Again, in the story of "Setna
and the Magic Book," translated by Maspero and by Mr. Flinders Petrie
in his "Egyptian Tales," the _Ka_ plays a very distinct part of its own.
Thus the husband is buried at Memphis and the wife in Koptos, yet the
_Ka_ of the wife goes to live in her husband's tomb hundreds of miles
away, and converses with the prince who comes to steal the magic book.
Although I know no actual precedent for it, in the case of a
particularly powerful Double, such as was given in this romance to Queen
Neter-Tua by her spiritual father, Amen, the greatest of the Egyptian
gods, it seems, therefore, legitimate to suppose that, in order to save
her from the abomination of a forced marriage with her uncle and her
father's murderer, the _Ka_ would be allowed to anticipate matters a
little, and to play the part recorded in these pages.
It must not be understood, however, that the fact of marriage with an
uncle would have shocked the Egyptian mind, since these people, and
especially their royal Houses, made a habit of wedding their own
brothers and sisters, as in this tale Mermes wed his half sister Asti.
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