Legends of the Gods

The Egyptian Texts, edited with Translations

by E. A. Wallis Budge

London: Kegan Paul, Trench and Trner & Co. Ltd.

[1912]

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.

The legend contained in this remarkable text describes a terrible famine which
took place in the reign of Tcheser, a king of the IIIrd Dynasty, and lasted for
seven years. Insufficient Nile-floods were, of course, the physical cause of the
famine, but the legend shows that the “low Niles” were brought about by the neglect
of the Egyptians in respect of the worship of the god of the First Cataract, the
great god Khnemu.

When, according to the legend, king Tcheser had been made to believe that the
famine took place because men had ceased to worship Khnemu in a manner appropriate
to his greatness, and when he had taken steps to remove the ground of complaint,
the Nile rose to its accustomed height, the crops became abundant once more, and
all misery caused by scarcity of provisions ceased. In other words, when Tcheser
restored the offerings of Khnemu, and re-endowed his sanctuary and his priesthood,
the god allowed Hapi to pour forth his streams from the caverns in the Cataract,
and to flood the land with abundance.

The general character of the legend, as we have it here, makes it quite certain
that it belongs to a late period, and the forms of the hieroglyphics and the spellings
of the words indicate that the text was “stunned” on the rock in the reign of
one of the Ptolemies, probably at a time when it was to the interest of some men
to restore the worship of Khnemu, god of the First Cataract.

These interested people could only have been the priests of Khnemu, and the
probability that this was so becomes almost a certainty when we read in the latter
part of the text the list of the tolls and taxes which they were empowered to
levy on the merchants, farmers, miners, etc., whose goods passed down the Cataract
into Egypt. Why, if this be the case, they should have chosen to connect the famine
with the reign of Tcheser is not clear.

They may have wished to prove the great antiquity of the worship of Khnemu,
but it would have been quite easy to select the name of some king of the Ist Dynasty,
and had they done this, they would have made the authority of Khnemu over the
Nile coaeval with Dynastic civilization. It is impossible to assume that no great
famine took place in Egypt between the reign of Tcheser and the period when the
inscription was made, and when we consider this fact the choice by the editor
of the legend of a famine which took place under the IIIrd Dynasty to illustrate
the power of Khnemu seems inexplicable.

Of the famines which must have taken place in the Dynastic period the inscriptions
tell us nothing, but the story of the seven years’ famine mentioned in the Book
of Genesis shows that there is nothing improbable in a famine lasting so long
in Egypt. Arab historians also mention several famines which lasted for seven
years.

That which took place in the years 1066-1072 nearly ruined the whole country.
A cake of bread was sold for 15 dinanir, (the dinar = 10s.), a horse was sold
for 20, a dog for 5, a cat for 3, and an egg for 1 dinar. When all the animals
were eaten men began to eat each other, and human flesh was sold in public. “Passengers
were caught in the streets by hooks let down from the windows, drawn up, killed,
and cooked.” 1

During the famine which began in 1201 people ate human flesh habitually. Parents
killed and cooked their own children, and a, wife was found eating her husband
raw. Baby fricassee and haggis of children’s heads were ordinary articles of diet.
The graves even were ransacked for food. An ox sold for 70 dinanir.
2

The legend begins with the statement that in the 18th year of the reign of
King Tcheser, when Matar, the Erpa Prince and H was the Governor of the
temple properties of the South and North, and was also the Director of the Khenti
men at Elephantine (Aswan), a royal despatch was delivered to him, in which the
king said: “I am in misery on my throne.

My heart is very sore because of the calamity which hath happened, for the
Nile hath not come forth 3 for seven years. There is no
grain, there are no vegetables, there is no food, and every man is robbing his
neighbour. Men wish to walk, but they are unable to move; the young man drags
along his limbs, the hearts of the aged are crushed with despair, their legs fail
them, they sink to the ground, and they clutch their bodies with their hands in
pain.

The councillors are dumb, and nothing but wind comes out of the granaries when
they are opened. Everything is in a state of ruin.” A more graphic picture of
the misery caused by the famine could hardly be imagined. The king then goes on
to ask Matar where the Nile is born? what god or goddess presides over it? and
what is his [or her] form? He says he would like to go to the temple of Thoth
to enquire of that god, to go to the College of the Magicians, and search through
the sacred books in order to find out these things.

