the
Hathors denied him all that makes youth happy. The enemy for whose
destruction he prays is Mena, the king's charioteer, and, indeed, he must
have been of superhuman magnanimity or of unmanly feebleness, if he could
have wished well to the man who robbed him of the beautiful wife who was
destined for him."

"How could that happen?" asked the priest from Chennu. "A betrothal is
sacred."

[In the demotic papyrus preserved at Bulaq (novel by Setnau) first
treated by H. Brugsch, the following words occur: "Is it not the
law, which unites one to another?" Betrothed brides are mentioned,
for instance on the sarcophagus of Unnefer at Bulaq.]

"Paaker," replied Septah, "was attached with all the strength of his
ungoverned but passionate and faithful heart to his cousin Nefert, the
sweetest maid in Thebes, the daughter of Katuti, his mother's sister; and
she was promised to him to wife. Then his father, whom he accompanied on
his marches, was mortally wounded in Syria. The king stood by his
death-bed, and granting his last request, invested his son with his rank
and office: Paaker brought the mummy of his father home to Thebes, gave
him princely interment, and then before the time of mourning was over,
hastened back to Syria, where, while the king returned to Egypt, it was
his duty to reconnoitre the new possessions. At last he could quit the
scene of war with the hope of marrying Nefert. He rode his horse to death
the sooner to reach the goal of his desires; but when he reached Tanis,
the city of Rameses, the news met him that his affianced cousin had been
given to another, the handsomest and bravest man in Thebes--the noble
Mena. The more precious a thing is that we hope to possess, the more we
are justified in complaining of him who contests our claim, and can win
it from us. Paaker's blood must have been as cold as a frog's if he could
have forgiven Mena instead of hating him, and the cattle he has offered
to the Gods to bring down their wrath on the head of the traitor may be
counted by hundreds."

"And if you accept them, knowing why they are offered, you do unwisely
and wrongly," exclaimed Gagabu. "If I were a layman, I would take good
care not to worship a Divinity who condescends to serve the foulest human
fiends for a reward. But the omniscient Spirit, that rules the world in
accordance with eternal laws, knows nothing of these sacrifices, which
only tickle the nostrils of the evil one. The treasure