Chapter I: The Princess and the Demon

Published: Prisse d'Avennes, _Monuments Egyptiens_, pl. xxiv.

Translated: Wiedemann, _Religion of the Ancient Egyptians_, p. 275.

This tale is sculptured on a sandstone tablet found by Champollion in the temple of Khonsu at Thebes, and now in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris.

There are twenty-eight horizontal lines of inscription, and above them is a scene of two boats of Khonsu borne on the shoulders of priests, with the king offering incense before them.

When first translated, the tale was supposed to be a record of fact, but now it is generally considered a folk-tale, redounding to the credit and glory of Khonsu, and therefore made use of by the priests of that god. The king mentioned in it cannot be identified with any of the historical monarchs of Egypt, although his personal name, Rameses, is sufficiently common among the rulers of the xxth dynasty.