When Matar had read the despatch, he set out to go to the king, and explained
to him the things which he wished to know. He told him that, the Nile rose near
the city of Elephantine, that it flowed out of two caverns, which were the breasts
of the Nile-god, that it rose to a height of twenty-eight cubits at Elephantine,
and to the height of seven cubits at Sma-Behutet, or, Diospolis Parva in the Delta.

He who controlled the Nile was Khnemu, and when this god drew the bolt of the
doors which shut in the stream, and smote the earth with his sandals, the river
rushed forth. Matar also described to the king the form of Khnemu, which was that
of Shu, and the work which he did, and the wooden house in which he lived, and
its exact position, which was near the famous granite quarries.

The gods who dwelt with Khnemu were the goddess Sept (Sothis, or the Dog-star),
the goddess Anqet, Hap (or Hep), the Nile-god, Shu, Keb, Nut, Osiris, Isis, Nephthys,
and Horus. Thus we see that the priests of Khnemu made him to be the head of a
Company of Gods. Finally Matar gave the king a list of all the stones, precious
and otherwise, which were found in and about Elephantine.

When the king, who had, it seems, come to Elephantine, heard these things he
rejoiced greatly, and he went into the temple of Khnemu. The priests drew back
the curtains and sprinkled him with holy water, and then he passed into the shrine
and offered up a great sacrifice of bread-cakes, beer, geese, oxen, and all kinds
of good things, to the gods and goddesses who dwelt at Elephantine, in the place
called “Couch of the heart in life and power,” Suddenly he found himself standing
face to face with the god Khnemu, whom he placated with a peace-offering and with
prayer.

Then the god opened his eyes, and bent his body towards the king, and spake
to him mighty words, saying, “I am Khnemu, who made thee. My hands knitted together
thy body and made it sound, and I gave thee thy heart.” Khnemu then went on to
complain that, although the ground under the king’s feet was filled with stones
and metal, men were too inert to work them and to employ them in repairing or
rebuilding of the shrines of the gods, or in doing what they ought to do for him,
their Lord and Creator.

These words were, of course, meant as a rebuke for the king, who evidently,
though it is not so stated in the text, was intended by Khnemu to undertake the
rebuilding of his shrine without delay. The god then went on to proclaim his majesty
and power, and declared himself to be Nu, the Celestial Ocean, and the Nile-god,
“who came into being at the beginning, and riseth at his will to give health to
him that laboureth for Khnemu.” He described himself as the Father of the gods,
the Governor of the earth and of men, and then he promised the king to make the
Nile rise yearly, regularly, and unceasingly, to give abundant harvests, to give
all people their heart’s desire, to make misery to pass away, to fill the granaries,
and to make the whole land of Egypt yellow with waving fields of full ripe grain.

When the king, who had been in a dream, heard the god mention crops, he woke
up, and his courage returned to him, and having cast away despair from his heart
he issued a decree by which he made ample provision for the maintenance of the
worship of the god in a fitting state. In this decree, the first copy of which
was cut upon wood, the king endowed Khnemu with 20 schoinoi of land on each side
of the river, with gardens, etc.

It was further enacted that every man who drew water from the Nile for his
land should contribute a portion of his crops to the god. Fishermen, fowlers,
and hunters were to pay an octroi duty of one-tenth of the value of their catches
when they brought them into the city, and a tithe of the cattle was to be set
apart for the daily sacrifice.

The masters of caravans coming from the Sudan were to pay a tithe also, but
they were not liable to any further tax in the country northwards. Every metal-worker,
ore-crusher, miner, mason, and handicraftsman of every kind, was to pay to the
temple of the god one-tenth of the value of the material produced or worked by
his labour.

The decree provided also for the appointment of an inspector whose duty it
would be to weigh the gold, silver and copper which came into the town of Elephantine,
and to assess the value both of these metals and of the precious stones, etc.,
which were to be devoted to the service of Khnemu.

All materials employed in making the images of the gods, and all handicraftsmen
employed in the work were exempted from tithing. In short, the worship of the
god and his company was to be maintained according to ancient use and wont, and
the people were to supply the temple with everything necessary in a generous spirit
and with a liberal hand. He who failed in any way to comply with the enactments
was to be beaten with the rope, and the name of Tcheser was to be perpetuated
in the temple.

Footnotes

1 Lane Poole, Middle Ages, p. 146.
2 Ibid., p. 216.
3 I.e., there have been insufficient Nile-floods.