"Go, cure, go, drive that out of my heart, out of my members."
[Authentic]
Then the prince in company with a great leech went to the pharmacy, where one of the priests was preparing cures from plants, honey, olive oil, from the skins of serpents and lizards, from the bones and fat of beasts. When Ramses questioned him, the man did not take his eyes from the work. He looked continually, and ground the materials, uttering a prayer as he did so,
"Thou hast cured Isis, Thou hast cured Isis, Thou hast cured Horus O Isis, great enchantress, make me well, free me from all evil, from harmful red things, from fever of the god, from fever of the goddess!"
"O Shauagat, eenagate, synie! Erukate! Kauaruchagate! Paparauka paparaka paparura."
"What is he saying?" asked the prince.
"A secret," answered the leech, putting his finger on his lips.
When they came out to an empty court, Ramses said to the great leech,
"Tell me, holy father, what is the art of curing, and what are its methods. For I have heard that sickness is an evil spirit which settles in a man and torments him, because it is hungry, until it receives the food that it wishes. And that one evil spirit or sickness feeds on honey, another on olive oil, and a third on the excreta of animals. A leech, therefore, should know first what spirit has settled in the sick man, and then what kind of nourishment is required by that spirit, so that it should not torture the patient."
The priest thought awhile and then answered,
"What sickness is and in what way it falls on the human body, I cannot tell, O Ramses. But to thee I will explain, for Thou hast been purified, how we govern ourselves in giving medicine.