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THOTH KHU image appears. As THOTH's narration begins, NEPHTHYS enters and dances the action. Her SERVANT WOMAN watches from the shadows.
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THOTH:
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When
her birth time came, Nephthys fled into the desert by night, knowing
that the last place her husband would go to find her would be
his own hunting ground. One of her servant women saw her go, and
secretly followed her. The Goddess stopped where there was water,
she writhed alone in the pain of birth amid the howling of the
wolves, and delivered her son. She dared not take him home. She
nursed him for as long as she could, until her milk ran dry, and
she saw that unless she could nourish herself, she and her son
would both die. So she made a shelter covered with melilot flowers,
which had begun to grow everywhere, not only in the royal garden.
Then she asked the mothers of the desert to guard her son.
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NEPHTHYS exits. THOTH KHU begins to recede into the distance as MA'AT KHU appears. The two KHU images greet each other briefly, then THOTH KHU vanishes as MA'AT KHU draws near. Lights down on the baby's shelter, up on the river bank where we see ISIS. The SERVING WOMAN runs toward ISIS. They dance the next action:
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MA'AT:
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The
servant ran to find Isis, who was at the river at dawn, picking
herbs as usual, and told her everything, of course. They ran at
once to find the baby, who was still alive. His cries were heard
by a greyhound who had just mothered four pups nearby, and who
suckled the boy like one of her own young. By the time Isis found
him, he was red and very sore from crying in the glare of the
sun, but he was healthy and strong. Isis knew from her first look
at his face who had cared for him.
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SFX of the black hunting dog giving birth, and suckling ANUBIS along with her own four pups. As ISIS appraoches, the dog at first growls in warning, then allows ISIS to pick up the baby. ISIS gestures to the SERVANT, who exits. KHU image of the fully-grown ANUBIS fades in at the end of ISIS' speech:
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ISIS:
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What
a beauty. You will grow up to have the same keen senses, most
of all right here, in the nohohohohose (ANUBIS giggles as she
tickles him) as the one who's protected you. The same swiftness.
You will have a new mother in the Black Land, and your father
Osiris will call you the One who Opens the Way. Anuuuubis. (Giggles
again) You will teach healing to other men who don't want to learn
it from women. You will prophesy with the truth, and only when
you are asked. Your understanding of friendship will be the deepest
of all.
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NEPHTHYS
enters, sees ISIS cradling ANUBIS
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NEPHTHYS:
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Isis
and I were the only ones who knew whose child Anubis was. Osiris
never knew that until his first son was old enough to be his physician.
Osiris was so innocent that at times he seemed much less intelligent
than Set, in that way that leaders would have later, when Set
gained so much influence: from now on kings, prime ministers and
others of high power would be one of two kinds: affable, charming
men operated by groups of craftier men; or secretive, pinched
men whose eyes are moving all the time. Set was about to give
us politics -- (SFX: sudden burst of laughter, suddenly cut off)
--and along with it, fear.
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Enter
ISIS and ANUBIS. Lights come up on a stone bench where they are
working together on the healing of another person. ISIS receives
herbs and other items from ANUBIS, and is showing him how to apply
them. Enter MA'AT. The four dance the education of ANUBIS in the
stars (NIGHT SKY for this sequence), prophecy, herbs and other
medicines.
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