Hanit the Enchantress

by Garrett Chatfield Pier

One object alone on earth contained those Hidden Names and Talismans, together with the “Utterances” which could compel both Thoth and Set to leave their appointed places in the sky and descend to earth.

This series of irresistible “incantations,” these compelling “utterances” which could thus drag the very gods from heaven, were all contained in the “Luminous Book of Thoth.”

Herein were inscribed the Hidden Names of all the Gods, the Triads, the Enneads of the Sky. Herein were the Mysterious Names of the Keepers of the Double Gates of Heaven; of the Serpents that guard the approaches of Duat, of Ra in his Boat, of Osiris on his Throne!

So awe-inspiring a hold upon the imagination of the Thebans had the legend of this mysterious Book that its name was never mentioned. Rarely, indeed, was it alluded to by the priests.

Like that of Pharaoh, the sun-god manifest in the flesh, like that of the Unseen Statue of the Great Temple of Amen, like that of the abhorred Crocodile God of Ombos, its name was never taken upon the lips.

When the architect Amenhotep, son of Hap, was gathered to his fathers, Pharaoh commanded that he should be buried beneath a little temple which stood somewhat to the south of his own stupendous mortuary temple.

Here, for a time, Unis had acted as lector, intoning the prayers and offering to the hidden ka-statue of the dead architect the various portions of meat, bread and wine with which Pharaoh had endowed the tomb, out of taxes received from the nearby town of Onit. In so doing, Unis stood immediately above the subterranean chamber in which the mummy of Amenhotep lay.

Unis had been called from his duties at the son of Hap’s tomb by Enana, and set to work among the ancient manuscripts of the great library of Amen.

Enana would have him find some clue to the present whereabouts of the Book of Thoth. As he loved life and feared death he was told to keep for his master’s ears alone any news to this effect.

Unis soon became an initiate of the Sorcerers of Amen, then minor prophet of Amen. With such a powerful master as Enana, first Magician of the Temple, Unis felt that he should go far. He gave himself up wholly to the work in hand. Certain hints gleaned from the documents led him to believe that the Book had, as of old, been secreted in a tomb, in this case an unnamed tomb on the western shore.