Page:Books on Egypt and Chaldaea, Vol. 32--Legends of the Gods.pdf/50

 In arranging his thoughts and their visible forms Kheperȧ was assisted by the goddess Maāt, who is usually regarded as the goddess of law, order, and truth, and in late times was held to be the female counterpart of Thoth, "the heart of the god Rā." In this legend, however, she seems to play the part of Wisdom, as described in the Book of Proverbs, for it was by Maāt that he "laid the foundation."

Having described the coming into being of Kheperȧ and the place on which he stood, the legend goes on to tell of the means by which the first Egyptian triad, or trinity, came into existence. Kheperȧ had, in some form, union with his own shadow, and so begot offspring, who proceeded from his body under the forms Shu and Tefnut. According to a tradition preserved in the Pyramid Texts this event took place at On (Heliopolis), and the old form of the legend ascribes the production of Shu and Tefnut to an act of 