STORIES OF MAGICIANS WHO LIVED UNDER THE ANCIENT EMPIRE
The short stories of the wonderful deeds of ancient Egyptian magicians
here given are found in the Westcar Papyrus, which is preserved in the
Royal Museum in Berlin, where it is numbered P. 3033. This papyrus was
the property of Miss Westcar of Whitchurch, who gave it to the eminent
German Egyptologist, Richard Lepsius, in 1839; it was written probably
at some period between the twelfth and eighteenth dynasties. The texts
were first edited and translated by Professor Erman.
THE MAGICIAN UBAANER AND THE WAX CROCODILE
The first story describes an event which happened in the reign of Nebka,
a king of the third dynasty. It was told by Prince Khāfrā to King Khufu
(Cheops). The magician was called Ubaaner,[1] and he was the chief
Kher-heb in the temple of Ptah of Memphis, and a very learned man. He
was a married man, but his wife loved a young man who worked in the
fields, and she sent him by the hands of one of her maids a box
containing a supply of very fine clothes. Soon after receiving this gift
the young man proposed to the magician's wife that they should meet and
talk in a certain booth or lodge in her garden, and she instructed the
steward to have the lodge made ready for her to receive her friend in
it. When this was done, she went to the lodge, and she sat there with
the young man and drank beer with him until the evening, when he went
his way. The steward, knowing what had happened, made up his mind to
report the matter to his master, and as soon as the morning had come, he
went to Ubaaner and informed him that his wife had spent the previous
day drinking beer with such and such a young man. Ubaaner then told the
steward to fetch him his casket made of ebony and silver-gold, which
contained materials and instruments used in working magic, and when it
was brought him, he took out some wax, and fashioned a figure of a
crocodile seven spans long. He then recited certain magical words over
the crocodile, and said to it, "When the young man comes to bathe in my
lake thou shalt seize him." Then giving the wax crocodile to the
steward, Ubaaner said to him, "When the young man goes down to the lake
to bathe according to his daily habit, thou shalt throw the crocodile
into the water after him." Having taken the crocodile from his master
the steward departed.
[Footnote 1: This name means "splitter of stones." It will be remembered
that the late Sir H.M. Stanley was called the "stone-splitter," because
of his great strength of deed and word.]
Then the wife of Ubaaner told the steward to set the little lodge in the
garden in order, because she was going to spend some time there. When
the steward had furnished the lodge, she went there, and the young
peasant paid her a visit. After leaving the lodge he went and bathed in
the lake, and the steward followed him and threw the wax crocodile into
the water; it immediately turned into a large crocodile 7 cubits (about
11 feet) long and seized the young man and swallowed him up. When this
took place the magician Ubaaner was with the king, and he remained in
attendance upon him for seven days, during which time the young man was
in the lake, with no air to breathe. When the seven days were ended King
Nebka proposed to take a walk with the magician. Whilst they were going
along Ubaaner asked the king if he would care to see a wonderful thing
that had happened to a young peasant, and the king said he would, and
forthwith walked to the place to which the magician led him. When they
arrived at the lake Ubaaner uttered a spell over the crocodile, and
commanded it to come up out of the water bringing the young man with
him; and the crocodile did so. When the king saw the beast he exclaimed
at its hideousness, and seemed to be afraid of it, but the magician
stooped down fearlessly, and took the crocodile up in his hand, and lo,
the living crocodile had disappeared, and only a crocodile of wax
remained in its place. Then Ubaaner told King Nebka the story of how the
young man had spent days in the lodge in the garden talking and drinking
beer with his wife, and His Majesty said to the wax crocodile, "Get thee
gone, and take what is thine with thee." And the wax crocodile leaped
out of the magician's hand into the lake, and once more became a large,
living crocodile. And it swam away with the young man, and no one ever
knew what became of it afterwards. Then the king made his servants seize
Ubaaner's wife, and they carried her off to the ground on the north side
of the royal palace, and there they burned her, and they scattered her
ashes in the river. When King Khufu had heard the story he ordered many
offerings to be made in the tomb of his predecessor Nebka, and gifts to
be presented to the magician Ubaaner.
