Chapter XVI.

11. One of the names of the Uræus on the royal crown.

12. ‘The Glorious ones’; seeNote 1on Chapter I.

13. See note11.

14. An abode of bliss (like the Elysian fields) frequently mentioned and described in the Book of the Dead.

15. The dragon Âpepi.

16. BothChabasuandHammemithave the sign of the plural, which may arise from the omission ofwho art abovebefore the first of these words. Unfortunately we have no other copy to check the readings. But it is certain that the sign of plurality is often affixed to words which though in plural form (like the Latinmoenia,literae,tenebrae) have a singular meaning.Chabasumeans alamp, and the stars, especially the decans, were called by this appellation.Hammemitis the name given to those yet unborn.

17.⁂⁂⁂Un-tȧ, signifies the god who assumes the face or form of aHare⁂, just asMau-tȧsignifies the god with the face or form of a Cat,Tehuta, the god with the head or form of an Ibis.

18. I am deeply grieved that in my conversation and correspondence with Goodwin (see myMiscellaneous Notes on Egyptian Philology, p. 15), I hit upon ‘Ennead’ as a translation of⁂. Goodwin took it up, and it has since been productive of much mischief. The word in itself (like Triad), is perfectly innocent and correct, yet every word has its ‘cycle’ of associations, and some of them lead the unwary astray. I had just been lecturing on Plotinus when Goodwin asked me for the word.

19. Thefourchildren of Horus are called (Tempelins., I, 41, 1)⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.

PLATE IVPLATE V

PLATE IV

PLATE V

Chapter XVI.

Note.

When Lepsius divided theTodtenbuchinto 165 chapters, that portion of it which was numbered as Chapter 16, was in fact merely the Vignette of Chapter 15.

It has been thought well to publish with this translation the Vignettes from the great PapyrusLaof Leyden, representinga, the Rising; andb, the Setting Sun. (See plates.)

Inathe Sun is represented as rising into Heaven, saluted by the six Cynocephalous Apes. He is also saluted by two goddesses kneeling. In the Papyrus of Hunefer these goddesses say, “I am thy sister Isis,” “I am thy sister Nephthys.” TheTat⁂which is between them is a symbolbothof Osiris and of the East, and inBais replaced by the sign⁂. In the later periods the Dawn was represented by the sign⁂consisting of the Sun rising out of the East, between Isis and Nephthys. The sign of Life⁂ānḫ(whichprimarily meansrise up) rises out of theTat, and with hands proceeding from it raises up the Sun.

Inbthe central object is the Sun setting in the West⁂. He is saluted by three hawk-headed and by three jackal-headed divinities, the Spirits of Pu and of Nechen. Below this scene the Sun of Yesterday and the Sun of To-day in lion forms are saluted by Isis and Nephthys.

CHAPTER XVII.

Chapter whereby one cometh forth by day out of the Netherworld. Let the words be said:

I am he who closeth and he who openeth, and I am but One.(1)

I am Râ at his first appearance.

I am the great god, self-produced;

His Names together compose the cycle of the gods;

Resistless is he among the gods.(2)

I, who am Osiris, am Yesterday and the kinsman of the Morrow.(3)

A scene of strife arose among the gods when I gave the command.(4)

Amenta is the scene of strife among the gods.

I know the name of the great god who is here.

Herald[20]of Râ is his name.

I am the great Heron who is in Heliopolis, who presideth over the account of whatsoever is and of that which cometh into being.(5)

Who is that? It is Osiris who presideth over the account of all that is and all that cometh into being, that is Endless Time and Eternity. Endless Time is Day and Eternity is Night.

I am Amsu in his manifestations; there have been given to me the Two Feathers upon my head.(6)

Who is that, and what are his Feathers? It is Horus, the avenger of his father, and the Two Feathers are the Uræi upon the forehead of his father Tmu.(7)

I have alighted upon my Land, and I come from my own Place.

What is that? It is the Horizon of my father Tmu.

All defects are done away, all deficiencies are removed, and all that was wrong in me is cast forth.

I am purified at the two great and mighty Lakes at Sutenhunen, which purify the offerings which living men present to the great god who is there(8).

Who is that? It is Râ himself.

Which are the two great and mighty Lakes? The Lake of Natron and the Lake of Māāt(9).

