Budge_Ethiopic_Alexander

XII
INTRODUCTION.
dead to protect the intestines, were sometimes
made of wax,' but the cases Icnown are rare and are
not sufficiently numerous to outweigh the evidence
Waxen fi- On the other side. Thus in the Westcar Papyrus'
mrdVyn'^'s''- ^e have the story of the wife of a high Egyptian
'^'
official called Aba-aner who fell in love with one
of the king's followers, and she sent to him and
told him of her desire; subsequently the pair met
in the woman's garden, and they passed the day
in drinking and in pleasure. On the morrow the
husband was told of his wife's conduct, and he
determined to punish both with death. Sending
for his ebony box bound with fine metal he made
a waxen crocodile a few inches lono-, and havine
recited magfical formulae over it, he eave it to
his chief servant and told him to throw it into
the water when he saw his wife's paramour going
to bathe in the evening. When the guilty pair
had passed another day together and the young
man went down to the river in the evening, the
chief servant cast the waxen crocodile into the
water; and as it was falling it turned into a
huge living crocodile about twelve feet long, and
swallowed the young man. Seven days later Aba-
aner and the king Neb-ka went to the water where
the crocodile was, and Aba-aner ordered it to
give up the young man, and it came out of the
• See Nos. 15,563, 15,564, i5>S73, iS;578 in the
British Museum.
^ Ed. Erman, pp. 7 and 8.