between life and death. His majesty said to one of the companions,"Lift him up, let him speak to me." And his majesty said, "Behold thou hast come, thou hast trodden the deserts, thou hast played the wanderer. Decay falls on thee, old age has reached thee; it is no small thing that thy body should be embalmed, that the Pedtiu shall not bury thee. Do not, do not, be silent and speechless; tell thy name; is it fear that prevents thee?" I answered in reply, "I fear, what is it that my lord has said that I should answer it? I have not called on me the hand of God, but it is terror in my body, like that which brings sudden death. Now behold I am before thee; thou art life; let thy majesty do what pleaseth him." The royal children were brought in, and his majesty said to the queen, "Behold thou Sanehat has come as an Amu, whom the Sati have produced." She cried aloud, and the royal children
122 THE ADVENTURES OF SANEHAT
spake with one voice, saying, before his majesty, "Verily it is not so, O king, my lord." Said his majesty, "It is verily he." Then they brought their collars, and their wands, and their sistra in their hands, and displayed them before his majesty; and they sang— "May thy hands prosper, O king; May the ornaments of the Lady of Heaven continue. May the goddess Nub give life to thy nostril; May the mistress of the stars favour thee, when thou sailest south and north. All wisdom is in the mouth of thy majesty; Thy uraeus is on thy forehead, thou drivest away the miserable.
Thou art pacified, O Ra, lord of the lands; They call on thee as on the mistress of all. Strong is thy horn, Thou lettest fly thine arrow. Grant the breath to him who is without it; Grant good things to this traveller, Samehit the Pedti,
born in the land of Egypt, Who fled away from fear of thee, And fled this land from thy terrors. Does not the face grow pale, of him who beholds thy countenance; Does not the eye fear, which looks upon thee."
