An Egyptian Romance.

Auckland Star, Volume XVII, Issue 235, 6 October 1886, Page 3

An Egyptian Romance.

The "National Zeitung" gives the following interesting summary of the papyrus which tho Berlin Museum recently acquired from the heirs of Richard Leipsius, and tho reading of which has only just been comploted. This papyrus, which was written in the vulgar tongue, is not only of archuiological importance, but of much literary intereat; being neither more nor less than an historical novel, though left in an unfinished atate. The papyruß date, from the sixteenth century 8.C., and from the eighteenth dynasty ; but the story related in it goes back nearly a thousand years to the reign of King Cheops, the fabled builder of tho pyramids. When the story opens, King Cbeops is seatod among his sons and listening to their tales of miracles said to have been wrought at tho Court of his predecessors. Prince Chephren, who afterwards built the second pyramid, related that a magician in the reign of King Nebka hael made a waxen crocodile which, if placed in the chamborof a wifo untrue to her husband, would seize her and her paramour and deliver them over to her hueband. Another prince related that King Suefru, the father of Cheops, feeling oppressed and not knowing how to " relieve his heart," took counsel of a wise man, who advised him to go to the banks of the lake near the palace, and let all the maidens of the Court row up and down tho water. This was done, and the monarch'a heart was relieved. But all of a sudden one of the maidens began to make lamentations, for she had dropped a jewel into the water, which was 40 feet deep. A magician waa sent for, and, reciting an incantation, he coaxed the jewel up from the bottom of tho lako and returned it to the maiden.

King Cheops was so struck with wonder at these storiee, that he ordered sacrifices to bo offered to the names of thiß sage and of the musicians ; but Prince Hardadaf informed him that they were not all dead, and that ono of them, named Bodi, dwelt in the city of Ded-Sneirii. Prince Hardadaf described him as boing a hundred yeara old, but as Etill able to eat daily five hundred rolls of bread, and the quarter of an ox, and to drink a hundred flagons of beer. Ho was able to reunite a head to the trunk from which it had boon decapitated ; to make lions follow him liko doga : and ho also knew tho placo where wouldbefouudcertain precious materials of the houso of the god Tfaoth, which King < heops waa very anxious to have for building his pyramid. The King sent Prince Hardadaf to fetch the sage Dedi, whom he found stretched upon his bod. Dedi consented to accompany him into tho King's presence ; and, upon being asked by hia Majesty whether it was true that he could reunite a decapitated head to the trunk, replied in the affirmative ; whereupon the King ordered a prisonor to be brought out for experiment. But tho sago Dedi asked that an animal might bo supplied him, and not a man ; wheroupon a goose waa brought. Its head was cut off and placed in the c istern corner of tho chamber, with the body in the western corner; and Dedi then pronounced a form of words, immediately after which tbe body got up and walked, the head wriggling along the pavement until the two met and rejoined ; the gooso then waddling away. Dadi repeated the same miracle with a duck and a bull, and the King then questioned him as to the house of Thoth. Dedi said that the materials which the King wished for were in a house at Heliopolis ; but that he had no power to make them over to him ; the only ono who could do co being the eldest of the three sons whom Red Dedi should bear. Red Dedi, he added, was the wife of the Priest of the Sun at Sachebu; and ehe would bear three sons to a god, and these three sons would all be kings, the eldest being also high priest at Heliopolis. Whon tho King heard those words he was troubled.

There ia a hiatus in the papyrus at this point *, and, without being told what course King Cheops has determinod upon, we arrive at the main incident of the story— namely, the birth of the children of the Sun. When Red Dedt ielt the first pangs of child-birth, the Sun sent for the goddesses Isis, Nephthys, Mes.chent.and Hekt, as well as the god Chnum ; and said to them, " Deliver Red Dedt of the three children, who will one day be kings in the land ; they will build you temples, thoy will feed your altars, thoy will make you many libations, and will enrich your sanctuaries." The gods and goddesses assumed the shape of mortal womeD, and went to the house of the priest and offered to deliver hia wife. The priest accepted, and Red Dedt accordingly gave birth to three boys an ell long and with lusty arms. Messchent predicted that they would all reign ; and thoy were, in fact, the three first kings of the fifth dynasty— Ueorkaf, Sahure, and Kakar. The priest, full of gratitude, gave corn to the supposed midwives, who then took their flight into the empyrean. But, when the divinities got near to the domain of tho Sim, Isis said, " How is it that we have wrought no miracle for the children whom we have delivered from thoir mother's womb V Thereupon, the goddesses stirred up a tempest, and, after haviDgenchanted the corn, caused the wind to carry it into the priest house. When Red Dedt, after two weeks' rest, resumed the management of her household, tbe servant told her that the corn given to the midwives was still in the granary. Red Dedt 3ent her to fetch a little of it; but she returned in terror, faying that she had heard in tho granary the Bounds of music and song "as when the birth of a king ia being colobratod." This miracle was nearly being fatal to the children ; for when -Red Dedt upon cne .occasion punished her servant, the latter loft the house in wrath and said to the neighbours, " How dare 3 Bhe to punish me, this woman who has given birth to three kings ? I will go and inform King Cheops." Here the papyrus ends; so that no information is given as to what King Cheops did to get rid of these future pretenders, nor how they escaped his prosecution ; and this — asHerr Lepsius, in his prefatory notice, remarked—is all the more {unfortunate because the papyrus evidently hands down a tradition of facts. Thus we may learn from it that Chepren was a son of Cheops; that tho fifth dynasty originated in the town of Sacbepu ; that the three first kings were of it were brothers, and that the eldest was priest at Heliopolis before ascending the throne. Tbe papyrus in question is the oldest known document in the popular tongue. ________________________