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BunniHoTep and Hathor’s Mirror

BunniHoTep and Hathor’s Mirror

 

Ammit was having a really bad day. Her job was to eat the hearts that were rejected by Ma’at. These were very bad people who had not lived well. People whose hearts weighed more than a feather on Ma’at’s scales. These were people that had no good in them or very little at all. People who willingly chose to do bad things.

 

Most days Ammit stood by the scales and did not have to eat a single heart for most people in the world are good and choose not to hurt other beings. And Ammit was glad. She would much rather eat something that did not taste as bad as a bad person’s heart. It takes a very good and kind person to do Ammit’s job. Nobody else could eat all those hearts full of negativity, apathy and just plain evil and still be a good loving being.

 

Today she had had to eat three people’s hearts. That almost never happened. All of them had said mean things about how ugly she was and that someday she would be just like them. That night after she had finished her day with Ma’at, Ammit slunk back to her small mud temple and didn’t even stop for tea with BunniHoTep like she usually did. She was feeling very ugly and hurt. She had let herself listen to what the people has said to her and the things that they had said her were mean. She lay in her mud wallow and cried. Sometimes she wished there was someone else who could do her job but she knew there was no one else to do it. She had been created to do it.

 

Ammit the Devourer, the people called her and she had been made to look as scary as possible. She was part crocodile and part hippo and part lion. She had looked in the Nile one morning when it was calm and still and seen herself and vowed never to do it again. She scared herself and if she scared herself what would other people do when they saw her? She had no idea why BunniHoTep would want to be her friend but she was and that made a little pool of comfort in her stomach most of the time but not tonight.

 

Ammit dug deeper in her mud wallow and saw only darkness around her. She was so sad. She wished she had a nice job to do for the gods and goddesses. She lay there in the quiet mud and wallowed in it.

 

 

BunniHoTep sat in her Temple with the tea all made and she’d found some of the nice papyrus roots for Ammit to eat. Ammit said they tasted sweet and washed the bad out of her mouth. BunniHoTep waited and waited and Ammit didn’t come and then BunniHoTep went looking for her in Ammit’s Temple and it was dark and not even the porch light was on and BunniHoTep knew that Ammit had had a really bad day.

 

BunniHoTep decided to hop up to TempleRow to see how bad it had been. She got halfway down TempleRow before she found anybody to ask. Hathor was standing outside her Temple decorating it for the next festival in a few days with fresh flowers.

 

“Hi BunniHoTep, how are you this fine evening?” Hathor asked.

 

“Wondering how Ammit’s day went. She didn’t come to tea and her porch light isn’t lit and her Temple is very dark. That never means anything good.” BunniHoTep answered.

 

“Oh! You didn’t hear? Ammit had to eat three people’s hearts today. It was awful but then the people were too. Poor Ammit! They said awful things to her.” Hathor said thoughtfully.

 

“Did anyone say something nice to her after she had to eat the hearts?”

 

Hathor thought carefully. “No, I hadn’t heard anyone had. I wasn’t there so I really don’t know.

 

“Uh oh, I bet she is hiding. She feels every bad thing they say to her, you know. Then she goes into her Temple and hides because she thinks everyone feels that way.”

 

The two goddesses thought for a moment and then BunniHoTep had an idea. “Hathor, is your mirror near by?”

 

“Always.” Hathor pulled it off the belt she wore around her robe. “Why? Do you think we can help?”

 

“It shows how you really are on one side and what others think of you on the other, right?”

 

“Yes, do you think we should show it to Ammit?” asked Hathor.

 

“I think we should.” replied BunniHoTep.

 

And the two goddesses hurried down TempleRow to Ammit’s small mud Temple.

 

“Ammit, are you in there?” They called.

 

“Yes, go away.” came a small low voice.

 

“No, Ammit you need to come out of there. You missed your tea and I missed my friend.” BunniHoTep said.

 

“No, you didn’t. No one misses me.” said Ammit sadly.

 

“Yes, I do and come out here right now!” BunniHoTep said firmly.

 

There was a long pause while they could tell Ammit was thinking. “You really want to see me?” She asked.

 

“Yes, we do and we have something to show you.” said Hathor.

 

“Hathor? You’re there too?”

