October 1st, 2006
The Tale of Prince Hardjedef
Can this story possibly be true?
An ancient Egyptian document, known today as the Westcar Papyrus, tells the fictional story of what happened when Khufu asked his son Hardjedef to entertain him.
Hardjedef told his father about the magician Djedi:
Djedi lives in a village near the palace. He is 110 years old; every day, he eats half a cow and drinks 100 jugs of beer. He can rejoin a head that has been cut off a body so that a dead animal lives again. And he can tame a wild lion.
Fascinated, Khufu asked his son to bring Djedi to him. So Hardjedef sailed to the village, where he found Djedi relaxing in the courtyard of his house. The prince greeted the old man politely, and invited him to visit his father.
Back at the palace, Khufu was eager to watch Djedi at work. A goose was brought, and its head was cut off. The body was placed on the west side of the room, and the head was placed on the east side. Djedi muttered a spell. Immediately, the body waddled toward the head, while the head rolled toward the body. The two halves met, and the goose lived again.
Djedi repeated his trick first with an ibis (a large, long-legged wading bird) and then with a full-grown bull. Finally, a roaring lion was dragged into the room, and the magician tamed it so that it became as gentle as a kitten. Impressed, Khufu rewarded Djedi with a house, a daily ration of food and beer, and a tomb.
Dr. Dig says:
The Westcar Papyrus, stored today in Germany’s Berlin Museum, probably dates to the 12th Dynasty, like many uncovered Egyptian documents, it was named after one of its first owners, a Miss Westcar of Whitchurch, England.
By: Tyldesley, Joyce, dig, Sep2006