Hidden in the Marshes

The tradition hides the child rather than arming him. Egyptian magical texts describe her raising Horus in the papyrus marshes of Chemmis, out of Set's reach, and it is there that her reputation as a healer belongs: a stung child, a mother's cry, and a cure that works because she knows the correct words. These texts were practical objects before they were literature. People poured water over the inscribed stone and drank it, on the understanding that whatever had saved Horus would serve a sick child in Memphis just as well.