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.