whom Egypt is endangered! Paaker prayed for his parents? Ay, and so
will he for his children, for they will be his future as his fore fathers
are his past. If he had a wife, his offerings would be for her too, for
she would be the half of his own present."

"In spite of all this," said the haruspex Septah, "you are too hard in
your judgment of Paaker, for although lie was born under a lucky sign,
the Hathors denied him all that makes youth happy. The enemy for whose
destruction he prays is Mena, the king's charioteer, and, indeed, he must
have been of superhuman magnanimity or of unmanly feebleness, if he could
have wished well to the man who robbed him of the beautiful wife who was
destined for him."

"How could that happen?" asked the priest from Chennu. "A betrothal is
sacred."

[In the demotic papyrus preserved at Bulaq (novel by Setnau) first
treated by H. Brugsch, the following words occur: "Is it not the
law, which unites one to another?" Betrothed brides are mentioned,
for instance on the sarcophagus of Unnefer at Bulaq.]

"Paaker," replied Septah, "was attached with all the strength of his
ungoverned but passionate and faithful heart to his cousin Nefert, the
sweetest maid in Thebes, the daughter of Katuti, his mother's sister; and
she was promised to him to wife. Then his father, whom he accompanied on
his marches, was mortally wounded in Syria. The king stood by his death-
bed, and granting his last request, invested his son with his rank and
office: Paaker brought the mummy of his father home to Thebes, gave him
princely interment, and then before the time of mourning was over,
hastened back to Syria, where, while the king returned to Egypt, it was