Lecture IX. The Popular Religion Of Egypt. 207
son Seb, who“discussed the history of the city with the gods
who attended him, (and they told him) all that happened when
the Majesty of Ra was in At-Nebes, the conflicts of the king
Tum in this locality, the valour of the Majesty of Shu in this city
... (and the wonders that) the serpent-goddess Ankhet had done
for Ra when he was with her; the victories of the Majesty of
Shu, smiting the evil ones, when he placed her upon his brow.
Then said the Majesty of Seb:‘I also (will place) her upon my
head, even as my father Shu did.’Seb entered the temple of Aart
(Lock of Hair) together with the gods that were with him; then he
stretched forth his hand to take the casket in which (Ankhet) was;
the serpent came forth and breathed its vapour on the Majesty
of Seb, confounding him greatly; those who followed him fell
dead, and his Majesty himself was burned in that day. When his
Majesty had fled to the north of At-Nebes, with the fire of the
cobra upon him, behold, when he came to the fields of henna, [226]
the pain of his burn was not yet assuaged, and the gods who
followed him said unto him:‘Come, let them take the lock (aart)
of Ra which is there, when thy Majesty shall go to see it and its
mystery, and his Majesty shall be healed (as soon as it is placed)
upon thee.’So the Majesty of Seb caused the magic lock of hair
to be brought to Pa-Aart (the House of the Lock), for which was
made that reliquary of hard stone which is hidden in the secret
place of Pa-Aart, in the district of the divine lock of the god
Ra; and behold the fire departed from the limbs of the Majesty
of Seb. And many years afterwards, when this lock of hair was
brought back to Pa-Aart in At-Nebes, and cast into the great
lake of Pa-Aart, whose name is the Dwelling of Waves, in order
that it might be purified, behold the lock became a crocodile;
it flew to the water and became Sebek, the divine crocodile of
At-Nebes.”^180
(^180) Griffith,“Minor Explorations,”in theSeventh Memoir of the Egypt
Exploration Fund(1890), pp. 71-73; Maspero,Dawn of Civilisation, pp.
169-171.