THE MAGICIAN TCHATCHAMĀNKH AND THE GOLD ORNAMENT
The Prince Baiufrā stood up and offered to relate to King Khufu (Cheops)
a story of a magician called Tchatchamānkh, who flourished in the reign
of Seneferu, the king's father. The offer having been accepted, Baiufrā
proceeded to relate the following: On one occasion it happened that
Seneferu was in a perplexed and gloomy state of mind, and he wandered
distractedly about the rooms and courts of his palace seeking to find
something wherewith to amuse himself, but he failed to do so. Then he
bethought himself of the court magician Tchatchamānkh, and he ordered
his servants to summon him to the presence. When the great Kher-heb and
scribe arrived, he addressed him as "my brother," and told him that he
had been wandering about in his palace seeking for amusement, and had
failed to find it. The magician promptly suggested to the king that he
should have a boat got ready, decorated with pretty things that would
give pleasure, and should go for a row on the lake. The motions of the
rowers as they rowed the boat about would interest him, and the sight of
the depths of the waters, and the pretty fields and gardens round about
the lake, would give him great pleasure. "Let me," said the magician,
"arrange the matter. Give me twenty ebony paddles inlaid with gold and
silver, and twenty pretty maidens with flowing hair, and twenty network
garments wherein to dress them." The king gave orders for all these
things to be provided, and when the boat was ready, and the maidens who
were to row had taken their places, he entered the boat and sat in his
little pavilion and was rowed about on the lake. The magician's views
proved to be correct, for the king enjoyed himself, and was greatly
amused in watching the maidens row. Presently the handle of the paddle
of one of the maidens caught in her long hair, and in trying to free it
a malachite ornament which she was wearing in her hair fell into the
water and disappeared. The maiden was much troubled over her loss, and
stopped rowing, and as her stopping threw out of order the strokes of
the maidens who were sitting on the same seat as she was, they also
stopped rowing. Thereupon the king asked why the rowing had ceased, and
one of the maidens told him what had happened; and when he promised that
the ornament should be recovered, the maiden said words which seem to
mean that she had no doubt that she should recover it. On this Seneferu
caused Tchatchamānkh to be summoned into the presence, and when he came
the king told him all that had happened. Then the magician began to
recite certain spells, the effect of which was to cause the water of the
lake first to divide into two parts, and then the water on one side to
rise up and place itself on the water on the other side. The boat,
presumably, sank down gently on the ground of the lake, for the
malachite ornament was seen lying there, and the magician fetched it,
and returned it to its owner. The depth of the water in the middle of
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. Herutataf addressed a highly poetical speech to Teta,
the gist of which was that the old man seemed to be able to defy the
usual effects of old age, and to be like one who had obtained the secret
of everlasting youth, and then expressed the hope that he was well.
Having paid these compliments, which were couched in dignified and
archaic language, Herutataf went on to say that he had come with a
message from his father Khufu, who hereby summoned Teta to his presence.
"I have come," he said, "a long way to invite thee, so that thou mayest
eat the food, and enjoy the good things which the king bestows on those
who follow him, and so that he may conduct thee after a happy life to
thy fathers who rest in the grave." The sage replied, "Welcome, Prince
Herutataf, welcome, O thou who lovest thy father. Thy father shall
reward thee with gifts, and he shall promote thee to the rank of the
senior officials of his court. Thy Ka[2] shall fight successfully
against thine enemy, thy soul knows the ways of the Other World, and
thou shalt arrive at the door of those who are apparelled in ... I
salute thee, O Prince Herutataf."
[Footnote 1: These were probably books and instruments which the
magicians of the day used in making astrological calculations, or in
working magic.]
[Footnote 2: The "double," or the vital force.]
Herutataf then held out his hands to the sage and helped him to rise
from the bed, and he went with him to the river bank, Teta leaning on
his arm. When they arrived there Teta asked for a boat wherein his
children and his books might be placed, and the prince put at his
disposal two boats, with crews complete; Teta himself, however, was
accommodated in the prince's boat and sailed with him. When they came to
the palace, Prince Herutataf went into the presence of the king to
announce their arrival, and said to him, "O king my lord, I have brought
Teta"; and His Majesty replied, "Bring him in quickly." Then the king
went out into the large hall of his palace, and Teta was led into the
presence. His Majesty said, "How is it, Teta, that I have never seen
thee?" And Teta answered, "Only the man who is summoned to the presence
comes; so soon as the king summoned me I came." His Majesty asked him,
saying, "Is it indeed true, as is asserted, that thou knowest how to
rejoin to its body the head which hath been cut off?" Teta answered,
"Most assuredly do I know how to do this, O king my lord." His Majesty
said, "Let them bring in from the prison a prisoner, so that his
death-sentence may be carried out." Then Teta said, "Let them not bring
a man, O king my lord. Perhaps it may be ordered that the head shall be
cut off some other living creature." So a goose was brought to him, and
he cut off its head, and laid the body of the goose on the west side of
the hall, and its head on the east side. Then Teta recited certain
magical spells, and the goose stood up and waddled towards its head, and
its head moved towards its body. When the body and the head came close
together, the head leaped on to the body, and the goose stood up on its
legs and cackled.