I advance over the roads, which I know, and my face is on the Land of Māāt.

What is that? The road upon which father Tmu advanceth, when he goeth to the Field of Aarru, approaching to the land of Spirits in Heaven.

I come forth through the T’eser gate.

What is that? This gate of the gods is Haukar. It is the gate and the two doors and openings, through which father Tmu issueth to the Eastern Horizon of Heaven.(10)

O ye who have gone before! Let me grasp your hands, me who become one of you.

Who are they? Those who have gone before are Hu and Sau. May I be with their father Tmu, throughout the course of each day.(11)

I make full the Eye when it waxeth dim on the day of battle between the two Opponents.(12)

What is that? The battle of the two Opponents is the day upon which Horus fighteth with Sut, when he flingeth his filth upon the face of Horus, and when Horus seizeth upon the genitals of Sut, for it is Horus who doeth this with his own fingers.

I lift up the hairy net from the Eye at the period of its distress.(13)

What is that? The right Eye of Râ in the period of its distress when he giveth it free course, and it is Thoth who lifteth up the net from it.

I see Râ, when he is born from Yesterday, at the dugs of the Mehurit cows?(14) His course is my course, and conversely mine is his.

What is that? Râ and his births from Yesterday at the dugs of the Mehurit cows? It is the figure of the Eye of Râ, at his daily birth. And Mehurit is the Eye.

I am one of those who are in the train of Horus.

What is that—‘one of those in the train of Horus’? Said with reference to whom his Lord loveth.

Hail, ye possessors of Māāt, divine Powers attached to Osiris, who deal destruction to falsehood, ye who are in the train of Hotepeschaus, grant me that I may come to you. Do ye away the wrong which is me, as ye have done to the Seven Glorious ones, who follow after the Coffined one, and whose places Anubis hath fixed on that day of ‘Come thou hither’!

Hotepeschaus is the divine Flame which is assigned to Osiris for burning the souls of his adversaries. I know the names of the Seven Glorious ones who follow the Coffined one, and whose places Anubis hath fixed on the day of ‘Come thou hither.’ The leader of this divine company,

‘An-ar-ef, the Great’ is his name; 2, Kat-kat; 3, the Burning Bull, who liveth in his fire; 4, the Red-eyed one in the House of Gauze; 5, Fieryface which turneth backwards; 6, Dark Face in its hour; 7, Seer in the Night.(15)

I am he whose Soul resideth in a pair of gods.

It is Osiris, as he cometh to Tattu, and there findeth the soul of Râ; each embraceth the other, and becometh Two Souls.

The pair of gods are Horus, the Avenger of his Father, and Horus, the Prince of the City of Blindness.

I am the great Cat, who frequenteth the Persea tree in Heliopolis, on that night of battle wherein is effected the defeat of the Sebau, and that day upon which the adversaries of the Inviolate god(16) are exterminated.

Who is that great Cat? It is Râ himself. For Sau said, He is the likeness (Maȧu) of that which he hath created, and his name became that of Cat (Maȧu).(17)

The night of conflict is the defeat of the children of Failure at Elephantine. There was conflict in the entire universe, in heaven and upon the earth.

He who frequenteth the Persea tree is he who regulateth the children of Failure, and that which they do.

O Râ, in thine Egg, who risest up in thine orb, and shinest from thine Horizon, and swimmest over the firmament without a peer, and sailest over the sky; whose mouth sendeth forth breezes of flame, lightening up the Two Earths with thy glories, do thou deliverNfrom that god whose attributes are hidden, whose eyebrows are as the arms of the Balance upon that day when outrage is brought to account, and each wrong is tied up to its separate block of settlement.

The god whose eyebrows are as the arms of the Balance is “he who lifteth up his arm.”[21]

Deliver me from those Wardens of the Passages with hurtful fingers, attendant upon Osiris.

The Wardens of Osiris are the Powers who keep off the forces of the adversaries of Râ.

May your knives not get hold of me; may I not fall into your shambles, for I know your names; my course upon earth is with Râ and my fair goal is with Osiris. Let not your offerings be in my disfavour, oh ye gods upon your altars! I am one of those who follow the Master, a keeper of the writ of Chepera.

