day he eats five hundred bread-cakes (_sic_), and a leg of beef, and
drinks one hundred pots of beer. He knows how to reunite to its body a
head which has been cut off, he knows how to make a lion follow him
whilst the rope with which he is tied drags behind him on the ground,
and he knows the numbers of the Apet chambers (?) of the shrine (?) of
Thoth." Now His Majesty had been seeking for a long time past for the
number of the Apet chambers (?) of Thoth, for he had wished to make
something like it for his "horizon."[1] And King Khufu said to his son
Herutataf, "My son, thou thyself shalt go and bring the sage to me";
thereupon a boat was made ready for Prince Herutataf, who forthwith set
out on his journey to Tet-Seneferu, the home of the sage. When the
prince came to the spot on the river bank that was nearest to the
village of Teta, he had the boat tied up, and he continued his journey
overland seated in a sort of sedan chair made of ebony, which was
carried or slung on bearing poles made of costly _sesentchem_ wood
inlaid or decorated with gold. When Herutataf arrived at the village,
the chair was set down on the ground, and he got out of it and stood up
ready to greet the old man, whom he found lying upon a bed, with the
door of his house lying on the ground. One servant stood by the bed
holding the sage's head and fanning him, and another was engaged in
rubbing his feet. Herutataf addressed a highly poetical speech to Teta,
the gist of which was that the old man seemed to be able to defy the
usual effects of old age, and to be like one who had obtained the secret
of everlasting youth, and then expressed the hope that he was well.
Having paid these compliments, which were couched in dignified and
archaic language, Herutataf went on to say that he had come with a
message from his father Khufu, who hereby summoned Teta to his presence.
"I have come," he said, "a long way to invite thee, so that thou mayest
eat the food, and enjoy the good things which the king bestows on those
who follow him, and so that he may conduct thee after a happy life to