“And who sent you, friend Philo?”
“A certain Master who is known to both of us, he sent me.”
“Is he perchance named Noot?” I asked in a low voice, “and if so, did you sail hither over mortal seas, or over those through which Ra travels in the Under-world?”
This I said wondering, for it came into my mind that he who knelt before me might perchance be not a man but a shadow sent to summon me to the halls of Osiris.
“Mortal seas I sailed; those of the Under-world still await my prow, O Wisdom’s Daughter. Here is the proof of it,” and drawing a roll from his bosom, with it he touched his brow in token of reverence, then gave it to me.
I broke the seals, I opened that roll, and by the light of the rising sun I read. It ran thus:
“From Noot, the son of Noot, the high-priest, the guardian of Secrets, to Ayesha, Child of Isis, Wisdom’s Daughter, the Instructed, the Oracle: Thus saith Noot.
“I live, I do not sleep in my eternal house. My spirit shows me that which passes upon the Nile. I know that you have obeyed my commands which I gave to you before we parted in the bygone years, O my begotten in the goddess. I know that you have waited patiently in faith through many tribulations. I know also that this writing will find you in an hour of great peril when for the second time you have escaped from fire, leaving behind you the ashes of your foes. Come to me now and at once, Philo the beloved brother and the consecrated sistrum that is the sceptre of your office being your guides. Philo shall lead you; through all dangers the sistrum shall be your shield. I write no more.
“Obey, Mouth of Isis, bringing with you those that are left to the service of the goddess. Read the seal of Noot, high-priest and prophet, and tarry not.”
I read and hid away the roll. Then I asked,