 

“Yes and you need to come out here right now.” she said even more firmly than BunniHoTep had.

 

There was a sucking sound and Ammit’s crocodile head came out and then the rest of her followed.

 

“What did you want to show me.” Ammit asked suspiciously.

 

Hathor took her mirror out from behind her back. “What do you see Ammit.”

 

Ammit looked cautiously and cowered away. “That’s awful! It’s horrible! Why did you want to show me that when I know how I look.” Ammit collapsed to the ground and started to cry.

 

“Oh, Ammit! We’re sorry but that is the side that shows how other people think of you like the people whose hearts you ate today. That isn’t really you.” Hathor quickly flipped her mirror around.

 

“Now look.” She commanded.

 

Ammit took a cautious peek and then another and then she stared.

 

“That’s the real me?” She said in wonder. “Honest?” Ammit couldn’t stop starring. “I’m beautiful.”

 

BunniHoTep patted her friend. “Yes, Ammit, you are. This is the side we see not the side the evil ones see. People who love you usually see you better than you do yourself and Ammit your outside can be scary but your heart isn’t.

 

Ammit just stared at the mirror. “That’s how you see me?” and her tears began to fall.

 

Hathor answered this time. “That’s we see you.” and she leaned down to hug Ammit.

 

“Don’t believe what all those evil people say about you. They’re being evil, that’s why you have to eat their hearts so that they can’t do more evil. Now could we all go have tea and get cleaned up? I have some of your favourite things today.”

 

Hathor nodded and reached down to help Ammit out of the mud. “Just remember it’s what you look like in the eyes of people who love you and what you know about yourself that counts.” She brushed the mud off her robe and the three walked over to BunniHoTep’s Temple and sat quietly watching the sun set at the end of TempleRow. Ammit smiled for the first time that awful day. It was good to be loved.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How Thoth invented writing – a BunniHoTep tale

Once upon a time there was no way to write things down. There was no way to send a friend a note. No way to write a story down. No way to remember the words to a song. No way to say I am and have anyone remember who you were. The gods and goddesses were concerned about this. How could they let people know how to behave and who to pray to? How could anyone know what each god did? Isis and Osiris got together with the other gods and decided since Thoth always marked on the nice clean Temple walls with charcoal from the fires, he could put those scribbles to good use. So Thoth was elected by the group to find a way to do this. There was only one problem Thoth wasn’t there when they decided this. That’s what happens when you miss a meeting.

The gods also figured if he was god of wisdom and he found a way to do it he would have some way to record it and it would be a good thing all around. They thought Thoth might get annoyed so They sent BunniHoTep to find Thoth to tell him of his new job. Always send the smallest, fastest god when delivering interesting news. BunniHoTep hopped down Temple Row and found Thoth on his back porch staring at a big, blank, white wall with a piece of charcoal in his hand. BunniHotep told Thoth that Isis and the other gods had given him a new and important job; He was to invent writing and then She ducked and waited for the storm. The storm didn’t come and She raised her head. “Aren’t you mad?” She asked. “No”, said Thoth, “I think its what I’ve been waiting for all along.” And He started to mark on the wall. He drew an ibis and said to BunniHoTep, “Here is my name”. “ I think because the Great Cackler created the sun from an egg I will make an egg around all kings and gods names to show they came from the sun and the egg.”

He stood thinking to himself. “The gods are easy to show, a hawk for Horus, a cow for Hathor. This is way too easy.” He continued marking down the walls. He had completely forgotten BunniHoTep in his excitement. He went faster and faster down the wall naming everything he could think of to name. He only stopped when he started to run out of room. Then he got another idea and ran to borrow some ground stone paints some men were using to make enamel jewelry. He mixed them with water and quickly began to fill in the drawings He had made on the wall. The wall began to come alive with the symbols and the colour. Beautiful reds and blues and greens glowed from the wall.

Soon a crowd began to gather. Isis, Nepthys and Hathor brought their folding chairs and sat quietly watching at the birth of this wondrous thing. They wanted badly to ask what everything meant but they didn’t want to disturb his concentration. They sat and watched and waited as the white walls came to life with the colour.