Then a goose of another kind called _khetâa_ was brought to Teta, and he
did with it as he had done with the other goose. His Majesty next caused
an ox to be taken to Teta, and when he had cut off its head, and recited
magical spells over the head and the body, the head rejoined itself to
the body, and the ox stood up on its feet. A lion was next brought to
Teta, and when he had recited spells over it, the lion went behind him,
and followed him [like a dog], and the rope with which he had been tied
up trailed on the ground behind the animal.
King Khufu then said to Teta, "Is it true what they say that thou
knowest the numbers of the Apet chambers (?) of the shrine (?) of
Thoth?" Teta replied, "No. I do not know their number, O king my lord,
but I do know the place where they are to be found." His Majesty asked,
"Where is that?" Teta replied, "There is a box made of flint in a house
called Sapti in Heliopolis." The king asked, "Who will bring me this
box?" Teta replied, "Behold, O king my lord, I shall not bring the box
to thee." His Majesty asked, "Who then shall bring it to me?" Teta
answered, "The oldest of the three children of Rut-tetet shall bring it
unto thee." His Majesty said, "It is my will that thou shalt tell me who
this Rut-tetet is." Teta answered, "This Rut-tetet is the wife of a
priest of Rā of Sakhabu,[1] who is about to give birth to three children
of Rā. He told her that these children should attain to the highest
dignities in the whole country, and that the oldest of them should
become high priest[2] of Heliopolis." On hearing these words the heart
of the king became sad; and Teta said, "Wherefore art thou so sad, O
king my lord? Is it because of the three children? I say unto thee,
Verily thy son, verily his son, verily one of them." His Majesty asked,
"When will these three children be born?" Teta answered, "Rut-tetet will
give them birth on the fifteenth day of the first month of Pert."[3] The
king then made a remark the exact meaning of which it is difficult to
follow, but from one part of it it is clear that he expressed his
determination to go and visit the temple of Rā of Sakhabu, which seems
to have been situated on or near the great canal of the Letopolite
nome. In reply Teta declared that he would take care that the water in
the canal should be 4 cubits (about 6 feet) deep, _i.e._ that the water
should be deep enough for the royal barge to sail on the canal without
difficulty. The king then returned to his palace and gave orders that
Teta should have lodgings given him in the house of Prince Herutataf,
that he should live with him, and that he should be provided with one
thousand bread-cakes, one hundred pots of beer, one ox, and one hundred
bundles of vegetables. And all that the king commanded concerning Teta
was done.
[Footnote 1: A town which seems to have been situated in the second nome
or "county" of Lower Egypt; the Greeks called the nome Letopolites.]
[Footnote 2: His official title was "Ur-mau."]
[Footnote 3: The season Pert = November 15 - March 15.]
THE STORY OF RUT-TETET AND THE THREE SONS OF RĀ
The last section of the Westcar Papyrus deals with the birth of the
three sons of Rā, who have been mentioned above. When the day drew nigh
in which the three sons were to be born, Rā, the Sun-god, ordered the
four goddesses, Isis, Nephthys,[1] Meskhenet,[2] and Heqet,[3] and the
god Khnemu,[4] to go and superintend the birth of the three children, so
that when they grew up, and were exercising the functions of rule
throughout all Egypt, they should build temples to them, and furnish the
altars in them with offerings of meat and drink in abundance. Then the
four goddesses changed themselves into the forms of dancing women, and
went to the house wherein the lady Rut-tetet lay ill, and finding her
husband, the priest of Rā, who was called Rāuser, outside, they clashed
their cymbals together, and rattled their sistra, and tried to make him
merry. When Rāuser objected to this and told them that his wife lay ill
inside the house, they replied, "Let us see her, for we know how to
help her"; so he said to them and to Khnemu who was with them, "Enter
in," and they did so, and they went to the room wherein Rut-tetet lay.
Isis, Nephthys, and Heqet assisted in bringing the three boys into the
world. Meskhenet prophesied for each of them sovereignty over the land,
and Khnemu bestowed health upon their bodies. After the birth of the
three boys, the four goddesses and Khnemu went outside the house, and
told Rāuser to rejoice because his wife Rut-tetet had given him three
children. Rāuser said, "My Ladies, what can I do for you in return for
this?" Having apparently nothing else to give them, he begged them to
have barley brought from his granary, so that they might take it away as
a gift to their own granaries; they agreed, and the god Khnemu brought
the barley. So the goddesses set out to go to the place whence they had
come.
[Footnote 1: Isis and Nephthys were the daughters of Keb and Nut, and
sisters of Osiris and Set; the former was the mother of Horus, and the
latter of Anubis.]
