The infant was
the younger Horus, who in his youth bore the name of Harpocrates,
that is, the child Horus. Him Buto, the goddess of the north, hid
from the wrath of his wicked uncle Set. Yet she could not guard him
from all mishap; for one day when Isis came to her little son's
hiding-place she found him stretched lifeless and rigid on the
ground: a scorpion had stung him. Then Isis prayed to the sun-god Ra
for help. The god hearkened to her and staid his bark in the sky,
and sent down Thoth to teach her the spell by which she might
restore her son to life. She uttered the words of power, and
straightway the poison flowed from the body of Horus, air passed
into him, and he lived. Then Thoth ascended up into the sky and took
his place once more in the bark of the sun, and the bright pomp
passed onward jubilant.
Meantime the coffer containing the body of Osiris had floated down
the river and away out to sea, till at last it drifted ashore at
Byblus, on the coast of Syria. Here a fine _erica_-tree shot up
suddenly and enclosed the chest in its trunk.
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