Published: Pleyte and Rossi, _Papyrus de Turin_, pls. 31, 77,
131-138.
Translated: Wiedemann, _Religion of the Ancient Egyptians_; p. 54.
This tale is found in a hieratic papyrus of the xxth dynasty (about
1200-1100 B.C.). It is written on both sides; the handwriting on one
side differs from the handwriting on the other, showing that it is
the work of two scribes. The writing is in black ink with occasional
sentences in red. Hieratic is the running hand, derived from the
hieroglyphs; the earliest example occurs in the first dynasty; it was
superseded by demotic in the latest period of Egyptian history.
This papyrus is not quite complete, but the part containing the
legend is fortunately uninjured. The text consists of magical
formulae against the bites of serpents. In healing by magic, the
magician recited an event in the career of some deity in which the
god suffered from the same malady as the human patient then seeking
relief. The words which cured the divine patient would also cure the
human invalid. The same idea prevails in the legend of the Scorpions
of Isis.