This man was an Egyptian, a man dear to the gods and profitable in every respect. He lived in the reign of Senu the king of the Egyptians.[1] He countered amulets and spells, and was a skilled practitioner in labor-pains and diseases. He quenched an epidemic of plague and mitigated the first rising of the dog Sirius and the feverish onslaught of the star.[2] For this reason he was buried in expensive style. And whenever an epidemic disease prevailed, the sacred scribes visiting his tomb and performing the necessary rites would light fire from the altar, kindling bonfires from it in each city; suppressing and subduing that destructive disease of the foul-smelling air -- for this of course [is] the newest [method] -- they quenched the disease with the fire.