BunniHotep sat in Isis’s lap totally entranced with the rest of the goddesses. But finally she couldn’t keep quiet any longer. “ How do you say we are here?” She asked, breaking the silence. Thoth stopped for the first time in hours and took a deep breath. “Hmmm,” He mused. “ I don’t know.” I have drawn the story of the soul’s journey and I have named us all. I’ve told how to make and offering and what sort to use but I haven’t found a way to say that we exist. But I think I know now.” He lifted an eyebrow at Isis and she nodded back.

Thoth faced the wall again and drew a new character, a small rabbit running. “ In honour of having the courage to speak up and because you had the courage to come tell me about my new job when the others wouldn’t I shall make you the sign that we exist. That we have come into being.”

BunniHoTep smiled shyly from Isis’s lap. “ Thank you” She said very quietly. Thoth went on drawing and painting and they all passed the afternoon in peace watching Thoth and offering suggestions when He asked.

And that was how writing was invented and why we say “Be hare now” when we cast a circle.

BunniHoTep, Isis and the NoNo chair

Once upon a time Isis, Hathor and BunniHoTep were having tea on the Temple porch. Young Horus was playing on the steps below them while they chatted about events on Temple Row.

BunniHotep happened to look at Horus and was horrified. He was pulling the iridescent wings off the poor scarab beetles that had the misfortune to come within his reach. Isis looked up when BunniHotep gasped and was equally horrified. “No! Horus! No! We do not harm other living beings! How would you like it if someone pulled your wings off!”

Horus, who had been happily playing started to cry. Isis decided it was time for the dreaded No! No! chair and she went into the Temple to go get it. She came back and put it down on the Porch and hauled the godling into the chair. Horus did not like this so when Isis’s back was turned he used his wings to float himself out of her direct sight. Isis looked up and brought him back. This went on three times before Isis lost her temper. She had had it. She thought to herself, “I’m the Goddess of Magic. I will just have to use it to teach him lesson.”  She cast a spell to shrink Horus and the chair and put it on her head. “He isn’t going anywhere now! She said to Hathor and BunniHoTep. The goddesse continued with their tea and Horus was stuck and finally calmed down. He decided he really hated the No! No! chair.

And that, my children, is why you see Isis pictured with a throne on her head. It was the only way she could keep track of Horus when he was in the No! No! chair.

Meanwhile BunnHoTep had been healing the poor scarab beetles and decided that as a part of the healing and as an apology they should have an important job. The goddesses made the scarab beetles the rollers of the world through the cosmos. So that the world would always keep turning and the beetles have been doing their job ever since.

BunniHoTep and the King of Swans

Once upon a time there was a small rabbit goddess and her name was BunniHoTep. BunniHoTep was sitting on the dock of the lake that the latest Pharaoh had made a little ways off the Nile. He liked to ride around the lake on his barge pulled by oxen on really hot days but today was not that day. It was calm and the day was perfect. A breeze was blowing through her fur and she was alone or at least she thought she was alone.

The gentle lapping of the water against the dock was lulling her to sleep when she heard paddling noises and heard a loud hiss at very close range. “EEEEEE,” cried the startled goddess. She looked up into the eyes of a very annoyed and angry swan. The swan loomed over the small rabbit.

“What are you doing at MY lake?” stormed the swan.

“It’s not your lake,” said BunniHoTep. “It’s the Pharaoh’s.”

“I’m the King of the Swans and it’s MY lake!” the large white swan cried haughtily. “I claim this lake for all swandom!”

“Really?  Why did you decide upon this lake and how are you going to hold it away from the Pharoah?”

BunniHoTep, now that she was awake, was very amused by the swan. She knew they had nasty tempers even though they always looked beautiful. She thought to herself, “Beauty is as beauty does, really fits this bird.”

“I hadn’t quite worked that out, but I AM the King!” cried the swan.

BunniHotep could see this was not going to be the easy placid day she had hoped for and wondered what the swan would do if her friend Ammit showed up. Would he still yell about being king? Ammit was part hippo and part crocodile and looked much more fearsome than she was.

“Are you are you king of the swans or king of the lake or king of absolutely everything?” teased BunniHoTep.

The swan straightened up. He wasn’t used to people questioning his statements of the truth as he saw it.

“Well, I’m king of wherever I am?” the swan said uncertainly.