I fly like a Hawk, I cackle like theSmen-Goose, I move eternally like Nehebkau.(18)

Oh Tmu who art in the Great Dwelling, Sovereign of all the gods, deliver me from that god who liveth upon the damned; whose face is that of a hound, but whose skin is that of a man; at that angle of the pool of fire; devouring shades, digesting human hearts and voiding ordure. One seeth him not.

This god whose face is that of a hound and whose skin[22]is that of a man: Eternal Devourer is his name.(19)

Oh Fearful one, who art over the Two Earths, Red god who orderest the block of execution; to whom is given the Double Crown and Enjoyment as Prince of Sutenhunen.

It is Osiris to whom was ordained the Leadership among the gods, upon that day when the Two Earths were united before the Inviolate god.

The junction of the Two Earths is the head of the coffin of Osiris whose father is Râ[23]the beneficent Soul in Sutenhunen, the giver of food and the destroyer of wrong, who hath determined the paths of eternity.

It is Râ himself.

Deliver me from that god who seizeth upon souls, who consumeth all filth and corruption in the darkness or in the light: all those who fear him are in powerless condition.

This god is Sut.

Oh Chepera, who are in the midst of thy bark and whose body is the cycle of the gods for ever; deliver me from those inquisitorial Wardens to whom the Inviolate god, of Glorious Attributes, hath given guard over his adversaries, and the infliction of slaughter in the place of annihilation, from whose guard there is no escape. May I not fall under your knives, may I not sit within your dungeons, may I not come to your places of extermination, may I not fall into your pits; may there be done to me none of those things which the gods abominate; for I have passed through the place of purification in the middle of the Meskat, for which are given the Mesit and the Tehenit cakes in Tanenit.

The Meskat is the place of scourging in Sutenhunen, the Tehenit is the Eye of Horus.... Tanenit is the resting place of Osiris.(20)

Tmu buildeth thy dwelling, the Lion-faced god layeth the foundation of thy house, as he goeth his round. Horus offereth purification and Sut giveth might, and conversely.

I have come upon this earth and with my two feet taken possession. I am Tmu and I come from my own Place.

Back, oh Lion with dazzling mouth, and with head bent forwards, retreating before me and my might.

I am Isis and thou findest me as I drop upon my face the hair which falleth loosely on my brow.

I was conceived by Isis and begotten by Nephthys. Isis destroyeth what in me is wrong, and Nephthys loppeth off that which is rebellious.

Dread cometh in my train and Might is in my hands. Numberless are the hands who cling fast to me. The dead ones and the living come to me. I defeat the clients of mine adversaries, and spoil those whose hands are darkened.

I have made an agreeable alliance. I have created the inhabitants of Cher-âbat and those of Heliopolis.(21) And every god is in fear before the Terrible, the Almighty one.

I avenge every god against his oppressor, at whom I shoot my arrows when he appeareth.

I live according to my will.

I am Uat’it, the Fiery one.(22)

And woe to them who mount up against me!

What is this? “Of unknown attributes, which Hemen(23) hath given” is the name of the Funereal Chest. “The Witness of that which is lifted” is the name of the Shrine.

The Lion with dazzling mouth and with head bent forwards is the Phallus of Osiris [otherwiseof Râ].

And I who drop the hair which hath loosely fallen upon my brow—I am Isis, when she concealeth herself; she hath let fall her hair over herself.

Uat’it the Fiery is the Eye of Râ.

They who mount up against me, woe to them, they are the associates of Sut as they approach.(24)

PLATE VIPLATE VII

PLATE VI

PLATE VII

Notes.

The seventeenth chapter is one of the most remarkable in the whole collection, and it has been preserved from times previous to the XIIth dynasty. The very earliest monuments which have preserved it have handed it down accompanied with scholia and other commentaries interpolated into the text. Some of the monuments enable us to some extent to divide the original text from the additions, in consequence of the latter being written in red. But there is really only one text where the additions are suppressed, and which therefore offers the most ancient form, as far as we know it, of the chapter. This is the copy on the wall of the tomb of Horhotep. The sarcophagus itself of Horhotep contains a copy of the text along with the additions. The chapter must already at the time have been of the most venerable antiquity. Besides these two copies of the chapter we have those from the sarcophagi of Hora and Sit-Bastit (published, like those of Horhotep, by M. Maspero[24]), two from the sarcophagi of Mentuhotep, and one from that of Sebek-āa (the three latter published by Lepsius in hisAelteste Texte). The British Museum has Sir Gardner Wilkinson’s copy of the texts inscribed on the coffin of Queen Mentuhotep of the XIth dynasty, and also a fragment (6636 a) of the coffin of a prince named Hornefru. Here then we have an abundance of witnesses of the best period. They unfortunately do not agree. The progress of corruption had nodoubt begun long before, and the variants are not simply differences of orthography but positively different readings. The differences however are chiefly in the scholia. Even when the explanations of the text are identical, the form differs. The latest recensions have retained the form⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂; the ancient added the feminine⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.What is that?But some of the ancient texts give the equivalent words⁂⁂⁂⁂, and Horhotep does without them altogether. These words were evidently additions not merely to the text but to the scholia.

