[Illustration:  A Page of the Hieratic Text of the Tale of Two Brothers.]

It is said that there were two brothers, [the children] of one mother and of one father; the name of the elder was Anpu, and Bata was the name of the younger.  Anpu had a house and a wife, and Bata lived with him like a younger brother.  It was Bata who made the clothes; he tended and herded his cattle in the fields, he ploughed the land, he did the hard work during the time of harvest, and he kept the account of everything that related to the fields.  And Bata was a most excellent farmer, and his like there was not in the whole country-side; and behold, the power of the God was in him.  And very many days passed during which Anpu’s young brother tended his flocks and herds daily, and he returned to his house each evening loaded with field produce of every kind.  And when he had returned from the fields, he set [food] before his elder brother, who sat with his wife drinking and eating, and then Bata went out to the byre and [slept] with the cattle.  On the following morning as soon as it was day, Bata took bread-cakes newly baked, and set them before Anpu, who gave him food to take with him to the fields.  Then Bata drove out his cattle into the fields to feed, and [as] he walked behind them they said unto him, “The pasturage is good in such and such a place,” and he listened to their voices, and took them where they wished to go.  Thus the cattle in Bata’s charge became exceedingly fine, and their calves doubled in number, and they multiplied exceedingly.  And when it was the season for ploughing Anpu said unto Bata, “Come, let us get our teams ready for ploughing the fields, and our implements, for the ground hath appeared,[1] and it is in the proper condition for the plough.  Go to the fields and take the seed-corn with thee to-day, and at daybreak to-morrow we will do the ploughing”; this is what he said to him.  And Bata did everything which Anpu had told him to do.  The next morning, as soon as it was daylight, the two brothers went into the fields with their teams and their ploughs, and they ploughed the land, and they were exceedingly happy as they ploughed, from the beginning of their work to the very end thereof.

[Footnote 1:  i.e. the waters of the Inundation had subsided, leaving the ground visible.]

Now when the two brothers had been living in this way for a considerable time, they were in the fields one day [ploughing], and Anpu said to Bata, “Run back to the farm and fetch some [more] seed corn.”  And Bata did so, and when he arrived there he found his brother’s wife seated dressing her hair.  And he said to her, “Get up and give me some seed corn that I may hurry back to the fields, for Anpu ordered me not to loiter on the way.”  Anpu’s wife said to him, “Go thyself to the grain shed, and open the bin, and take out from it as much corn as thou wishest; I could fetch it for thee myself, only I am afraid that my hair would