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Chapter 8  
     
1.
 The soldier told himself what had happened afterwards: Rê began to have pity upon men, and he sought to deliver men from Sekhmet.
 
2.
 But even Rê could not deliver men from the lion-headed Goddess--of herself she must cease to slay.
 
3.
 Rê pondered on how this might be brought about.
 
4.
 At last he said to Thout who had all his counsel, 'Tall to me the messengers who are as swift as the storm-clouds." Thout called upon them, and the messengers appeared before the majesty of Rê.
  
5.
 He said to the messengers, "Run to Elephantine; hasten; go and bring back to me quickly the fruit that causes sleep, even the mandrake.
 
6.
 Be swift, for what has to be accomplished must be accomplished ere dawn."
  
7.
 The messengers hastened as the storm-wind.
 
8.
 They came to Elephantine; they took up the fruit that causes sleep, even the mandrake. Scarlet was that fruit; the juice of it was the colour of men's blood. The messengers brought the fruit before the throne of Rê.
  
9.
 Then the Gods and Goddesses--even Shu whose place is in the upper air, and Qêb, and Nut and Nuu from whom came Rê himself—
  
10.
 even these great Gods crushed the barley and made the beer.
 
11.
 Seven thousand measures of beer the Gods made then.
 
12.
 They brewed it in haste, for the dawn was about to break; with the beer they mixed the juice of the mandrake.
 
13.
 Rê saw that the mixture was like to the blood of men; he said, "With this beer I can save mankind."
  
14.
 The Gods took the seven thousand measures of beer,
 
15.
 and ere the night passed they brought the beer to the place where men and women had been slain by Sekhmet, the lion-headed Goddess.
 
16.
 They spilled the beer over the fields; its colour was the colour of blood.
  
17.
 Then came Sekhmet ready to slay.
 
18.
 As she passed she looked to this side and to that, looking out for her prey.
 
19.
 No thing living did she see.
 
20.
 The fields were covered with beer that was the colour of blood.
 
21.
 Sekhmet laughed; her laughter was like the roaring of a lioness.
 
22.
 She thought in her heart that, she had shed all this blood.
 
23.
 She stooped and she saw her face reflected therein, and she laughed again.
 
24.
 She stooped and drank; again and again she drank.
 
25.
 Then laughter came from her no more, for the juice of the fruit that causes sleep had mounted to her brain.
 
26.
 No longer could she slay.  
27.
 And she went when Rê called to her, "Come, my daughter; come, my sweet one; come and rest."
 
28.
 The lion-headed Goddess rested, and so men were saved from her destructiveness.  

 
 
 

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