his voice reached the uttermost parts of heaven.  The gods rushed to him in great alarm, saying, “What is the matter?” At first Ra was speechless, and found himself unable to answer, for his jaws shook, his lips trembled, and the poison continued to run through every part of his body.  When he was able to regain a little strength, he told the gods that some deadly creature had bitten him, something the like of which he had never seen, something which his hand had never made.  He said, “Never before have I felt such pain; there is no pain worse than this.”  Ra then went on to describe his greatness and power, and told the listening gods that his father and mother had hidden his name in his body so that no one might be able to master him by means of any spell or word of power.  In spite of this something had struck him, and he knew not what it was.  “Is it fire?” he asked.  “Is it water?  My heart is full of burning fire, my limbs are shivering, shooting pains are in all my members.”  All the gods round about him uttered cries of lamentation, and at this moment Isis appeared.  Going to Ra she said, “What is this, O divine father?  What is this?  Hath a serpent bitten thee?  Hath something made by thee lifted up its head against thee?  Verily my words of power shall overthrow it; I will make it depart in the sight of thy light.”  Ra then repeated to Isis the story of the incident, adding, “I am colder than water, I am hotter than fire.  All my members sweat.  My body quaketh.  Mine eye is unsteady.  I cannot look on the sky, and my face is bedewed with water as in the time of the Inundation."[1] Then Isis said, “Father, tell me thy name, for he who can utter his own name liveth.”

[Footnote 1:  i.e. in the period of summer.  The season Shemmu began in April and ended about July 15.]

Ra replied, “I am the maker of heaven and earth.  I knit together the mountains and whatsoever liveth on them.  I made the waters.  I made Mehturit[1] to come into being.  I made Kamutef.[2] I made heaven, and the two hidden gods of the horizon, and put souls into the gods.  I open my eyes, and there is light; I shut my eyes, and there is darkness.  I speak the word[s], and the waters of the Nile appear.  I am he whom the gods know not.  I make the hours.  I create the days.  I open the year.  I make the river [Nile].  I create the living fire whereby works in the foundries and workshops are carried out.  I am Khepera in the morning, Ra at noon, and Temu in the evening.”  Meanwhile the poison of the serpent was coursing through the veins of Ra, and the enumeration of his works afforded the god no relief from it.  Then Isis said to Ra, “Among all the things which thou hast named to me thou hast not named thy name.  Tell me thy name, and the poison shall come forth from thee.”  Ra still hesitated, but the poison was burning in his blood, and the heat thereof was stronger than that of a fierce fire.  At length he said, “Isis shall search me through, and my name shall come forth from my body