“That must be confusing to people when you leave. Have you asked Nepthys about that? She could tell you I’m sure”

“Uh, No?”

“Why?”

“Because I’m kind of scared of Nepthys?” the swan said in a very low voice.
BunniHoTep laughed to herself. She didn’t want to hurt the swan’s feelings. She could see how distressed he was. “Why are you afraid of Nepthys?”

“It’s that big vulture head and the darkness thing. Swans don’t go out in the dark much. Things you can’t see might eat you. The dark is scary.”

The idea tickled her that this belligerent bird was scared of something.

“I’m really afraid of the Dark.” He whispered.

Well, that made sense since Nepthys was goddess of the Justice, the dark and Moon and the Underworld. She wondered if she could help him. She doubted if having a nightlight would help a big bird maybe she could help him find a light.

“Don’t you know you always have a light inside you? You can’t use it to see by but it’s there and if you let it you can shine it on your fears.” BunniHoTep said.

“What light?”

“Close your eyes and sit still. Do you see the colours and lights swirling around behind your eyelids?”

“Yes.” The king of swans said uncertainly. He was thinking BunniHoTep was a little strange.

“Those lights are symbols of the light inside all of us and we can use those lights to fight the darkness. There is always a light in the dark and there is always dark in the light.”

“Huh?” said the swan.

“Well, it’s morning and the sun is very bright right now, right?”

The swan nodded.

“But look under the reeds here and the dock and there are shadows and dark. That is the dark in light so you need to look for your light inside to be the light in the dark just like the shadows are there in the light. You can’t have one without the other. How would you even know if it was dark if there wasn’t a light to compare it to?”

The swan had a confused look on his face. This strange little rabbit was making sense and it scared him almost as much as the dark and Nepthys did.

“I’ll try that tonight when I get scared and maybe someday I can even talk to Nepthys. But what am I king of if I can’t be king of the lake?” The swan asked rather plaintively.

“Oh, I’m sure you’re King of the Swans and I don’t think Pharaoh or Nepthys will mind that.”

“Okay.” The swan looked a little dubious about this. “Just King of the Swans?”

“Just King of the Swans.” BunniHoTep smiled as she replied. The swan glided off across the lake toward the rest of his flock. He wasn’t near as mean now. She didn’t think Pharaoh would mind the competition since he couldn’t speak to the animals anyway and she knew Nepthys was busy with lots of other things that were more important. She went back to enjoying the warm sunny day on the dock.

BunniHoTep and the Lotus Gardener

Once upon a time BunniHotep decided to go for a hop in the gardens by the Temples. It was a cool day with just a nip in the air but a fresh breeze was blowing so she knew spring would come soon. As she wandered she saw the Osiris hip deep in the mud and she was curious.

“Osiris, what on earth are you doing down in the mud?” She asked. His kilt was thoroughly streaked with mud and his nose had a smudge across it

“I’m planting more lotuses so we have them in spring.” He replied with a smile.

“But you are getting all muddy! What’s Isis going to say when she sees you? You’re dirtier than Horus gets when he plays in the Nile.” BunniHoTep exclaimed.

“Yes, I’m getting a bit dirty aren’t I?” he remarked ruefully,”but it’s worth it just to see these blooms. Have you ever really looked at the lotus? Have you ever noticed how perfect they are? They arise from the blackest of mud but not a speck of dirt blemishes the flower. It rises to seek the sun and follows Ra on his journey and then sinks into the mud at the end of the day to arise again the next. Is there anything more perfect than that?” Osiris cradled a bloom in his hand.

“Did you know Thoth has made the lotus the hieroglyph for life and resurrection to show us we all come from the mud but rise to the sun pure and clean? I can’t think of a better symbol. Bast thought papyrus would be better but I pointed out how lovely a lotus is and Thoth agreed. I’m having them painted on all my Temples at the top of the pillars.”

“I know the whole plant can be eaten because sometimes people bring it to the Temple for an offering but I never really thought about how beautiful they are or where they come from.” Said BunniHoTep.

“Hu blew them into life and I’m so glad she did. The Celestial Sphinx can be quite busy and for once didn’t make me answer 3 questions to get it. She was bored one day and saw that there was nothing of beauty around the so she decided to make them and give them to me as a sort of get well present after I had my little adventure with Set.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re back and I’m sure Isis is too but when did you become the gardener? She asked.

