the
Legend has confounded Horus the ancient Sun-god with Horus, son of Isis,
son of Osiris. Then Horus, the son of Isis, cut off the heads of Set and
his followers in the presence of Ra, and dragged Set by his feet round
about throughout the district with his spear driven through his head and
back, according to the order of Ra. The form which Horus of Edfu had at
that time was that of a man of great strength, with the face and back of
a hawk; on his head he wore the Double Crown, with feathers and serpents
attached, and in his hands he held a metal spear and a metal chain. And
Horus, the son of Isis, took upon himself a similar form, and the two
Horuses slew all the enemies on the bank of the river to the west of the
town of Per-Rehui. This slaughter took place on the seventh day of the
first month of the season Pert,[1] which was ever afterwards called the
"Day of the Festival of Sailing."

[Footnote 1: About the middle of November.]

Now, although Set in the form of a man had been slain, he reappeared in
the form of a great hissing serpent, and took up his abode in a hole in
the ground without being noticed by Horus. Ra, however, saw him, and
gave orders that Horus, the son of Isis, in the form of a hawk-headed
staff, should set himself at the mouth of the hole, so that the monster
might never reappear among men. This Horus did, and Isis his mother
lived there with him. Once again it became known to Ra that a remnant of
the followers of Set had escaped, and that under the direction of the
Smait fiends, and of Set, who had reappeared, they were hiding in the
swamps of the Eastern Delta. Horus of Edfu, the winged disk, pursued
them, speared them, and finally slew them in the presence of Ra. For the
moment there were no more enemies of Ra to be found in the district on
land, although Horus passed six days and six nights in looking for them;
but it seems that several of the followers of Set in the forms of water
reptiles were lying on the ground under water, and that Horus saw them
there. At this time Horus had strict guard kept over the tomb of Osiris
in Anrutef,[1] because he learned that the Smait fiends wanted to come
and wreck both it and the body of the god. Isis, too, never ceased to
recite spells and incantations in order to keep away her husband's foes
from his body. Meanwhile the "blacksmiths" of Horus, who were in charge
of the "middle regions" of Egypt, found a body of the enemy, and
attacked them fiercely, s