The text of the chapter grew more and more obscure to readers, and the explanations hitherto given were so unsatisfactory as to call for others. The texts of the manuscripts of the new empire furnish a good deal of fresh matter, much of which is extremely ancient, though the proof of this is unfortunately lost through the disastrous condition of literature in the period preceding the XVIIIth dynasty. The XVIIIth dynasty and its immediate successors inherited but did not invent the new form of the Book of the Dead, with its succession of vignettes, which however differing in detail bear the stamp of a common traditional teaching. The manuscripts of a later period bear witness, with reference to this as well as to other chapters, to a recension of an authoritative kind. The text becomes more certain though perhaps not either more true or more intelligible, and the notes and explanations have here reached their fullest extent.

It would take an entire volume to give the translations of all the forms the chapter has assumed. It must be sufficient here to give the earliest forms known to us of the text and of the first commentaries. These are printed in characters which show the difference between text and later additions; all of which, it must be remembered, are of extreme antiquity—sometwo thousand yearsbefore any probable date of Moses.

Explanations or other interesting matter occurring in the manuscripts of the later Empire will be referred to in the notes.

The title in the early copies is the simple one here heading the chapter. In those which begin at the XVIIIth dynasty the title is very like that given for the first chapter. The chief additions are that the deceased person “takes every form that he pleases, plays draughts, and sits in a bower, comes forth as a soul living after death, and that what is done upon earth is glorified.”

1.It would be difficult for us to imagine that the very remarkable opening of the chapter is an addition. Yet it is unknown to the primitive recension on the walls of Horhotep’s tomb, though found everywhere else. The texts however which contain it do not agree. “I am He who closeth, and He who openeth, and I am but One.” ‘He who closeth’ is⁂⁂Tmu, ‘He who openeth’⁂Unen. As the god who closes and who opens is one and the same, ‘I am but One,’ is a very natural ending of the sentence, and for its sense the whole may appeal to classical, and higher than classical, authority.

“Modo namque Patulcius idemEt modo sacrifico Clusius ore vocor.”[25]

“Modo namque Patulcius idem

Et modo sacrifico Clusius ore vocor.”[25]

“I am Alpha and O, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord.”[26]

The meaning of the Egyptian is quite plain, but the readings most probably through the absence of determinatives in the oldest style are somewhat different. Horhotep and other texts have⁂⁂⁂⁂, apparently as one word (compounded oftmuandunen), which may signify the ‘closer and opener,’ but Sebek-āa and later texts have⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. The papyrus of Nebseni has⁂⁂, in the third person, which does not alter the meaning, but this is quite an isolated reading. The later recension, as represented by the TurinTodtenbuchand the Cadet papyrus, has⁂⁂, which only prominently brings forward, what is implied in all the other texts, that the Opener is a god.[27]The absence of the determinative⁂after⁂is no objection to the sense ‘opener,’ especially after⁂⁂. It is absolutely necessary when dealing with mythology to look to physical rather than to metaphysical meanings. I have sufficiently discussed the meanings of the word⁂in my essay on the Myth of Osiris Unnefer.

PLATE III

The later recensions add an interpolation (not without very different readings) to the effect that the Sun made his first appearance when Shu raised the Sky from the height of Chemennu, where he destroyed the ‘Children of Failure’⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.

The raising of the Sky by Shu is very frequently represented in pictures. Seb (the Earth) and Nut (the Sky) have been sleeping in each other’s arms during the night; Shu (Daylight at sunrise) parts them, and the sky is seen to be raised high above the earth.

