[Footnote:  1:  i.e. Southern Arabia and a portion of the east coast of Africa near Somaliland.]

One day in the late summer, in the fifteenth year of his reign, his Majesty was in Thebes celebrating a festival in honour of Father Amen, the King of the gods, in the temple now known as the Temple of Luxor, when an official came and informed the king that “an ambassador of the Prince of Bekhten had arrived bearing many gifts for the Royal Wife.”  The ambassador was brought into the presence with his gifts, and having addressed the king in suitable words of honour, and smelt the ground before His Majesty, he told him that he had come to present a petition to him on behalf of the Queen’s sister, who was called Bentresht (i.e. daughter of joy).  The princess had been attacked by a disease, and the Prince of Bekhten asked His Majesty to send a skilled physician to see her.  Straightway the king ordered his magicians (or medicine men) to appear before him, and also his nobles, and when they came he told them that he had sent for them to come and hear the ambassador’s request.  And, he added, choose one of your number who is both wise and skilful; their choice fell upon the royal scribe Tehuti-em-heb, and the king ordered him to depart to Bekhten to heal the princess.  When the magician arrived in Bekhten he found that Princess Bentresht was under the influence of a malignant spirit, and that this spirit refused to be influenced in any way by him; in fact all his wisdom and skill availed nothing, for the spirit was hostile to him.

[Illustration:  Stele relating the Story of the Healing of Bentresht, Princess of Bekhten.]

Then the Prince of Bekhten sent a second messenger to His Majesty, beseeching him to send a god to Bekhten to overcome the evil spirit, and he arrived in Egypt nine years after the arrival of the first ambassador.  Again the king was celebrating a festival of Amen, and when he heard of the request of the Prince of Bekhten he went and stood before the statue of Khensu, called “Nefer-hetep,” and he said, “O my fair lord, I present myself a second time before thee on behalf of the daughter of the Prince of Bekhten.”  He then went on to ask the god to transmit his power to Khensu, “Pa-ari-sekher-em-Uast,” the god who drives out the evil spirits which attack men, and to permit him to go to Bekhten and release the Princess from the power of the evil spirit.  And the statue of Khensu Nefer-hetep bowed its head twice at each part of the petition, and this god bestowed a fourfold portion of his spirit and power on Khensu Pa-ari-sekher-em-Uast.  Then the king ordered that the god should set out on his journey to Bekhten carried in a boat, which was accompanied by five smaller boats and by chariots and horses.  The journey occupied seventeen months, and the god was welcomed on his arrival by the Prince of Bekhten and his nobles with suitable homage and many cries of joy.  The god was taken to the place where Princess Bentresht was,