Ancient Egyptian legends

								

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