CHAPTER LXXIX.

Notes.

This chapter is seldom found in the complete shape which it has in the TurinTodtenbuch. The shortest copy of it is that in the tomb of Horhotep (Miss. Arch. Fr., p. 158); it has but a few lines; but they are very important, as giving the earliest form of the formula⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, which is an invocation to the battlements. The common reading, which adds the pronominal suffix⁂both to the verb and to its subject, is ungrammatical. The papyriAu,Pg, andIj, rightly omit the suffix after the verb, in the early part of the chapter.

The coffin of Amamu has a chapter of the same title, but with quite a different text.

1.Sacred Hawk.Between this and theGolden Hawkof the last chapter the vignettes make no distinction but that of colour, which is indicative of age rather than of kind. The typical Egyptian Hawk may be identified with the Falco Lanarius, or with the Peregrinus, but naturalists tell us that “the Lanier of Buffon is the perfect state of the male Peregrinus,” and that “the Lanner of Pennant is a young female Peregrine.”

2.Thy powers,⁂baiu.

3.The goal⁂⁂⁂or⁂⁂⁂, a word we have already met in chapter 72 (seeNote 3), and which occurs later on in the present chapter. It is apparently connected with the verb of motion,⁂⁂⁂, and seems here to correspond to the Greek βαλβῖδες, or the Latincarceres, the two posts which were at once the starting point and the goal.

“signum unde reverti.Scirent, et longos ubi circumflectere cursus.”[88]

“signum unde reverti.

Scirent, et longos ubi circumflectere cursus.”[88]

4.Invested⁂⁂⁂⁂, which is connected with⁂⁂⁂. The determinative⁂is the symbol of investiture, which is also expressed by the sign⁂. A mummied person is calledSāhu, in virtue of his investiture.

5.Apple of the eye, literallypoint,thorn;⁂⁂⁂⁂.

6.TheNemmes⁂⁂is the royal head-dress in the form of a wig. This chapter is the only one in the Book of the Dead in which it is referred to, but other religious texts mention it. It is one of the objects provided for the deceased in the pictures of ancient coffins. (SeeAelteste Texte, p. 35.)

7.[Aahat.] In this place different MSS. introduce one or more words followed by the sign⁂, determinative of divinity. But the whole text which follows is extremely unsatisfactory. The prudent scribe who copiedPghas the words “I am the great god,” and with them ends the chapter.

8.Fall upon Shu, orbeforeShu, who represents Daylight.

9.The passage is obscure through the absence of the right determinative⁂after⁂⁂. The portals of Shu, the gates of Morning, answer the summons of the god who comes as Horus.⁂has the sense ofobviam ire,occurrere.

10.Hematit⁂⁂⁂, a place near the Horizon, not mentioned in the Book of the Dead except in this chapter. It has disappeared in the later recensions.

11.Here follow one or two divine names unknown to the copyists, and by them written at random.

88.Aeneid, V, 130.

CHAPTER LXXIX.

Chapter whereby one assumeth the form of the Chief god of the Divine Cycle.

Hail to thee, Tmu, Lord of Heaven, who givest motion to all things which come into being; thou who comest forth from the Earth and createst whatsoever is begotten: Lord of the thingswhich are; who givest birth to the gods; great god, self-produced; Lord of Life, who givest vigour to the men now living:

Hail to you, ye Lords of pure things, ye whose abodes are hidden:

Hail to you, ye Lords of Eternity, ye whose attributes are concealed, and the place where ye reside is unknown.

Hail to you, ye gods who are in the divine circuit and the Kabhu; ye gods who are in Amenta and ye, O Divine Cycle which is in Heaven:

Let me come to you, let me be purified and strengthened, let me be enriched and gifted with power, let me have possession and glory.

I bring in offering to you perfume, incense and natron. Stop ye the outpourings of your hearts against me. I am come to put a stop to all the wrong things which are in your hearts, and to do away with the false charges which have been made to you.

But I bring in offering to you well-being.[89]I lift up in offering to you Maāt.

I know you and I know your names, and I know your attributes, though it be not known what by you may be brought to pass.

