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up against the riverbank where it banged into a tamarind tree. The tree, enchanted by the beauty of the box, had wrapped itself round Osiris’s coffin and engulfed the box in its broad trunk.
    The box and the body were hidden inside the tree.
    Then the tree was chopped down, carried to a local king’s palace and turned into a pillar to hold up the roof.
    So, no matter how fast and far she flew, Isis would never find the box on the river.
    Then she heard rumours, as birds do, about a marvellous new pillar, of thrumming power and amazing beauty, so she flew to the King’s palace to see this pillar. She transformed back into the shape of a woman, and offered her services to the Queen as the baby Prince’s nurse.
    As Isis cared for the boy, and became fond of him, she wondered why she was so drawn to the wooden pillar.
    One night, the Queen heard odd noises from the baby’s room. She pushed the door open to see...
    ...her baby boy burning in the centre of a fire!
    Her child was lying in the middle of blazing flames. His nurse was nowhere to be seen. There was a swallow swooping around the pillar in the centre of the room.
    The Queen screamed and rushed forward to pull her son from the flames. She burnt her hands pulling him out.
    But the baby was smiling and unharmed.
    The swallow hovered in midair, then grew and stretched and became the boy’s nurse.
    â€œFoolish woman,” said the nurse to the Queen. “I was burning the mortality off your son; I was turning him into a god. You have broken the spell. He will never be a god now.”
    The Queen sobbed and the baby giggled.
    â€œ However, I will bless him before I leave,” said Isis, “if you will have your servants cut this pillar open, because I believe there is something precious inside.”
    The baby received one last hug from his nurse, as the pillar was sawn open and the beautiful chest fell out.
    Isis arranged a barge to carry the box and the body towards the island where their son Horus waited. But on the journey home, while she slept one night, Set passed by on the riverbank and caught sight of the box glinting in the moonlight.
    He didn’t want Osiris’s powerful spirit to rise free, so he crept onto the barge, opened the box and chopped the body into fourteen pieces. Then he scattered those fourteen pieces over the river and the desert beyond.
    When Isis woke and found the box broken open and empty, she transformed into a bird again to search for all the pieces of Osiris. She flew over every inch of Egypt and found thirteen of the fourteen pieces. When she finally realised that the fourteenth piece was lost for ever, she filled the gap with gold and made Osiris whole.
    She bound all the pieces of her husband together with linen strips and she spoke the rites. As she whispered goodbye to Osiris, his spirit floated free, down to the Duat where all the spirits go.
    In the Duat, Osiris ruled as King of the Dead, while Set ruled above, until Isis and Osiris’s son Horus was grown and could defeat Set, to restore balance to the world.
    Set was defeated thousands of years ago, but even now, Isis occasionally turns into a bird and flies high and far over Egypt, hoping to find that very last piece of Osiris.

The Frog, the Flies and the Frying Pan
    Scottish folktale
    Once upon a time, on the mossy heathery moors of Scotland, a mother and her daughter lived in a small cottage.
    One day, the mother asked, “Would you like oatcakes for tea?”
    â€œYes, that would be lovely,” said the girl.
    So the mother fetched a couple of handfuls of oatmeal and a pinch of salt, then realised there was no fresh water in the house. “The best water for baking is the pure clear water in the Well at the End of the World.” She handed a big jug to her daughter. “If you want oatcakes for tea, fill that jug from the Well at the End of the World, please.”
    The end of the world sounds like a long way away, but