able with impunity to steal it
from him. The gods, however, who frequent this earth take pity on his
loneliness, and create for him a wife of such beauty that the Nile falls
in love with her, and steals a lock of her hair, which is carried by its
waters down into Egypt. Pharaoh finds the lock, and, intoxicated by
its scent, commands his people to go in quest of the owner. Having
discovered the lady, Pharaoh marries her, and ascertaining from her
who she is, he sends men to cut down the Acacia, but no sooner has the
flower touched the earth, than Bitiu droops and dies. The elder brother
is made immediately acquainted with the fact by means of various
prodigies. The wine poured out to him becomes troubled, his beer leaves
a deposit. He seizes his shoes and staff and sets out to find the heart.

After a search of seven years he discovers it, and reviving it in a vase
of water, he puts it into the mouth of the corpse, which at once returns
to life. Bitiu, from this moment, seeks only to be revenged. He changes
himself into the bull Apis, and, on being led to court, he reproaches
the queen with the crime she has committed against him. The queen causes
his throat to be cut; two drops of his blood fall in front of the gate
of the palace, and produce in the night two splendid "Persea" trees,
which renew the accusation in a loud voice. The queen has them cut down,
but a chip from one of them flies into her mouth, and ere long she gives
birth to a child who is none other than a reincarnation of Bitiu. When
the child succeeds to the Pharaoh, he assembles his council, reveals
himself to them, and punishes with death her who was first his wife
and subsequently his mother. The hero moves throughout the tale without
exhibiting any surprise at the strange incidents in which he takes
part, and, as a matter of fact, they did not seriously outrage the
probabilities of contemporary life. In every town sorcerers could be
found who knew how to transform themselves into animals or raise
the dead to life: we have seen how the accomplices of Pentauirit had
recourse to spells in order to gain admission to the royal palace when
they desired to rid themselves of Ramses III. The most extravagant
romances differed from real life merely in collecting within a dozen
pages more miracles than were customarily supposed to take place in the
same number of years; it was merely the multiplicity of events, and
not the events themselves, that gave to the narra