I come before you and make my appearance as that god in the form of a man who liveth like a god, and I stand out before you in the form of that god who is raised high upon his pedestal, to whom the gods come with acclamation, and the female deities with jubilation, when they see him.

I come before you and make my appearance on the seat of Rā, and I sit upon my seat which is on the Horizon, and receive the offerings upon their altars. I drink the sacred liquor each evening, in the form of the Lord of all creatures, and I am exalted like that venerable god the Lord of the Great House, whom the gods rejoice at seeing at his beautiful comings forth from the womb of Nut, to whom Nut each day giveth birth.

89. Perhaps ratherglory,splendour,⁂⁂⁂⁂, which implies something to beseen.

CHAPTER LXXX.

Chapter whereby one assumeth the form of the god who giveth Light to the Darkness.

It is I who complete the vesture of Nu, the Light which shineth before him, lighting up the darkness. I unite with the two brother-gods who are upon me through the mighty Words of Power of my mouth. I raise up the fallen one who cometh after me. I fall along with him in the vale of Abydos when I go to rest.

I have seized upon Hu from the place in which I found him. And I have lifted off the darkness through my power. I have rescued the Eye from its eclipse against the coming of the Fifteenth day, and balanced Sutu in the mansions above, against the Great one who is with him.

I have equipped Thoth [with light] in the house of the Moon.

I seize upon the Crown. Maāt is upon me, and the Emerald and the Crystal of her months.

This field of mine is of Azure in the festival thereof.

I lighten up the darkness and overthrow the devouring monsters.(1)

Those who are in their own darkness worship me, and they rise up to me, covering their faces, who mourn and are prostrate: look ye therefore upon me.

I am the Craftsman(2) of Nu, but I come not up in order that you should hear of this.

I am the Craftsman of Nu, who lighteneth the darkness, and I have come to dissipate the darkness, and that light should be.

Notes.

1.Devouring monsters,⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.

2.The later recensions have⁂or⁂⁂⁂wife. The older papyri omit the feminine ending, which is inconsistent with the rest of the chapter. I understand⁂or⁂⁂, in the sense of artist, craftsman.

CHAPTER LXXXI.

Chapter whereby one assumeth the form of the Lotus.

I am the pure Lotus which cometh forth from the glory which is at the nostril of Rā, and I make my journey and pursue it for Horus, the great god beloved.

I am the pure Lotus which cometh forth in the field.

Note.

This little chapter is not without its special difficulty. Are we to read⁂⁂⁂as a word implying motion, with⁂as its determinative, or as implying invocation, with⁂as its determinative? The copyists differed and some of them changed the word into⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂so that there should be no ambiguity. But this does not clear up the words which immediately follow; henceBahas suppressed them, whilst other copyists have given themselves no trouble as to the sense of what they wrote.

CHAPTER LXXXII.

Chapter whereby one assumeth the form of Ptah, eateth bread, drinketh beer, and sitteth in the midst of the great gods.

I fly like the Hawk, I cackle like the Smen-goose, I alight on the right side of the Aat, on the feast of the Great One.

I execrate, I execrate: I eat it not. Dirt is what I execrate: I eat it not. That which my Genius execrateth let it not enter into me.

Let me therefore live upon that which is put before them; the gods and the glorified ones. Let me live and enjoy the bread and....[90]Let me then eat them in the presence of the gods and glorified ones. Let me enjoy and eat them under the foliage of the date trees of Hathor, my sovereign. Let the oblations be made, of bread and beer in Tattu, and bendings of the head in Annu. Letmy vesture be girt upon me by Tait. Let me sitwhereverwhereverit pleaseth me.

My head is that of Rā and I am summed up as Tmu: Four times the arm’s length of Rā: four times the width of the world.(1)

I have come forth with the tongue of Ptah and the throat of Hathor that I may record the words of my father Tmu with my mouth, which draweth to itself the Spouse of Seb, and the proclamation of whose lips inspireth fear.

I repeat the acclamations at my success on being declared the heir of the Lord of Earth, Seb, from whom I issue.

Seb purifieth me, and giveth me his Theophanies.(2) The dwellers in Annu bow their heads to me. I am their Master. I am their Bull. More powerful am I than the Lord of Time; I am the author and the master of endless years.