[Footnote 2: A goddess who presided over the birth of children.]
[Footnote 3: A very ancient Frog-goddess, who was associated with
generation and birth.]
[Footnote 4: A god who assisted at the creation of the world, and who
fashioned the bodies of men and women.]
When they had arrived there Isis said to her companions: "How is it that
we who went to Rut-tetet [by the command of Rā] have worked no wonder
for the children which we could have announced to their father, who
allowed us to depart [without begging a boon]?" So they made divine
crowns such as belonged to the Lord (_i.e._ King), life, strength,
health [be to him!], and they hid them in the barley. Then they sent
rain and storm through the heavens, and they went back to the house of
Rāuser, apparently carrying the barley with them, and said to him, "Let
the barley abide in a sealed room until we dance our way back to the
north." So they put the barley in a sealed room. After Rut-tetet had
kept herself secluded for fourteen days, she said to one of her
handmaidens, "Is the house all ready?" and the handmaiden told her that
it was provided with everything except jars of barley drink, which had
not been brought. Rut-tetet then asked why they had not been brought,
and the handmaiden replied in words that seem to mean that there was no
barley in the house except that which belonged to the dancing goddesses,
and that that was in a chamber which had been sealed with their seal.
Rut-tetet then told her to go and fetch some of the barley, for she was
quite certain that when her husband Rāuser returned he would make good
what she took. Thereupon the handmaiden went to the chamber, and broke
it open, and she heard in it loud cries and shouts, and the sounds of
music and singing and dancing, and all the noises which men make in
honour of the birth of a king, and she went back and told Rut-tetet what
she had heard. Then Rut-tetet herself went through the room, and could
not find the place where the noises came from, but when she laid her
temple against a box, she perceived that the noises were inside it. She
then took this box, which cannot have been of any great size, and put it
in another box, which in turn she put in another box, which she sealed,
and then wrapping this in a leather covering, she laid it in a chamber
containing her jar of barley beer or barley wine, and sealed the door.
When Rāuser returned from the fields, Rut-tetet related to him
everything that had happened, and his heart was exceedingly glad, and he
and his wife sat down and enjoyed themselves.
A few days after these events Rut-tetet had a quarrel with her
handmaiden, and she slapped her well. The handmaiden was very angry, and
in the presence of the household she said words to this effect: Dost
thou dare to treat me in this way? I who can destroy thee? She has given
birth to three kings, and I will go and tell the Majesty of King Khufu
of this fact. The handmaiden thought that, if Khufu knew of the views of
Rāuser and Rut-tetet about the future of their three sons, and the
prophecies of the goddesses, he would kill the children and perhaps
their parents also. With the object in her mind of telling the king the
handmaiden went to her maternal uncle, whom she found weaving flax on
the walk, and told him what had happened, and said she was going to tell
the king about the three children. From her uncle she obtained neither
support nor sympathy; on the contrary, gathering together several
strands of flax into a thick rope he gave her a good beating with the
same. A little later the handmaiden went to the river or canal to fetch
some water, and whilst she was filling her pot a crocodile seized her
and carried her away and, presumably, ate her. Then the uncle went to
the house of Rut-tetet to tell her what had happened, and he found her
sitting down, with her head bowed over her breast, and exceedingly sad
and miserable. He asked her, saying, "O Lady, wherefore art thou so
sad?" And she told him that the cause of her sorrow was the handmaiden,
who had been born in the house and had grown up in it, and who had just
left it, threatening that she would go and tell the king about the birth
of the three kings. The uncle of the handmaiden nodded his head in a
consoling manner, and told Rut-tetet how she had come to him and
informed him what she was going to do, and how he had given her a good
beating with a rope of flax, and how she had gone to the river to fetch
some water, and how a crocodile had carried her off.
There is reason to think that the three sons of Rut-tetet became the
three kings of the fifth dynasty who were known by the names of Khāfrā,
Menkaurā, and Userkaf. The stories given above are valuable because they
contain elements of history, for it is now well known that the immediate
successors of the fourth dynasty, of which Khufu, Khāfrā, and Menkaurā,
the builders of the three great pyramids at Gīzah, were the most
important kings, were kings who delighted to call themselves sons of Rā,
and who spared no effort to make the form of worship of the Sun-god that
was practised at Anu, or Heliopolis, universal in Egypt. It is probable
that the three magicians, Ubaaner, Tchatchamānkh, and Teta were
historical personages, whose abilities and skill in working magic
appealed to the imagination of the Egyptians under all dynasties, and
caused their names to be venerated to a remote posterity.