Hunger's Brides (190 page)

She had opened his eyes, she had opened his mouth. Now from his testicles she brought forth life-from-death—a half-dead-one who would contend with SETH for the White Crown. Within ONE MONTH was he born. Truly, who was spreader-of-disorder if not our sister? Confusion was
Seth's
nature not hers. It is SHE who had broken the Tablets of Destiny, cheated Death—such a thing has never been done—for love?

But if thou wouldst have me die, Seth will die. And if thou wishest that Seth should not die, I will have life.

Isis hid the infant-half-dead from Seth in the marshes. Nephthys and Taweret watched over them. The three, my rightful consorts, nursed it, guarded it from my allies in the swamps. Isis taught it much guile, took it to the Western Lands—more witcheries—to learn war-craft and sciences from our brother, the many-eyed, the weary-of-heart. The freak survived, the dead-thing was raised up—red-in-his-eyes, snot-in-his-mouth. Foul-of-breath, frail-of-limb, who-sucks-his-thumb. Horus the child.

It was thus he came with his mother to petition thee at the head of the Tribunal of the Nine, that he be given the White Crown. And then Thoth said it was a million times right. Horus should have it. I answered thee, to the All-Lord—life, prosperity and health!—the White Crown should be stripped from the stripling and thrown into the water, far from the Sun! True, that the Baba of Seth spoke then harshly against the All-Lord for even considering their petition. But is not unreason Seth's nature? True, that in unreason the Baba loud-shrieked from the small mouth of Seth's member that the shrine of the All-Lord was empty, UNTENDED, bringing unto thee much sorrow. All day the All-Lord lay down on his back in his hut. Until the Golden One thy daughter came to show thee her cunt, bringing thee much laughter. What daughter comes to Seth in my sorrow to show me her cunt? What daughter comes with joy and laughter? Is Seth not thus made covetous? Am I not loving-of-family-yet-barren?

Seth insulted, gave offence, but did not Isis THREATEN the Ennead?—to write Neith to bring down the sky! if the half-dead's petition was not heard. And then the Ennead placated her, very craven, the Nine
made ready to hear Horus. Only then Seth threatened them. To the Ennead, to the council Seth said:

I made them an oath to kill them, a god a day—slay each one with this my copper sceptre of 4,500 pounds, spit them like bullocks from the mouths of their anus to the mouths of their face. I showed to them the world come after their deaths—when bread shall be called for with blood and all shall laugh with a sick man's laugh and fast for death. When man turns his back on the killing of a friend, a son is a foe, a brother an enemy. When a man robs his own twin and kills his own father. When words are like fire issuing from the heart, and its words on the tongue cannot be borne. When the Sun rises but none can distinguish its shadow. Then Seth would strip their god-shadows from them, leave them naked, no-shadowed in a desert wind.

For is Seth not the red wind and Lone Star of Twilight? Am I not of those who rising are risen, who lasting, last?

And did they not listen? I refused to contend in court with Isis, for she was great in magic, greater in guile. Seth spoke movingly: Is the White Crown to be awarded to my little brother Horus while Seth the Elder is alive?

But she had changed herself again, into the figure of a buxom wench, unseen by the others, where we were eating bread together in laughter. I alone saw her and approached, spoke to her from behind a tree, of her beauty of a like unknown to this land. She begged a promise of assistance, telling Seth she was the wife of a cow-herd, but he died, and so her
son began to tend the herd, when a foreigner came to live in her stable, threatened to beat the boy, take his father's cows, evict him from his father's house. Did not buxom-in-guile ask Seth's protection from the demon? Anxious to release my seed, very full of it, Seth's jism asked through me, very indignant: Is it while the son of a man is still alive that his cattle are to be taken by strangers? Here my dear sister revealed herself, and as a kite flew shrieking up to the crown of an acacia. Calling down to Seth: It is your own MOUTH that has said it, Seth's own deceit has judged you! What comeback have you?

I went before the All-Lord to tell of my deception, for thou hast been always my father, and wert well disposed toward Seth. Was Seth not created lascivious, am I not foolishness-in-rut? She is MOST guileful!