Notes.

1.Not in length but in periphery. The⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂implies a quadrangular figure, and so do⁂⁂. Of this quadrangle, North, South, East, and West, are not cardinal points or angles, butsides.

2.Theophanies,⁂⁂⁂. This is the true meaning of the word, whether in reference to the Sun rising in the sky or to the king upon his throne.

90. The word seems to have been unintelligible to the copyists, who differ widely from each other as to its orthography.

CHAPTER LXXXIII.

Chapter whereby one assumeth the form of the Bennu bird.

Let me wheel round in whirls, let me turn like the Turning One, let me flourish like a flower and keep myself hidden like the Hider.(1)

I am the Barley corn of every god.

I am the four Yesterdays of those sevenUræusUræusdeities who are born in Amenta; Horus who giveth light by means of his own body; the god who is against Sutu when Thoth is between them, as in that dispute of the Prince of Sechem with the Spirits of Annu where the river is between them.(2)

I come forth by day and disclose myself at the head of the gods.

I am the god who chaseth all boastfulness.(3)

Notes.

1.There is here a play on the wordspa,ḫeper,ruṭandšet. TheTurning Oneis the god Chepera. TheTortoise⁂⁂⁂derives its name (thehider), from the habit of drawing its body within its shell. On the flight of the Bennu see the first note of next chapter.

2.The Nile lies between the opposite shores of the Nomes of Letopolis (Sechem) and Heliopolis (Annu).

3.The later recensions have “I am Chonsu whoputteth a stopto all boastfulness.” But in the early copiesChonsuis taken in its primitive sensethe chaserand does not require the verb⁂to govern ‘boastfulness.’

CHAPTER LXXXIV.

Chapter whereby one assumeth the form of the Hernshaw.(1)

Thou who holdest the bound victims; ye knives over their heads and locks and fleeces;(2) ye aged and bright ones who are armed with the fated moment.

I come to heaven but I strike upon the earth; and conversely.

It is my power which produceth victory and raiseth the height of heaven, and I make the lustrations which yield the extent of earth to my feet against the sinful cities as I advance and cut in pieces(3) those who are involved in rebellion.(4)

I leave the gods upon their paths but I strike the Wakers who are in their coffins.

I know not Nu, I know not Tatunen, I know not the Red ones when they bring opposition to me.

I know not a Word of Power to whose utterance I listen.

I am the Red Calf upon the tablets.

This is what the gods say when they raise their voice.

Let your countenances be without restraint towards him who cometh to me.

The morning dawns are independent of you, ye have not the charge of them; but my alternations are in my own hands. I say not the wrong instead of the right.

Day after day unswervingly turneth back upon my eye-brow.

And Evening is the beginning of my voyage to celebrate the solemnity of the Reclining and the Embrace of the Aged one who hath charge of the Earth.

Notes.

1.Both theBennuand theShenshen(which I here translate ‘Hernshaw’) are Herons. They fly to a great height in spiral whirls.

2.The true reading here seems to be⁂⁂from⁂⁂‘shear.’

3.Cut in pieces.The papyrus of Ani gives the valuable reading⁂.

4.Rebellion.So I understand⁂⁂, a wrongful and violentrising, ἐπανάστασις.

CHAPTER LXXXV.

Chapter whereby one assumeth the form of a Soul,(1)that one may not come to the dungeon. Imperishable is he who knoweth it.

I am a Soul. I am Rā who proceedeth from Nu, and my soul is divine. I am he who produceth food, but I execrate what is wrong and look not upon it.

I am possessor of Maāt and subsist by means of it.

I am the Food which perisheth not; in my name of the Self-originating Force, together with Nu, in the name of Chepera, from whom I am born daily.

I am the Lord of Daylight and I execrate Death, let me not enter into the dungeons of the gods of the Tuat.

It is I who give glory to Osiris and propitiate the hearts of those who are with him, my own friends.

They inspire the fear of me, and put forward my might to those within their domains.

And behold me, how I am raised upon my pedestal and upon my throne.

I am Nu. They shall not overthrow me who do wrong.

I am he whose orbits are of old; my soul is divine, it is the Eternal Force.

