arrived at the lake Ubaaner uttered a spell over the crocodile, and
commanded it to come up out of the water bringing the young man with
him; and the crocodile did so. When the king saw the beast he exclaimed
at its hideousness, and seemed to be afraid of it, but the magician
stooped down fearlessly, and took the crocodile up in his hand, and lo,
the living crocodile had disappeared, and only a crocodile of wax
remained in its place. Then Ubaaner told King Nebka the story of how the
young man had spent days in the lodge in the garden talking and drinking
beer with his wife, and His Majesty said to the wax crocodile, "Get thee
gone, and take what is thine with thee." And the wax crocodile leaped
out of the magician's hand into the lake, and once more became a large,
living crocodile. And it swam away with the young man, and no one ever
knew what became of it afterwards. Then the king made his servants seize
Ubaaner's wife, and they carried her off to the ground on the north side
of the royal palace, and there they burned her, and they scattered her
ashes in the river. When King Khufu had heard the story he ordered many
offerings to be made in the tomb of his predecessor Nebka, and gifts to
be presented to the magician Ubaaner.


THE MAGICIAN TCHATCHAMĀNKH AND THE GOLD ORNAMENT

The Prince Baiufrā stood up and offered to relate to King Khufu (Cheops)
a story of a magician called Tchatchamānkh, who flourished in the reign
of Seneferu, the king's father. The offer having been accepted, Baiufrā
proceeded to relate the following: On one occasion it happened that
Seneferu was in a perplexed and gloomy state of mind, and he wandered
distractedly about the rooms and courts of his palace seeking to find
something wherewith to amuse himself, but he failed to do so. Then he
bethought himself of the court magician Tchatchamānkh, and he ordered