is due to the fact that the waters of the Nile have not risen to their proper height for seven years.  Grain is exceedingly scarce, there are no garden herbs and vegetables to be had at all, and everything which men use for food hath come to an end.  Every man robbeth his neighbour.  The people wish to walk about, but are unable to move.  The baby waileth, the young man shuffleth along on his feet through weakness.  The hearts of the old men are broken down with despair, their legs give way under them, they sink down exhausted on the ground, and they lay their hands on their bellies [in pain].  The officials are powerless and have no counsel to give, and when the public granaries, which ought to contain supplies, are opened, there cometh forth from them nothing but wind.  Everything is in a state of ruin.  I go back in my mind to the time when I had an adviser, to the time of the gods, to the Ibis-god [Thoth], and to the chief Kher-heb priest Imhetep (Imouthis),[2] the son of Ptah of his South Wall.[3] [Tell me, I pray thee], Where is the birthplace of the Nile?  What god or what goddess presideth over it?  What kind of form hath the god?  For it is he that maketh my revenue, and who filleth the granaries with grain.  I wish to go to [consult] the Chief of Het-Sekhmet,[4] whose beneficence strengtheneth all men in their works.  I wish to go into the House of Life,[5] and to take the rolls of the books in my own hands, so that I may examine them [and find out these things].”

[Footnote 1:  An allusion to the royal title of Pharaoh, in Egyptian PER-AA, the “Great House,” in whom and by whom all the Egyptians were supposed to live.]

[Footnote 2:  A famous priest and magician of Memphis, who was subsequently deified.]

[Footnote 3:  A part of Memphis.]

[Footnote 4:  i.e. Hermopolis, the town of Thoth.]

[Footnote 5:  i.e. the library of the temple.]

Having read the royal despatch the Viceroy Meter set out to go to the king, and when he came to him he proceeded to instruct the king in the matters about which he had asked questions.  The text makes the king say:  “[Meter] gave me information about the rise of the Nile, and he told me all that men had written concerning it; and he made clear to me all the difficult passages [in the books], which my ancestors had consulted hastily, and which had never before been explained to any king since the time when Ra [reigned].  And he said to me:  There is a town in the river wherefrom the Nile maketh his appearance.  ‘Abu’ was its name in the beginning:  it is the City of the Beginning, it is the Name of the City of the Beginning.  It reacheth to Uauatet, which is the first land [on the south].  There is a long flight of steps there (a nilometer?), on which Ra resteth when he determineth to prolong life to mankind.  It is called ‘Netchemtchem ankh.’  Here are the ’Two Qerti,’[1] which are the two breasts wherefrom every good thing