It is I who create the Darkness which maketh its seat at the confines of Heaven.

My Soul hath come, far advanced in age, and I create the Darkness at the confines of Heaven at my pleasure.

I reach the limits, and I advance upon my feet.

I take the lead and I traverse the steel firmament which maketh a curtain.(2) I put a stop to the Darkness and the worms; I whose name is hidden.

I drive away aggression from before the Lord of the two hands, who is my own Soul. TheUræusUræusdivinities are my body. My image is Eternal, the Lord of years, the King of Everlasting.

I am exalted as Lord of the land of Rebu: ‘the Youth in Town, the Lad in the Country’ is my name; and my name is imperishable.

I am the Force which createth Heaven and maketh its abode in the Netherworld.

Not to be seen is my nest; not to be broken is my Egg.

I am the Lord on High. I have made my nest on the confines of Heaven, and I descend to the earth of Seb and put a stop to evil. I see my father, the Lord of the Gloaming, and I breathe.(3)

Notes.

1.Soul. The Egyptian word which in our modern languages we translate asSoulhas already been explained as meaningForce. It is so translated in this chapter in several passages where this sense is emphatically required.

2.A curtain,⁂šet, literally askin.Cf.Ps. civ, 2, “Who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain,” where the LXX render ‘curtain’ by δέῤῥιν and the Vulgate bypellem.

3.Here the chapter ends inPc. The few words which follow in other MSS. were unintelligible to the copyists and are written very variously.

CHAPTER LXXXVI.

Chapter whereby one assumeth the form of the Swallow.(1)

I am the Swallow; I am the Swallow.

I am the Scorpion-bird, daughter of Rā.

O ye gods, whose perfume is delicious: Flame which proceedest from the Horizon: O thou who art in the place whence I have brought the keeper of his fold—let me have thine arm that I may make my observation at the Tank of Flame, that I may advance as an envoy and come with the report of it.

Be it opened to me, in order that I may tell what I have seen.

Horus is in command of his bark. There hath been given to him the throne of his father, and Sutu that son of Nut is under the grappling hooks which he made for him.

I have ascertained what is in Sechem. I have touched with my two hands the Heart of Osiris.(2)

And that which I went in order to ascertain I am come to tell. Come let me enter and report my mission.

And I, entering and ascertaining who cometh forth through that gate of the Inviolate one, I purify myself at that great stream where my ills are made to cease, and that which is wrong in me is pardoned and the spots which were on my body upon earth are effaced.

O Keeper of the Portal, let the path be made for me, for I am as one of you. Let me come forth by day, and walk upon my own legs. Let me have the feet of the Glorified.

I know the mysterious paths and the gates of Aarru from whence I come. Here am I, and I come that I may overthrow mine adversaries upon earth, though my dead body be buried.

If this chapter be known he will re-enter after coming forth by day.

Notes.

1.The Swallow⁂⁂. The objection to this meaning is that the bird in question was eaten; and that doves or pigeons would be less meagre food than the Swallow, and therefore more probably intended in the Egyptian texts. But Swallows are still eaten at Rome, where like Clive Newcome we may be regaled not only with “wild swans and ducks” but with “robins, owls, and οἰωνοῖσι τε πᾶσι for dinner.” And Willughby, the naturalist, found a large quantity of swallows being sold for food at Valencia in Spain.

The flat head, the short legs, and the tail of the bird are characteristic not of the pigeon but of the swallow, and on many pictures (e.g., pl. xxi, vignette from Leyden papyrus) we are reminded of the song—

Ἦλθ’ ἦλθε χελιδὼν ...ἐπὶ γαστέρα λευκὰἐπὶ νῶτα μέλαινα.

Ἦλθ’ ἦλθε χελιδὼν ...

ἐπὶ γαστέρα λευκὰ

ἐπὶ νῶτα μέλαινα.

It is not quite plain why the name of Scorpion should be given to the bird, but the name⁂⁂⁂of the insect in itself implies nothing more than the characteristicwhitenessof colour.

2.Touched with my two hands the Heart of Osiris.