The Ennead would not award the White Crown directly to Seth but set the contenders a test. Three months Horus and Seth were sent as hippos to remain at the bottom of the Nile. AGAIN defying the Ennead, Isis cast her harpoon down into the river after us, seeking out the flesh of Seth but biting instead into the freakish one. Horus shrieked up: Mother beg the harpoon to let go. She did, it did agree. She cast it again—into Seth. But my cries were piteous: Could Isis prefer a harpoon of copper to her own dear brother? She was moved to tears, for Seth is tenderness-in-danger. The daughter of our mother Nut called to the harpoon of copper: See, it is Isis's own brother Seth, son of the Sky, and the Darkling. Let him go, Isis said, and the harpoon agreed.

Horus waxed furious, his-face-of-a-panther—and did he not cut off his own mother's head with a cleaver of 16
deben
-weight in his fist? Thus she was made a statue of flint, headless. Only then he desisted.

Later I found him at a mountain oasis, asleep under a tree. And did Seth not then richly avenge the beheading of the daughter of my mother? As a red storm in the desert Seth seized him, threw the child down on its back. With the chisel of my loins, Seth fucked out his eyes, raped hard the freak with flame and the orbits ran fire. But was his mother satisfied with her brother Seth, was there gratitude? She sent the Golden One with spells to find the child in the desert, his eyes weeping pus. Hathor of Gold caught a gazelle and milked it, and rinsed Seth's own dear poison from the child's eyes and restored them. Then great-in-magic, Isis, great-ingrate, went before the Ennead to bring complaint: See the poor fatherless child left weeping in the desert. But had the
half-dead-one so much as met his father? and is not Seth bereft equally of a brother?—and I knew him.

The Nine enjoined us to cease our contendings: Act with civility. Upon whom the greater hardship, this? Was it not upon Seth?—was not Horus weak at Seth's mercy, and civility an insult to my own true nature?

But Seth did make up with his nephew, in welcome and hospitality made him a feast, as once was done for the father. So for the son did Seth prepare him a place of rest, and after feasting and beer bade him lie down with his uncle. The voice of Seth said then to the ear of Horus:

    How buxom thy buttocks seem to Seth!

    How broad are these thighs!

The mouth of Horus said: Beware, Uncle, I shall tell of this to my mother! When the mouth had shut, its lips stopped, Seth took the shape of a black pig—and performed the labour of a male upon the child with the tusk of my loins. But his mother interfered even with Seth's civilities! having taught the half-dead how to deceive me, making of his fist a mouth between his buttocks. My dear nephew became as a bitch to Seth and seized the spume of my testicles in his hand. Again had great-in-magic CHEATED Seth, made my seed to fall on barren ground.

She shrieked to see Seth's potency in the child's hand, with a copper knife cut off the hand and cast it into the Nile water, never once letting the Sun see, speaking spells against my potency, against the venom in Seth's jism. Then the mother of Seth's nephew gave the half-dead a new hand, chanting:

With sweet ointment she chafed it to a stiffness. With fist-love she drew the semen down from its lips, with the life in her mouth collected it, transferred it to a pot, many times until it was filled. Then the daughter of our mother Sky, wife of Seth's brother, mother of my dear nephew, went to Seth's own hut, inciting there Seth's gardener to a betrayal.

Isis said: What food does Seth eat from this garden?
Only the lettuce, the food of his potency
. Each leaf she smeared then from the pot until the
lettuce gleamed with the Horus-jism, taking strength from the Sun. Seth ate that night of the lettuce, a great salad, and in the morning went to the Ennead to tell of Seth's labours upon the half-dead-one, the freak: I have planted my seed high up in the bowels of Horus! Seth has defiled his sovereignty! The Nine hawked up their scorn, spat it as bile into the face of the child. But my dear nephews mother had instructed him to deny this, saying: Horus has defiled the sovereignty of his uncle Seth! Horus has planted well and deep in the pleats of his intestines. Horus said then: Let my uncles semen be called, that we may hear whence it answers.