⁂⁂⁂, Shu, who is of course the son of Râ, is in consequence of this act called⁂⁂Ȧn-ḥeru, ‘The Lifter up of the Heaven.’

Chemennuis the geographical name of the town called by the Greeks Hermopolis. The mystical Chemennu, however, is alone referred to in this place. The word itself means Eight, and Lepsius sees here a reference to eight elementary deities. (We must remember that the passage itself is an interpolation, of which there is no trace in the older texts.)

The ‘children ofFailure’(⁂⁂⁂⁂,⁂⁂⁂deficere,dissolvi,deliquium[28]) are the elements of darkness which melt away and vanish at the appearance of Day. This mythological expression here found in an interpolated passage is met later on in a genuine portion of the older text.

2.It would be impossible to find a more emphatic assertion of the doctrine ofNomina Numina; and that more than 3000 years before Christ.

TheNamesof Râ, the Sun-god, are said, when taken together, to compose ‘the cycle of the gods.’⁂⁂. Or the names which he has created, to which he has given rise, that is the names of all the solar phenomena, recurring as they do, day after day, to the eyes of all beholders, compose “the cycle of the gods,” who are also called the limbs or members of Râ.

The scholia contained in the papyri of the XVIIIth and later dynasties explain the text as follows:—

“It is Râ as he creates thenamesof hislimbs(⁂)whichbecomethe gods who accompany him.”

And the present chapter later on says of Chepera, the rising Sun, that the “cycle of the gods is his body.”

The god who has hitherto been spoken of is Râ. In glaring contradiction to the whole text, a later note states that the resistless god is “the Water, which isNu”; that is Heaven.[29]⁂⁂⁂Nuis not alluded to at all in the primitive text, but the papyrus of Nebseni already exhibits the corruption of the fine passage, “I am he who closeth and he who openeth, and I am but One.” This is itself an addition, the true meaning of which was afterwards destroyed by the interpolation of the words⁂⁂⁂⁂. These are ambiguous. They might mean that the god was alone ‘in heaven,’ or that he was alone ‘asHeaven.’ The papyrus of Ani has⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, “I was born from Nu.” These attempted improvements do not give a favourable impression of the exegetical acumen of Egyptian theologians.

But the mention of ‘Water’ in the scholion has nothing whatever to do with the doctrine of Thales, and to suppose that it has implies a confusion between two very different realms of human thought.

3.‘The kinsman of the Morrow,’ literally ‘I know the Morrow.’ The word⁂signifiescan,ken, andkin.

The papyrus of Nebseni and all the subsequent texts give the explanation that Yesterday means Osiris, and the Morrow means Râ. And the vignette in the papyrus of Ani gives the name of Yesterday to one of the Lions and of Morrow to the other.

4.The earliest texts have either⁂‘speak,’ or⁂⁂‘command.’ The meaning is the same in both readings. Strife arose among the gods at the bidding of Râ: that is every force in naturebegan its appropriate career of activity, necessarily coming into contact and conflict with the other forces. And of all this collision the first cause, the origin of all activity and motion, is the Sun.

This mythological cosmology reminds one of the saying of Heraclitos that “Strife is the father and the king of all things,” and the doctrine that all becoming must be conceived as the product of warring opposites—παν´ντα κατ’ ἔριν γίνεσθαι.

5.The Heron is the bird called⁂⁂⁂bennu, the numerous pictures of which enable us to identify it with the Common Heron or Heronshaw. The reason for connecting this bird with the Sun-god has to be sought in the etymology of its name.⁂⁂benis a verb of motion, and particularly of ‘going round.’⁂⁂benenuis a ring, also a ‘round pill.’ The Sun therefore is very naturally calledbennu, an appellative like κυκλοέλικτος in the Orphic hymns.

⁂⁂, ‘of that which is, and of that which cometh into being.’ Here, as in many other places,⁂, which is a verb of motion, and really signifies ‘rise up, spring forth,’ is pointedly distinguished from⁂, that which (is). So far from signifying ‘being, that which is,’ it very much more nearly corresponds to⁂in the frequent expression⁂⁂, ‘that which is and that which is not yet.’ The sense of ‘good being’ so commonly given to the divine name Unnefer is utterly erroneous.

