he cried out to Horus and said, "Look at that Black Pig! Never have I seen one so huge and so fierce."

And Horus looked; neither did he know Set in this strange form, and thought it was a wild boar from the thickets of the North Country. Thus he was off his guard and unprotected against his enemy.

Then Set aimed a blow of fire at the eye of Horus, and Horus shouted aloud with the pain of the fire, and raged furiously, and cried, "It is Set, and he has smitten me with fire on the eyes."

But Set was no longer there, for he had conveyed himself away, and the Black Pig was seen no more. And Ra cursed the pig because of Set, and said, "Let the pig be an abomination to Horus." And to this day men sacrifice the pig when the Moon is at the full, because Set, the enemy of Horus, and the murderer of Osiris, took its form in order to injure the blue-eyed God. And for this reason also swineherds are unclean throughout the land of Egypt; never may they enter the temples and sacrifice to the Gods, and their sons and daughters may not marry with the worshippers of the Gods.

And when the eyes of Horus were healed, Ra gave to him the city of Pé, and he gave to him two divine brethren in the city of Pé, and two divine brethren in the city of Nekhen to be with him as everlasting judges. Then was the heart of Horus glad and he rejoiced, and at the joy of Horus the earth blossomed, and thunderclouds and rain were blotted out.

VIII

THE BATTLES OF HORUS

It was in the three hundred and sixty-third year of the reign of the God Ra-Horakhti upon earth that the great war happened between Horus and Set.

The Majesty of the God Ra, whom men call Ra-Horakhti also, was in Nubia with his army, a great and innumerable multitude of soldiers, footmen and horsemen, archers and chariots. He came in his Boat upon the river; the prow of the Boat was of palm-wood, its stern was of acacia-wood, and he landed at Thest-Hor, to the east of the Inner Waters. And to him came Horus of Edfu, he whose name is Harpooner and Hero, seeking for that Wicked One, Set, the murderer of Osiris. Long had he sought, but Set had ever eluded him.

The Majesty of Ra had gathered his forces, for Set had rebelled against him, and Horus was glad at the thought of battle, for he loved an hour of fighting more than a day of rejoicing. He entered into the presence of Thoth, the twice great, god of magic, and Thoth gave him the power to change himself into a great winged disk, a disk that glowed like a ball of fire, with great wings on either side like the colours of the sky at sunset when the blue shades from dark to light, and is shot with gold and flame. Men try to copy these hues when they carve the winged disk above the temple-doors, or make it into a breast-ornament of gold inlaid with turquoise and carnelian and lazuli.

Thus Horus, as a great winged disk, sat on the prow of the Boat of Ra, and his splendour flashed across the waters and fell upon his foes as they lay in ambush. Upon his glorious wings he rose into the air, and against his crafty enemies he made a curse, a curse terrible and fear-striking, saying, "Your eyes shall be blinded, and ye shall not see; and your ears shall be deaf, and ye shall not hear."

And at once, when each man looked at his neighbour, he saw a stranger; and when he heard his own familiar mother-tongue it sounded like a foreign language, and they cried out that they were betrayed, and that the enemy had come among them. They turned their weapons each against the other, and in the quickness of a moment many had ceased to live, and the rest had fled, while over them flew the gleaming Disk watching for Set. But Set was in the marshes of the North Country and these were but his advance-guard.

Then Horus flew back to Ra, and Ra embraced him and gave him a draught of wine mixed with water. And to this day men pour a libation of wine and water to Horus at this place in remembrance. When Horus had drunk the wine, he spoke to the Majesty of Ra and said, "Come and see thine enemies, how they lie overthrown in their blood." Ra came, and with him came Astarte, Mistress of Horses, driving her furious steeds; and they saw the corpse-strewn field where the army of Set had slain one another.

Now this is the first encounter in the South, but the last great battle was not yet.