Then the wife of Ubaaner told the steward to set the little lodge in the garden in order, because she was going to spend some time there.  When the steward had furnished the lodge, she went there, and the young peasant paid her a visit.  After leaving the lodge he went and bathed in the lake, and the steward followed him and threw the wax crocodile into the water; it immediately turned into a large crocodile 7 cubits (about 11 feet) long and seized the young man and swallowed him up.  When this took place the magician Ubaaner was with the king, and he remained in attendance upon him for seven days, during which time the young man was in the lake, with no air to breathe.  When the seven days were ended King Nebka proposed to take a walk with the magician.  Whilst they were going along Ubaaner asked the king if he would care to see a wonderful thing that had happened to a young peasant, and the king said he would, and forthwith walked to the place to which the magician led him.  When they arrived at the lake Ubaaner uttered a spell over the crocodile, and commanded it to come up out of the water bringing the young man with him; and the crocodile did so.  When the king saw the beast he exclaimed at its hideousness, and seemed to be afraid of it, but the magician stooped down fearlessly, and took the crocodile up in his hand, and lo, the living crocodile had disappeared, and only a crocodile of wax remained in its place.  Then Ubaaner told King Nebka the story of how the young man had spent days in the lodge in the garden talking and drinking beer with his wife, and His Majesty said to the wax crocodile, “Get thee gone, and take what is thine with thee.”  And the wax crocodile leaped out of the magician’s hand into the lake, and once more became a large, living crocodile.  And it swam away with the young man, and no one ever knew what became of it afterwards.  Then the king made his servants seize Ubaaner’s wife, and they carried her off to the ground on the north side of the royal palace, and there they burned her, and they scattered her ashes in the river.  When King Khufu had heard the story he ordered many offerings to be made in the tomb of his predecessor Nebka, and gifts to be presented to the magician Ubaaner.

THE MAGICIAN TCHATCHAMANKH AND THE GOLD ORNAMENT

The Prince Baiufra stood up and offered to relate to King Khufu (Cheops) a story of a magician called Tchatchamankh, who flourished in the reign of Seneferu, the king’s father.  The offer having been accepted, Baiufra proceeded to relate the following:  On one occasion it happened that Seneferu was in a perplexed and gloomy state of mind, and he wandered distractedly about the rooms and courts of his palace seeking to find something wherewith to amuse himself, but he failed to do so.  Then he bethought himself of the court magician Tchatchamankh, and he ordered his servants to summon him to the presence.  When the great Kher-heb and scribe arrived, he addressed