So Ibis-head Thoth, script-lord, truth-scribe for the Ennead, called: Come out, semen of Seth! It called NOT from the mouth of Horus's ANUS but from the marshes. Then Thoth put his hand on the shoulder of Seth, calling: Come out, semen of Horus! And the semen talked from Seth's OWN bowels: Where shall I come out? Thoth replied: From his ear! But it answered: Am I to issue forth from an ear, when I am a divine jism? As a great Sun disk then it came from the top of Seth's head. Thoth, the swifter, set the disk as a crown unsteady on his narrow-bird-head. Seth loud-shrieked-death-in-their-faces—reached to seize and tear the disk. But seeing the Ennead turning on Seth—swiftly I called: Another test! Let each contender build a stone boat to race against the other. But she-is-greatest-in-guile taught the half-dead to build a boat of balsam, coat it with gypsum, in appearance like stone. In the morning Seth's stone boat went swiftly, straight to the bottom. So Seth became a hippo to sink the light swift boat! Horus drew back his copper barb, telling it—SLAY SETH! but the Ennead called out against this, Stop!

And Horus stayed his cast. Horus spared Seth.

Then Thoth prayed thee the All-Lord: Dictate a letter to Osiris, Lord of the Dead Lands, where he eats of gold and glaze—to choose between the contenders, who have been before the Tribunal now eighty years without a judgement. And did not His-heart-is-weary write back swiftly to the All-Lord of the Ennead?—causing thee insult, boasting of his accomplishments, of his gifts of barley and emmer and cattle to sustain the gods, without which all would swiftly starve, mocking the All-Lord's invention of the Tribunal, as the begetting of Injustice as an accomplishment. And asking: did not all the stars of the gods have to set beneath his feet in the Western Lands?

How Seth's dead brother vaunted then over the Tribunal! asking who among the Nine was greater than he in strength, that his son should be cheated of his birthright. And did not Foremost-of-the-Westerners, lion who hunts for himself, threaten the HEARTS of the gods? saying:

Craven, the Ennead said, the husband of Isis is right, the great-in-plenty and giver-of-sustenance is a million times right. But what need had Seth to fear the forty-two demons? Did not I know their names and have power over them? Seth-shrieked-death-loud-in-their-faces:

O Being-of-fire walking backward—yea, I have stolen a god's property! O Blood-drinker from the shambles—I have slain sacred cattle! O Bowel-eater from the Tribunal—I have extorted! O Pallid-one from On—I have prated! O Wrecker from Huy—I have trespassed! O Disturber from the sanctuary—I have wrought violence! O Accuser of Utjen—I have attacked and reviled a god! O Backward-facing from the pit—I have copulated with a boy! O Captor from the burial ground—I have cursed a god in my town….

[——]

[——]

All these things Seth
had
done, but had he not been true to his own self, had he not been one with his
ka?
Seth's front is pure! Seth's rear is pure! Though others had lied and defied—though OTHERS had threatened and mocked the Ennead—yet the Nine found against Seth—even the All-Lord, who sent for Isis to bring Seth bound in shackles as her captive, in copper fetters to stand before thee. Why, thou askedst, does Seth evade the judgement of the Tribunal and defy it to take what belongs by right to Horus? But I answered thee—for is not Seth who-is-pleased-with-desertion and did I not then desert myself saying: No, not so, great Lord, All-Lord. I beg that Horus, son of Isis, pride of his uncle! be given the offices and titles of my dear brother, Osiris, his uncle.

Bring Horus, son of Isis. And set the White Crown upon him
.

After eighty years.

Horus was vindicated in the One-are-the-Two-Truths court, vindicated in the Pool-of-the-Field court,
vindicated
in the Horus-with-Projecting-Horns court. Hearing of the judgement, Seth's followers took to the red desert in multitudes of rage—serpents, scorpions, crocodiles—the sky darkened. The Storm. But Horus was in possession of the Eye. It rose as a winged disk to rout the allies of Seth. Its wings were the breath of Kneph, its Ptah was the serpent's eloquence, its disk, the all-source without beginning or end. The winged disk of Horus filled the ranks of Seth's allies with madness, horror where it hovered over the battlefield. The allies of Seth were overthrown as by flame, turned back, driven out. Cutting and much slaughter were made of them, their names destroyed, their magics and their shadows stripped from them.