Sun shall be painted, and gives the positions of the gods who stand by
the legs of the Cow, and a number of short magical names, or formulae,
which are inexplicable. The general meaning of the picture of the Cow
is quite clear. The Cow represents the sky in which the Boats of Ra,
sail, and her four legs are the four cardinal points which cannot be
changed. The region above her back is the heaven in which Ra reigns
over the beings who pass thereto from this earth when they die, and
here was situated the home of the gods and the celestial spirits who
govern this world.

When Ra had made a heaven for himself, and had arranged for a
continuance of life on the earth, and the welfare of human beings, he
remembered that at one time when reigning on earth he had been bitten
by a serpent, and had nearly lost his life through the bite. Fearing
that the same calamity might befall his successor, he determined to
take steps to destroy the power of all noxious reptiles that dwelt on
the earth. With this object in view he told Thoth to summon Keb, the
Earth-god, to his presence, and this god having arrived, Ra told him
that war must be made against the serpents that dwelt in his dominions.
He further commanded him to go to the god Nu, and to tell him to set a
watch over all the reptiles that were in the earth and in water, and to
draw up a writing for every place in which serpents are known to be,
containing strict orders that they are to bite, no one. Though these
serpents knew that Ra was retiring from the earth, they were never to
forget that his rays would fall upon them. In his place their father
Keb was to keep watch over them, and he was their father for ever.

As a further protection against them Ra promised to impart to magicians
and snake-charmers the particular word of power, hekau, with which he
guarded himself against the attacks of serpents, and also to transmit