⁂⁂⁂is the origin of the Coptic ϭⲟϩ ‘touch.’ The word Heart has dropped out of the later texts (e.g., the Turin copy), but in the older papyri it is found in the form of⁂⁂or⁂.

Additional Note.

In Chapter 86⁂⁂⁂has unquestionably the sense ofascertaining by inspection.The Abbot Papyrus in its account of the enquiry respecting the spoliation of the royal coffins gives ample evidence of this meaning. And the word there used forreportingthe result of the inspection is, as is Ch. 86,⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂semȧu, in Copticⲧⲁⲙⲉ.

But it is well to remember that⁂⁂⁂has another use; which perhaps implies the existence of two homonymous roots. In a passage quoted inNote 21to Ch. 64, it certainly signifiesrestore. And this may possibly be its meaning in the rubric of Ch. 64. The journey of Prince Hortâtâf may have had reference to therestoration, not simplyinspection, of the temples. In this sense it is often written⁂⁂⁂⁂or⁂⁂⁂⁂sȧpu. The Coptic word for ἀποκαθιστάναι in Hosea xi, 11 and Acts i, 6 isⲧⲫⲟ.

CHAPTER LXXXVII.

Chapter whereby one assumeth the form of Se-ta.

I am Seta—full of years.

I lay myself down [in death], and I am born daily.

I am Seta at the confines of the earth. I lay myself down [in death], I restore myself and I renew myself daily.

Note.

Se-ta⁂⁂, literallyFilius terrae, is a common nounsignifyingsignifyingan earth-worm. It is applied to the Sun as rising out of the earth. There are several pictures at Denderah representing the Sun-god Hor-sam-ta in the form of the worm rising out of the Lotus of Dawn.Seepl. xxiii, from Mariette,Dend. I, 47 and 48.

CHAPTER LXXXVIII.

Chapter whereby one assumeth the form of the Crocodile god [Sebak(1).

For I am the Crocodile god in all his terrors.

I am the Crocodile god in the form of man.(2) I am he who carrieth off with violence. I am the almighty Fish in Kamurit.

I am the Lord to whom one bendeth down(3) in Sechem.

Notes.

1.Sebak is not always named in the papyri. The ideogram of the crocodile was in some copies reademsuḥand in otherssebak.

2.In the form of man⁂⁂⁂⁂. Of the very different readings this is the most intelligible.

3.To whom one bendeth down, literally ‘master of bendings.’

CHAPTER LXXXIX.

Chapter whereby the Soul is united to the dead Body.

Oh thou who Bringest; Oh thou Runner, who dwellest in thy Keep,(1) thou great god; grant that my Soul may come to me from whatsoever place wherein it abideth.

But if there be a delay in the bringing of my soul to me, thou shalt find the Eye of Horus standing firm against thee, like those undrowsy Watchers who lie in Annu, the land wherein are thousands of reunions.

Let my Soul be caught, and the Chu which is with it, wheresoever it abideth.

Track out(2) among the things in heaven and upon earth that soul of mine, wherever it abideth.

But if there be a delay in thy causing me to see my Soul and my Shade, thou shalt find the Eye of Horus standing firm against thee.

Oh ye gods who draw along the Bark of the Eternal one: ye who lift up above the Tuat, and who raise up the Sky: ye who enable the Souls to enter into the mummied forms; ye whose hands grasp the cordage, hold firm with your ropes and stop the adversaries that the Bark may rejoice and the god proceed in peace.

And now grant that my Soul may come forth in your train from the Eastern horizon of Heaven for ever and ever.

Notes.

The oldest papyri present a much shorter form than the later ones. That portion which is here separated by a line from what goes before it first appears on the sarcophagus of Seti I and in the papyrus of Ani. The vignette is a very favourite decoration of mummies.

1.Keep⁂⁂of which the regular variant in this chapter is notsaḥbut⁂⁂seḫen.

2.Track out,⁂⁂⁂isinvestigare, ἐξιχινεύειν, to follow the traces like a dog.SeeDenk.II, 3, where the word occurs in the title of “master of the trackers,” determined by a man holding a hound in leash. It is from this notion that the sense ofsightorlookingappears in⁂⁂⁂⁂,ⲛⲁⲩ.

Back to Index Next