Horus through the sting of a scorpion. Isis, it seems, was shut up in
some dwelling by Set after he murdered Osiris, probably with the
intention of forcing her to marry him, and so assist him to legalize
his seizure of the kingdom. Isis, as we have already seen, had been
made pregnant by her husband after his death, and Thoth now appeared to
her, and advised her to hide herself with her unborn child, and to
bring him forth in secret, and he promised her that her son should
succeed in due course to his father's throne. With the help of Thoth
she escaped from her captivity, and went forth accompanied by the Seven
Scorpion-goddesses, who brought her to the town of Per-Sui, on the edge
of the Reed Swamps. She applied to a woman for a night's shelter, but
the woman shut her door in her face. To punish her one of the
Scorpion-goddesses forced her way into the woman's house, and stung her
child to death. The grief of the woman was so bitter and sympathy-
compelling that Isis laid her hands on the child, and, having uttered
one of her most potent spells over him, the poison of the scorpion ran
out of his body, and the child came to life again. The words of the
spell are cut on the Stele, and they were treasured by the Egyptians as
an infallible remedy for scorpion stings. When the woman saw that her
son had been brought back to life by Isis, she was filled with joy and
gratitude, and, as a mark of her repentance, she brought large
quantities of things from her house as gifts for Isis, and they were so
many that they filled the house of the kind, but poor, woman who had
given Isis shelter.

Now soon after Isis had restored to life the son of the woman who had
shown churlishness to her, a terrible calamity fell upon her, for her
beloved son Horus was stung by a scorpion and died. The news of this
event was conveyed to her by the gods, who cried out to her to come to
see her son Horus, whom the terrible scorpion Uhat had killed. Isis,