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Do you like ghost stories? Of course you do!

I think the best ghost stories come from Japan—Lafcadio Hearn's books are just such an amazing treasure trove, and I've both been entertained and educated by the many stories he recounts. (My daughter really likes The Legend of Yurei-Daki and Mujina, though my favorites are perhaps The Story of Mimi-Nashi-Hoichi and The Story of a Tengu... but it's so hard to pick! One should just spend a cozy winter reading all his Japanese books.)

However, I recently stumbled across an ancient Egyptian ghost story that gives Hearn's tales a run for their money. It has everything you could want: magic spells and mummy's curses, treasure hunters and grave robbers, True Love™ and salacious priestesses, games with the dead and the vengeance of gods. I wasn't feeling well this week, so while I was laid up in bed, I took the time to transcribe Gilbert Murray—yes, that one—his very entertaining verse adaptation of the story in the hopes that it might make for entertaining weekend reading for someone.

As always, it is in the public domain and you can find the PDF in US Letter and A4 paper sizes.

When I first came to Japan, the dominant colors of male costume were dark[. ...] Women's costumes are of course more varied; but the character of the fashions for adults of either sex indicates no tendency to abandon the rules of severe good taste;—gay colors appearing only in the attire of children and of dancing-girls, to whom are granted the privileges of perpetual youth.

(Lafcadio Hearn, Gleanings in Buddha-Fields.)

It is sad, I think, that the scheme of planetary joys fell out of use in Western Astrology, as it appears to me a crucial thread tying the philosophy into a unified whole. And here, we see illustrated it so elegantly! Of course dancing-girls are given the privileges of youth, since children, dancing, and pleasing attire are all fifth-house endeavors, in which Venus rejoices.

I remember reading, somewhere or other, that an English poet (I believe it was William Blake) was once asked by an associate, "What is heaven?" And he went over to the window, pulled the curtains, gestured to some children at play in the street, and said, "that is heaven."

May laughter-loving Venus, who delights in play and harmonizes the world, grant you glimpses of heaven on this Her day, too.