“Oh, this is something I do and give the gardeners the day off. They’ve all gone off to the celebrations so I can work in peace. When I’ve been working with the plants I feel just as renewed as they look. It reminds me that a little hard work can be repaid a hundred fold with beauty and grace both expected and unexpected.”

BunniHoTep sat back on the curb and thought for a minute. She felt peaceful just being here with the plants and Osiris. She nodded to herself. “I’ve always just had vegetables in my garden would you help me plant a few lotuses in my back pond? I think I need to be reminded sometimes to stop being busy and just BE like the lotus.”

Osiris nodded with a grin, “Just let me finish up here and we can go get started, shall we?”

And the two friends gathered up his tools and walked to her Temple in a happy silence.

BunniHoTep and the 3 Fates

Once upon a time strange things started happening around BunniHoTep’s Temple. It started when all these multi-coloured threads started appearing up and down Temple row. BunniHotep hated to see such beautiful thread just laying around and she thought they were really pretty. One of her priestesses did finger weaving so she taught some of the other priestesses how to do it too. The priestesses had been sitting in the cool shade of the porch busily weaving belts for each other’s robes.

It made BunniHoTep feel happy to see her priestesses so engaged and busy. It felt her free to try and find out where all this thread was coming from. She walked slowly picking threads off the flowers and plants in the garden. Where was it all coming from? It wasn’t floating down from anywhere that she could see. It was just sort of appearing. She hopped down past the sphinxes on Temple Row filling her basket as she went. Down all the way to Neith’s weaving workshop picking up threads.

Neith was standing at the door of her workshop with a puzzled look on her face as she observed the threads. BunniHoTep hopped up to her holding a now heavily weighted basket.

“Are these all yours,” BunniHoTep asked holding out the basket.

“I was thinking Bast’s kittens had really been making a mess.”

Neith shook her head with a bemused look on her face. “They aren’t mine. They’ve been appearing for the last day and I never let my weaver’s waste thread like that. See!”

She moved aside to show BunniHoTep.

“All my leftover bits are used for embroidering or to make other household objects like potholders. And since it’s not my workshop where could they be coming from?” 

“I don’t know. They just seem to be appearing. They were all over my cabbages and carrots when I left the Temple. I’ve been picking them up as I came. My priestesses are doing finger weaving with them because they so loved the colours.”

As she spoke she thought she saw someone transparent walk by. “Who was that?”

BunniHoTep pointed to the shade as it walked around the corner.

“I have no idea but it sure looks like the shade or ghost of someone who has passed but they’re dressed in Greek clothing. Who dresses in Greek clothing in our Temple Row? The Greeks rarely leave the Delta except for that pest Herodotus. He’s always around asking stupid questions.”

BunniHoTep was now very curious.”I think I’m going to have to find out what’s going on.”

She hopped back down Temple Row. There weren’t any ghosts heading in or out of Ma’s and Anubis’s Temple. It seemed to be a quiet day but there was more thread on the ground and on the sphinxes. This was very weird but BunniHoTep loved a mystery. She hopped some more down the Temple Row picking up thread as she went.

A very angry woman dressed all in white was standing at the end of Temple Row surrounded by the shades of many people, old, middle-aged and very young. They were milling about in a very confused fashion. As BunniHotep got closer she could hear the woman speaking.

“It isn’t my fault!”

The woman stomped her foot.

“I know you’re supposed to be on your way to Hades. I did not put you here!”

The woman was radiating her anger in every direction and BunniHoTep could see Ammit hiding from it under BunniHoTep’s Temple steps with a worried look on her face.

“Can I help you?” BunniHoTep asked the woman carefully. She didn’t want to make her any madder than she already was.

“I hope so!” the woman said angrily. “These people are all supposed to be going to Hades but due to a very bad pair of babies they aren’t. All my threads ended up in Egypt and from the feel of things they’ve been used to weave something else!”

BunniHoTep thought about all her happily occupied priestesses. Whoops!

“Who are you and can I do something for you?”  She offered the basket with the threads she had been collecting toward the old woman.

