the father of my father to the father of my father,
and the father of my father has told it to my father;
the resting-place of Ahura and of her child Mer-ab
is in a mound south of the town of Pehemato (?)”
And Setna said to the ancient, “Perhaps we may
do damage to Pehemato, and you are ready to lead one
to the town for the sake of that.” The ancient
replied to Setna, “If one listens to me, shall
he therefore destroy the town of Pehemato! If
they do not find Ahura and her child Mer-ab under the
south corner of their town may I be disgraced.”
They attended to the ancient, and found the resting-place
of Ahura and her child Mer-ab under the south corner
of the town of Pehemato. Setna laid them in the
royal boat to bring them as honoured persons, and
restored the town of Pehemato as it originally was.
And Na.nefer.ka.ptah made Setna to know that it was
he who had come to Koptos, to enable them to find out
where the resting-place was of Ahura and her child
Mer-ab.
So Setna left the haven in the royal boat, and sailed
without stopping, and reached Memphis with all the
soldiers who were with him. And when they told
the king he came down to the royal boat. He took
them as honoured persons escorted to the catacombs,
in which Na.nefer.ka.ptah was, and smoothed down the
ground over them.
This is the completed writing of the tale of Setna
Kha.em.uast, and Na.nefer.ka.ptah, and his wife Ahura,
and their Mid Mer-ab. It was written in the 35th
year, the month Tybi.
This tale of Setna only exists in one copy, a demotic
papyrus in the Ghizeh Museum. The demotic was
published in facsimile by Mariette in 1871, among
“Les Papyrus du Musee de Boulaq;” and it
has been translated by Brugsch, Revillout, Maspero,
and Hess. The last version—“Der
Demotische Roman von Stne Ha-m-us, von J. J. Hess”—being
a full study of the text with discussion and glossary,
has been followed here; while the interpretation of
Maspero has also been kept in view in the rendering
of obscure passages.
Unhappily the opening of this tale is lost, and I
have therefore restored it by a recital of the circumstances
which are referred to in what remains. Nothing
has been introduced which is not necessarily involved
or stated in the existing text. The limit of this
restoration is marked by ]; the papyrus beginning
with the words, “It is you who are not dealing
rightly with me.”
The construction is complicated by the mixture of
times and persons; and we must remember that it was
written in the Ptolemaic period concerning an age
long past. It stood to the author much as Tennyson’s
“Harold” stands to us, referring to an
historical age, without too strict a tie to facts
and details. Five different acts, as we may call
them, succeed one another. In the first act—which
is entirely lost, and here only outlined—the
circumstances which led Setna of the XIXth Dynasty
