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"Is it true, Dedi, that you can fasten on a head which has been cut off?" "Certainly I can, your Majesty." Then said the King, "Let a prisoner be brought from the prison, and let his head be struck off." But Dedi said, "Long life to your Majesty; do not try it on a man. Let us try a bird or an animal."
And he arose to greet Dedi, and found him lying on a palmstick couch at the door of his house; one servant held his head and rubbed him, and another rubbed his feet, And the king's son Hordedef said, "Thy state is that of one who lives to good old age; for old age is the end of our voyage, the time of embalming, the time of burial.
And the duck fluttered along the ground, and its head came likewise; and when it had come part to part the duck stood and quacked. And they brought likewise a goose before him, and he did even so unto it. His majesty caused an ox to be brought, and its head cast on the ground. And Dedi spake his magic speech.
So the King commanded that Dedi should live in the house of Prince Hordadef; and that every day there should be given to him a thousand loaves, a hundred jugs of beer, an ox, and a hundred bunches of onions! When the three sons of Rud-didet were born, Ra sent four goddesses to be their godmothers.
"'Genam meam dedi vapulatori' I have given my cheek to the smiter," said the Priest; "an thou canst stir me from the spot, fellow, I will freely bestow on thee the Jew's ransom." So spoke the burly Priest, assuming, on his part, high defiance. But who may resist his fate?
And his majesty said, "Let one bring me a prisoner who is in prison, that his punishment may be fulfilled." And Dedi said, "Let it not be a man, O king, my lord; behold we do not even thus to our cattle." And a duck was brought unto him, and its head was cut off. And the duck was laid on the west side of the hall, and its head on the east side of the hall. And Dedi spake his magic speech.
It belongs to an age when ideals possess the mind, when man struggles against his circumstances, when he wills to be different from what he is. Dedi or the shipwrecked sailor think nothing about fate, but live day by day as life comes to them. There is here, then, a new element, that of striving and of unrest, quite foreign to the old Egyptian mind.
But another of his sons, Prince Hordadef, stood up, and said, "O King, that is only a story of bygone days, and no one knows whether it is true or a lie; but I will show thee a magician of to-day." "Who is he, Hordadef?" said King Khufu. And Hordadef answered, "His name is Dedi.
And the ox stood upright behind him, and followed him with his halter trailing on the ground. And King Khufu said, "And is it true what is said, that thou knowest the number of the designs of the dwelling of Tahuti?" And his majesty said, "Where is that?" And Dedi replied, "There is a chest of whetstone in a chamber named the plan-room, in Heli-opolis; they are in this chest."
How it was continued is a matter of speculation, but Khufu ought certainly to reappear and to order great rewards for Dedi, who up to this has only had maintenance on his requisite scale provided for him. Yet it is imperative that the children shall be saved from his wrath, as they are the kings of the Vth Dynasty. There may be a long episode lost of their flight and adventures.
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