VII.



A LEGEND OF KHNEMU AND OF A SEVEN YEARS' FAMINE.



The text of this most interesting legend is found in hieroglyphics on
one side of a large rounded block of granite some eight or nine feet
high, which stands on the south-east portion of Sahal, a little island
lying in the First Cataract, two or three miles to the south of
Elephantine Island and the modern town of Aswan. The inscription is
not cut into the rock in the ordinary way, but was "stunned" on it with
a blunted chisel, and is, in some lights, quite invisible to anyone
standing near the rock, unless he is aware of its existence. It is in
full view of the river-path which leads from Mahallah to Philae, and
yet it escaped the notice of scores of travellers who have searched the
rocks and islands in the Cataract for graffiti and inscriptions. The
inscription, which covers a space six feet by five feet, was discovered
accidentally on February 6th, 1889, by the late Mr. C. E. Wilbour, a
distinguished American gentleman who spent many years in research in
Egypt. He first copied the text, discovering in the course of his work
the remarkable nature of its contents and then his friend Mr. Maudslay
photographed it. The following year he sent prints from Mr. Maudslay's
negatives to Dr. Brugsch, who in the course of 1891 published a
transcript of the text with a German translation and notes in a work
entitled Die biblischen sieben Jahre der Hungersnoth, Leipzig, 8vo.