Lands; yea, for many years the double crown shall rest upon her brow,
and no king that went before her, and no king that follows after her,
shall be more great in Egypt. Troubles and dangers shall threaten her,
but the Spirit that I give to her shall protect her in them all, and she
shall tread her enemy beneath her feet. A royal lover shall come to her
also, and she shall rejoice in his love and from it shall spring many
kings and princes. Neter-Tua, Morning Star, shall be her name, and
high-priestess of Amen--no less--shall be her office, for she is my
child whom I have taken from heaven and sent down to earth; the child
that I have given to Pharaoh and to thee, and I love her and appoint the
good goddesses to be her companions, and command Osiris to receive her
at the last.
"'Behold, in token of these things I lay my symbol on thy breast, and on
her breast also shall that symbol be. When I lift it from thee and thou
dost open thy eyes, then awaken Pharaoh at thy side and let these my
words be written in a roll, so that none of them are forgotten.'
"Then, O Pharaoh," went on Ahura, "from the Glory there came forth a
hand, and in the hand was the Symbol of Life shining as though with
fire, and the hand laid it upon my breast and it burned me as though
with fire, and I awoke and lo! darkness was all about me, nothing but
darkness, and at my side I heard you sleeping."
Now when Pharaoh had listened to this dream, he kissed the queen and
blessed her because of its good omen, and clapped his hands to summon
the women of honour who slept without. They ran in bearing lights, and
by the lights he saw that beneath the throat of the Queen upon her fair
skin, appeared a red mark, and the shape of it was the shape of the Sign
of Life; yes, there was the loop, and beneath the loop the cross.
Then Pharaoh commanded that the chief of his scribes should come to him
with papyrus and writing tools, and that the high-priest of Amen
should be brought swiftly from the temple. So the scribe came to the
bed-chamber of the King, and in the presence of the high-priest all
the words of Amen were written down, not one of them was omitted, and
Pharaoh and the Queen signed the roll, and the high-priest witnessed
it and, copies having been made, bore it away to hide it in the secret
treasury of Amen. But the mark of the Cross of Life remained upon the
breast of the Queen Ahura till the day that she died.
Now in the morning Pharaoh sum
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