"The Blinding of Truth"

Truth was summoned before the Ennead and protested his innocence. He could not produce the dagger since it had never existed, and Lies' accusations sounded so plausible that Truth was condemned. The Ennead ordered him to be blinded in both eyes and given to Lies to serve him as doorkeeper.

Lies soon found that he could not bear the sight of Truth sitting patiently at his door. It reminded him every day of his own wickedness and his brother's innocence. So Lies said to two of Truth's old servant, "Take your master out into the desert and leave him where a pride of lions is sure to find him. Don't come back until you're sure he's dead!".

The servants were too afraid of Lies to refuse. Sadly, each of them took Truth by the arm and they led him out towards the desert. When Truth felt the hot desert sand under his bare feet, he asked why they had brought him there. The sevants wept as they told him about their orders. "Dont't leave me here for the lions", begged Truth."Take me to some distant village and then stain my shirt with the blood of some animal and show it to Lies".

The servants were glad to do as he suggested. They took Truth to a village half a day's journey away and then hurried back to tell Lies that his brother was dead.

Some days later a lady named Desire was waling in her garden when two of her maids ran up to her. "Lady", they panted,"we have found a blind may lying in the reeds beside the lake. come and see!""bring him to me here," said Desire.the maids soon returned supporting Truth between them. He was exhausted and half-starved but Desire thought that he was the most handsome man she had ever seen. She welcomed him into her house and her bed and a son was born to them, but it was not long before Desire tired of her new lover. then Truth was banished from the house.

The son of Truth and Desire was no ordinary child. He grew up tall and handsome as a god and by the time he was twelve he surpassed all his companions at school both in reading and writing and in the arts of war. The other boys became jealous, so they jeered at him,"If you're so clever, tell us who your father is!"

The son of Desire did not know and he stood in miserable silence while the boys mocked him until he could bear it no longer. Then he ran to his mother and asked,"Plaease tell me who my father is, so that I can tell the others."

"Do you see the blindman sitting at the dust by the gate?" asked Desire. "Well, that is your father."

The boy was shocked by his mother's callousness. "And you leave him there? You deserve to be condemned to the crocodiles!"

He rushed into the courtyard and embraced his father. Then he brought Truth into the house and made him sit in the best chair. After he had set the choicest food before Truth and helped him to eat and drink, the boy said eagerly, "Father, who dared blind you? Tell me and I will avenge you"

"It was my own brother," Truth replied.

The boy quickly formed a plan and went to his mother's storeroom to fetch ten loaves, a skin of water, a sword, a staff, and a pair of leather sandals. then he took a handsome dappled ox from his mother's herd and drove it in front of him until he came to the place where Lies pastured his cattle. The boy approached the chief herdsman and said, "I have to go on a journery. If you will look after my ox while I'm away, you can keep these provisions, this sword, this staff, and these fine leather sandals."

the herdsman readlily agreed and the boy preteneded to leave the district.

A few weeks later Lies came to inspect his her. He immediately took a fancy to the handsome ox that belonged to the son of Truth. "I'll drive that one home and slaughter it as a feast," sain Lies. "It's easily the finest in the herd."

The chief herdsman protested that the ox belonged to a boy who would come back soon to reclaim it. Lies shrugged. "What does that matter? I'll take this ox now and you can give the boy the pick of herd when he returns."

So Lies took the ox away and had it slaughtered. The son of Truth soon heard what had happened and visited the herdsman. "Any beast in the herd is yours," said the chief herdsman. "Pick whichever you like." "What good is that when none of them can compare with my ox?" asken the boy. "My ox was so big that if he stood on the island of Amen its chin would be over the Nubian desert and its tail over the marshes of the Delta, with the tip of one horn resting on the Western Mountains and the other on the Eastern Mountains. If it lay down it would cover the Nile." The chief herdsman was astounded. "Is there an ox as big as that?"

the son of Truth pretended to be very angry and he took the chief herdsman and Lies to court to judged by the Ennead for the theft of his ox. In front of them all the boy described the ox again and Lies exclaimed, "What nonsense, no one has seen an ox as big as that!"

"No one has ever seen a dagger the length of a tomb shaft," said the son of Truth,"with all the copper of Mount Yale in its blade, all the timber in Coptos in its shaft, and all the cattle hides of Kal in its belt." Lies turned pale as the boy cried to the Ennead, "Judge Truth and Lies again. How could you condemn Truth on such a story? I am his son and I am here to avenge his innocence."

Lies still protested that his original story was true "And if Truth is alive and can deny this, then I will confess guilt. Then you can blind me and make me his doorkeeper!"

Lies was confident that his brother was dead but the boy said triumphantly, "You have judged yourself. Come with me now and I will show you all that Truth is still alive."