The woman snatched away from her. “When I catch Eros and Discord I’m going make those two clean Zeus’ toilet for a hundred years. I’m Atropos and I cut the thread of life so people can go on to Hades or drink from the River Lethe and come back and now I have ghosts of people wandering all over. Because some of the threads have been rewoven into things some of them aren’t really sure they’re dead.”

BunniHoTep noticed she had a big pair of scissors hanging from the sash around her chiton.

BunniHotep was pondering what she should do when she saw two other women coming down the way each with a squalling baby tucked under their arm and a determined look on their face. The babies were wriggling and trying to get away. Both of them were flapping their small wings and stirring the goddesses’ hair. It was very clear those babies were not going anywhere very soon.

“These are my sisters Clotho and Lachesis and it seems they have Eros and Discord with them. I’m really tempted to tie these two up by their heels and leave them dangling over your god Sobek. Do you think he’d like a nice fat baby?”

She had a very thoughtful look on her face and BunniHoTep was afraid she was serious by the look on her face.

“Don’t you think Aphrodite should take care of that?”  BunniHoTep asked quickly. Eros was squirming out the back because Clotho was distracted by the amount of thread in the basket.

“All of that was scattered here?” Clotho asked.

“And I’m afraid a lot more.” said BunniHoTep. “I have some in the Temple. And I think Neith has collected some at her workshop. Wait here and I’ll see about it.”

BunniHoTep hopped quickly to her Temple and up to her priestesses.

“Quick! Unweave all that thread. It belongs to the Fates and those are the threads of people whose life thread has been cut.”

The priestesses hurriedly started to pull the belts apart very carefully. BunniHoTep hopped around collecting the threads and gathering the threads they hadn’t been used yet.

“Quickly! Those Fates are very upset and we have ghosts wandering everywhere.’

BunniHoTep grabbed the last of the threads and raced back to the avenue.

“Here is all we have in the Temple.”
She hoped they wouldn’t notice that the threads had waves in them from being woven together.

Neith is bringing hers now.

BunniHotep pointed to the goddess that was coming down the way with a large basket.

“I think we got all of them.”

BunniHoTep looked at Eros and Discord to see if they agreed with her. The babies both nodded at her from behind Clotho and Lachesis. They looked very relieved. Atropos grabbed the three baskets and BunniHoTep put her paw out and stopped her.

“What do you do with the threads when you cut them?”asked BunniHotep.

“We burn them at the shrine in Delos, why?” said Atropos as she raised an eyebrow, “What else should we do with them?”

BunniHotep was thinking, was there something better to do with all these threads that wouldn’t leave ghosts wandering around? She just hated the idea of wasting all these pretty threads. She had an idea.

“How about we weave them like this?”

She grabbed a handful of red threads and started to weave them loosely in a square and then when she finished her small square, she grabbed a handful of blue threads and wove a blue square. The shades had gathered around again and the three Fates were watching what she was doing closely. Lachesis, the weaver was intrigued and so was Neith. Lachesis grabbed a handful of green threads and Neith a handful of yellow. BunniHoTep pulled a piece of twine out of pouch at her waist and tied her red square and then the blue and yellow square with the green square she had finished with the white that Neith was finishing. She now had what looked like a clothes line with small flags on it.

“It’s pretty but what is it?” asked the Fates and Neith nodded.

“Well, if the shades agree, these are prayer flags. We can have people who have prayers put them up and when they fray apart and birds take them for nests or they just fade and go back to nature they can carry the prayers of those people back to the gods.”

BunniHoTep turned to the ghosts.

“Wouldn’t you like to be useful a bit more?”

Most of the shades nodded.

“When your thread disintegrates due to wind and sun you will continue on to Hades carrying the prayer with you. Does that sound like a task you would like to do?”

The shades nodded again.

“We’ll have my priestesses and Neith’s priestesses weave them and give them to people to put on trees and over wells to carry their prayers.”

The three Fates thought about this. They had always been troubled by the disposal of all their beautiful threads. This would be a big help.

Lachesis turned the babe trapped under her arm and glared at him.

“I have a chore for you and Discord from now on you are to bring the baskets of thread to BunniHoTep and Neith. You obviously need a bigger job to keep you out of trouble.”

