There was given to me the house of Neb-mer [?], which had belonged to a Companion. There were many craftsmen building it; all its woodwork was strengthened anew. Portions were brought to me from the palace thrice and four times a day, besides the gifts of the royal children; there was not a moment's ceasing from them. There was built for me a pyramid of stone amongst the pyramids. The overseer of the architects measured its ground; the chief treasurer drew it; the sacred masons did the sculpture; the chief of the laborers in the necropolis brought the bricks; and all the instruments applied to a tomb were there employed. There were given to me fields; there was made for me a necropolis garden, the land in it better than a farm estate; even as is done for the chief Companion. My statue was overlaid with gold, its girdle with pale gold; his Majesty caused it to be made. Such is not done to a man of low degree.
Thus am I in the favor of the king until the day of death shall come.
This is finished from beginning to end, as was found in the writing.
Translation of F. Ll. Griffith.
THE DOOMED PRINCE
['The Story of the Doomed Prince' was written at some time during the XVIIIth Dynasty (about 1450 B.C.). The papyrus on which it has been preserved to us, and which is in the British Museum, is much mutilated, and the end is entirely lost.]
There was once a king to whom no male child was born; he prayed for himself unto the gods whom he worshiped for a son. They decreed to cause that there should be born to him one. And his wife, after her time was fulfilled, gave birth to a male child. Came the Hathors[77] to decree for him a destiny; they said, "He dies by the crocodile, or by the serpent, or by the dog." Then the people who stood by the child heard this; they went to tell it to his Majesty. Then his Majesty's heart was exceeding sad. His Majesty caused a house to be built upon the desert, furnished with people and with all good things of the royal house, out of which the child should not go. Now when the child was grown he went up upon its roof and saw a greyhound; it was following a man walking on the road. He said to his page who was with him, "What is this that goeth behind the man coming along the road?" He said to him, "It is a greyhound." The child said to him, "Let there be brought to me one like it." The page went and reported it to his Majesty. His Majesty said, "Let there be brought to him a little trotter, lest his heart be sad." Then they brought to him the greyhound.
Now when the days were multiplied after these things, the child grew up in all his limbs, he sent a message to his father saying, "Wherefore should I remain here? Behold, I am destined to three dooms, and if I do according to my desire God will still do what is in his heart." They hearkened to all he said, and gave him all kinds of weapons, and also his greyhound to follow him, and they conveyed him over to the east side and said to him, "Go thou whither thou wilt." His greyhound was with him; he traveled northward following his heart in the desert; he lived on the best of all the game of the desert. He came to the chief of Naharaina.