"

* This kind of circumlocution is employed on several
occasions in the old texts to designate royalty. It was
contrary to etiquette to mention directly, in common speech,
the Pharaoh, or anything belonging to his functions or his
family. Cf. pp. 28, 29 of this History.

** This phrase is couched in oracular form, as befitting the
reply of a magician. It appears to have been intended to
reassure the king in affirming that the advent of the three
sons of Ra would not be immediate: his son, then a son of
this son, would succeed him before destiny would be
accomplished, and one of these divine children succeed to
the throne in his turn. The author of the story took no
notice of Dadufri or Shopsiskaf, of whose reigns little was
known in his time.

*** Hiquit as the frog-goddess, or with a frog's head, was
one of the mid-wives who is present at the birth of the sun
every morning. Her presence is, therefore, natural in the
case of the spouse about to give birth to royal sons of the
sun.

The goddesses disguised themselves as dancers and itinerant musicians:
Khnumu assumed the character of servant to this band of nautch-girls and
filled the bag with provisions, and they all then proceeded together
to knock at the door of the house in which Buditdidit was awaiting her
delivery. The earthly husband Bausir, unconscious of the honour that the
gods had in store for him, introduced them to the presence of his wife,
and immediately three male children were brought into the world one
after the other. Isis named them, Maskhonit predicted for them their
royal fortune, while Khnumu. infused into their limbs vigour and health;
the eldest was called Usirkaf, the second Sahuri, the third Kakiu.
Kausir was anxious to discharge his obligation to these unknown persons,
and proposed to do so in wheat, as if they were ordinary mortals: they
had accepted it without compunction, and were already on their way to
the firmament, when Isis recalled them to a sense of their dignity, and
commanded them to store the honorarium bestowed upon them in one of
the chambers of the house, where henceforth prodigies of the strangest
character never ceased to manifest themselves. Every time one entered
the place a murmur was heard of singing, music, and dancing, while
acclamations such as those with which kings are wont to be received gave
sure presage of the des