The two babies looked at each other and agreed. This was better than having to clean Zeus’s toilets for a hundred years. That was just gross. One never knew who had been using them in and in what form, it could be anything from a swan to a horse. Ick!

And that is why all over the world people have tied strips of cloth and colourful string to trees to carry their prayers to heaven. You can go to India and find a tree with string or up to Tibet to see the prayer flags on Mount Everest or to Ireland or Scotland and find them tied to willows above the wells. You can travel the earth and find them and know that they have an important job, taking a prayer to heaven.

Hare brained tales

Oops!

BunniHoTep and the Brisingamen

Once upon a time BunniHotep went down the Nile on a reed boat. She had decided she wanted to visit the Delta and watch all the ships come in from other countries.

She sat on a quay close to the Temple of Isis. She knew she could spend the night there and she really liked the large dark new statue of Isis they had in the main gallery. She thought it was rather handsome.

She noticed a very strange ship come in. It had large sails that rolled very differently from the Phoenician or Egyptian sails. They were quilted and they were made of wool not cotton. It had a large beast carved on the front beam of the ship. The beast had fierce-some teeth and large eyes and most intriguing of all, a very large hare was sitting on top of the beast. The ship had many oarsmen and big, well-used brightly coloured shields hung over the sides of the ship. As the ship was rowed into the quay, the hare spotted BunniHoTep and bowed to her and motioned her to come close to the ship. The hare was dressed in beautiful, shiny silver armor and she had a helmet with golden horns on it. The helmet made her look like she had 2 sets of ears. The Hare (for a Hare she was and not just any hare) hopped down off the beast to the gangplank and off the ship.

The Hare hopped up to BunniHoTep and bowed her head slightly. “I see you are a very special rabbit”, the stranger said. “ I haf come a very long vay vit a very special task. Vould you halp me?”

BunniHoTep looked at the Hare who talked so strangely. “ I can help you but who are you and where do you come from?”

The Hare looked a little embarrassed, “ My name is Kanin and I am de Helper of de goddess Freya. I come from a place of ice and snow and it’s very, very cold and different from dis place.”

BunniHoTep got excited, “ I help goddesses too! I’m so glad you came! But I have to ask a question what is that beast on your ship and is it alive?”

Kanin laughed, “ Oh no, dat is a drake, It is like Tiamat who lives near here.”

BunniHoTep nodded, she had no idea who Tiamat was but she decided to ask Nepthys later. She knew Nepthys would know who Tiamat was if anyone would. “How can I help you?” She said wrinkling her nose. She had no idea how she could help this strange bunny.

“I carry a very valuable but dangerous necklace that I vould like to hide somewhere it will never be found. Do you know any place like dat?’

BunniHoTep thought carefully. “ How dangerous is this necklace? Why have you come so far to hide some jewelry?”

Kanin thought before she began to tell her saga “I should tell you de story and then you can decide. Once upon time my Goddess Freya saw a necklace made by de dwarves. She left her husband Odin to have dis necklace so Odin left her and vinter came all the time. The necklace brings de Sun up North. And Spring didn’t come again until Odin returned to her and she gave up the necklace. So Odin has sent me far away to dis sunny place to hide it so Freya cannot find it and it von’t temp her to bring winter again. Our people need to grow tings in our short summer. It is better this way for all of us.”

BunniHoTep thought for awhile. “ I will help you. People here are buried with their jewelry so they can have it in the land of the Dead. If we put it in one of those no one will ever notice it. I know a young King who just died and his tomb is still open.”

So she led Kanin to the Valley of the Kings and they put it in the backroom of the boy King Tutankamon’s tomb and hopped out quickly when the workers were at their noon day rest.

“Tank you so much for halping me on my quest. Now spring will alvays come and my people will eat.” Kanin bowed low to BunnitHoTep. “You have done a great ting for us and ve vill not forget.”

Kanin went back to her ship and BunniHoTep watched as she was rowed away. They waved at each other ‘til they couldn’t see each other anymore. And BunniHoTep went back to watching the ships come in from far away places.

And that is why Spring still comes to the cold, north countries and strange things are found in boy king’s tombs. And it is the only time BunniHoTep, Goddess of lost objects deliberately lost something.