cometh.  Here is the bed of the Nile, here the Nile-god reneweth his youth, and here he sendeth out the flood on the land.  Here his waters rise to a height of twenty-eight cubits; at Hermopolis (in the Delta) their height is seven cubits.  Here the Nile-god smiteth the ground with his sandals, and here he draweth the bolts and throweth open the two doors through which the water poureth forth.  In this town the Nile-god dwelleth in the form of Shu, and he keepeth the account of the products of all Egypt, in order to give to each his due.  Here are kept the cord for measuring land and the register of the estates.  Here the god liveth in a wooden house with a door made of reeds, and branches of trees form the roof; its entrance is to the south-east.  Round about it are mountains of stone to which quarrymen come with their tools when they want stone to build temples to the gods, shrines for sacred animals, and pyramids for kings, or to make statues.  Here they offer sacrifices of all kinds in the sanctuary, and here their sweet-smelling gifts are presented before the face of the god Khnemu.  In the quarries on the river bank is granite, which is called the ‘stone of Abu.’  The names of its gods are:  Sept (Sothis, the dog-star), Anqet, Hep (the Nile-god), Shu, Keb, Nut, Osiris, Horus, Isis, and Nephthys.  Here are found precious stones (a list is given), gold, silver, copper, iron, lapis-lazuli, emerald, crystal, ruby, &c., alabaster, mother-of-emerald, and seeds of plants that are used in making incense.  These were the things which I learned from Meter [the Viceroy].”

[Footnote 1:  The two caverns which contained the springs of the Nile.]

Having informed the king concerning the rise of the Nile and the other matters mentioned in his despatch, Meter made arrangements for the king to visit the temple of Khnemu in person.  This he did, and the Legend gives us the king’s own description of his visit.  He says:  I entered the temple, and the keepers of the rolls untied them and showed them to me.  I was purified by the sprinkling of holy water, and I passed through the places that were prohibited to ordinary folk, and a great offering of cakes, ale, geese, oxen, &c., was offered up on my behalf to the gods and goddesses of Abu.  Then I found the god [Khnemu] standing in front of me, and I propitiated him with the offerings that I made unto him, and I made prayer and supplication before him.  Then he opened his eyes,[1] and his heart inclined to me, and in a majestic manner he said unto me:  “I am Khnemu who fashioned thee.  My two hands grasped thee and knitted together thy body; I made thy members sound, and I gave thee thy heart.  Yet the stones have been lying under the ground for ages, and no man hath worked them in order to build a god-house, to repair the [sacred] buildings which are in ruins, or to make shrines for the gods of the South and North, or to do what he ought to do for his lord, even though I am the Lord [the Creator].