ow the plans of the house of
God?" "It is true, your Majesty; but it is not I who shall give them to
you." "Who, then?" said the King. "It is the eldest of three sons who
shall be born to the lady Rud-didet, wife of the priest of Ra, the
Sun-God. And Ra has promised that these three sons shall reign over this
kingdom of thine." When King Khufu heard that word, his heart was
troubled; but Dedi said, "Let not your Majesty's heart be troubled. Thy
son shall reign first, then thy son's son, and then one of these." So
the King commanded that Dedi should live in the house of Prince
Hordadef; and that every day there should be given to him a thousand
loaves, a hundred jugs of beer, an ox, and a hundred bunches of onions!

When the three sons of Rud-didet were born, Ra sent four goddesses to be
their godmothers. They came attired like travelling dancing-girls; and
one of the gods came with them, dressed like a porter. And when they had
nursed the three children awhile, Rud-didet's husband said to them, "My
ladies, what wages shall I give you?" So he gave them a bushel of
barley, and they went away with their wages. But when they had gone a
little way, Isis, the chief of them, said, "Why have we not done a
wonder for these children?" So they stopped, and made crowns, the red
crown and the white crown of Egypt, and hid them in the bushel of
barley, and sealed the sack, and put it in Rud-didet's store-chamber,
and went away again.

A fortnight later, when Rud-didet was going to brew the household beer,
there was no barley. And her maidservant said, "There is a bushel, but
it was given to the dancing-girls, and lies in the store-room, sealed
with their seal." So the lady said to her maid, "Go down and fetch it,
and we shall give them more when they need it." The maid went down, but
when she came to the store-room, lo! from within there came a sound of
singing and dancing, and all such music as should be heard in a King's
Court. So in fear she crept back to her mistress and told her, and
Rud-didet went down and heard the royal music, and she told her husband
when he came home at night, and their hearts were glad because their
sons were to be Kings.

But after a time the lady Rud-didet quarrelled with her maid, and gave
her a beating, as ladies sometimes did in those days; and the weeping
maid said to her fellow-servants, "Shall she do this to me? She has
borne three Kings, and I will go and tell it to his Majesty, King
Khufu." So