have announced to their father, who
allowed us to depart [without begging a boon]?" So they made divine
crowns such as belonged to the Lord (_i.e._ King), life, strength,
health [be to him!], and they hid them in the barley. Then they sent
rain and storm through the heavens, and they went back to the house of
Rauser, apparently carrying the barley with them, and said to him, "Let
the barley abide in a sealed room until we dance our way back to the
north." So they put the barley in a sealed room. After Rut-tetet had
kept herself secluded for fourteen days, she said to one of her
handmaidens, "Is the house all ready?" and the handmaiden told her that
it was provided with everything except jars of barley drink, which had
not been brought. Rut-tetet then asked why they had not been brought,
and the handmaiden replied in words that seem to mean that there was no
barley in the house except that which belonged to the dancing goddesses,
and that that was in a chamber which had been sealed with their seal.
Rut-tetet then told her to go and fetch some of the barley, for she was
quite certain that when her husband Rauser returned he would make good
what she took. Thereupon the handmaiden went to the chamber, and broke
it open, and she heard in it loud cries and shouts, and the sounds of
music and singing and dancing, and all the noises which men make in
honour of the birth of a king, and she went back and told Rut-tetet what
she had heard. Then Rut-tetet herself went through the room, and could
not find the place where the noises came from, but when she laid her
temple against a box, she perceived that the noises were inside it. She
then took this box, which cannot have been of any great size, and put it
in another box, which in turn she put in another box, which she sealed,
and then wrapping this in a leather covering, she laid it in a chamber
containing her jar of barley beer or barley wine, and sealed the door.
When Rauser returned from the fields, Rut-tetet related to him
everything that had happened, and his heart was exceedingly glad, and he
and his wife sat down and enjoyed themselves.

A few days after these events Rut-tetet had a quarrel with her
handmaiden, and she slapped her well. The handmaiden was very angry, and
in the presence of the household she said words to this effect: Dost
thou dare to treat me in this way? I who can destroy thee? She has given
birth to three kings, and I will go and tell the Majesty of King