6.The reading of the name⁂is proved by the numerous variants of this passage to beȦmsu. In M. Naville’s edition, II, pl. 41, the name, as written inCe, would seem to be⁂⁂⁂ȧm.But I already inZeitschr., 1877 (p. 98) pointed out, that in this manuscript the last sign⁂is at the top of a column, and that at the foot of the preceding column there is a space where the signs⁂, following⁂⁂(as they still do in the next passage), have been obliterated. No one from merely looking at M. Naville’s copy would guess that there was any interval between⁂and⁂.

The god’s name is written⁂⁂⁂on a tablet, Denkm. III, 114 i. And the name is also written⁂or⁂, which are ligatures of⁂and⁂.

7.Note that in this scholion Horus, ‘the avenger of his father,’ calls his father not Osiris but Tmu. In the more recent texts there are many interpretations of the two Feathers. One is “his twoEyesF are the Feathers.” But the favourite one is “Isis and Nephthys, who have risen up as two kites”⁂⁂⁂⁂.

8.The⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂reḫit, by whom the oblation is made, thepresentgeneration as contrasted with the⁂⁂⁂pāit, thepast, and⁂⁂⁂⁂hammemit, thecominggenerations.

9.⁂⁂⁂⁂Māāāaitis supposed to be nitre or salt, or some other substance used in the process of embalming.

The more recent recensions thus answer the question about the lakes. “Eternityis the name of one, and theGreat green onethat of the other, the lake of Natron and the lake of Māāt.”

10.See the picture of this gate on the Vignette, which shows the Sun-god passing through. One of the later explanations is that from this gate Shu raised up Heaven. Another is that it was the gate of the Tuat.Haukar,⁂⁂⁂⁂, means “behind the Shrine.”

11.HuandSau, sons of Tmu, and his companions in the Solar bark, are, like so many other gods, Solar appellatives.⁂⁂⁂⁂Huis the Nourisher,⁂⁂⁂⁂Sau, ‘the Knowing One.’ The god is also called ‘the Seer’⁂, ‘He who heareth’⁂⁂. These names are not personifications of the senses but, as in all cases, appellatives expressing attributes.

12.SeeNote 2on Chapter 4.

13.The Eye(⁂⁂⁂⁂)being the Sun or Moon, the period of distress(⁂⁂)is that of obscuration or eclipse, and the hairy net(⁂⁂)which is removed is the shadow which passes for a time over the heavenly body.

The explanation which M. Maspero has recently given (P.S.B.A. XIV, 314) of the word⁂⁂⁂⁂, as connected with⁂⁂⁂⁂‘health,’ receives confirmation from the scholia in the papyri, according to which Thoth not only delivered the Eye from the veil of darkness which oppressed it, but carried it off⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂‘in life, health and strength, without any damage.’

14.Mehurit is explained in the ancient scholion as ‘the Eye,’ but it is really the Sky, from which the Sun is born daily. The sign of plurality after Mehurit (if it means anything) only indicates the daily succession of the skies whence Râ is born.

15.The ‘coffined One’⁂⁂⁂is of course Osiris, as it is plainly stated in the later scholia, which further add that the ‘Seven glorious ones’ who follow the coffin, or, as they read it, “their Lord,” are to be sought in the constellation of ‘the Thigh in the northern sky,’ that is in the seven stars of the Great Bear.

These stars never set, but are perpetually revolving round the Pole. It is therefore evidently with the Polar Star that we must identify the coffin of Osiris. The names of the Seven Glorious ones vary according to the differentauthoritiesauthorities. And these Stars themselves receive other mythical forms; that of the Seven Cows and their Bull is recorded in the 148th chapter. Names like ‘the Red-eyed’⁂⁂⁂or the ‘Red-haired’ cow⁂⁂seem to implydoublestars. The ‘Red-eyed’ is said to abide in⁂⁂⁂‘house of gauze’ (perhaps a cobweb).

The papyri add the important note that the “day of Come thou hither”! represents the moment “when Osiris says to Râ, Come thou hither”! or, as some read, “Come thou to me.” The speaker adds that he sees the meeting of the two gods in Amenta.

16.⁂⁂⁂possessor of completeness, integrity, hence ‘inviolate.’ This name is given to Osiris when restored to his first condition after having been dismembered and cut into pieces. The god is calledRâ-Tmu-Nebert’erin the great Harris papyrus, 15, 3.

17.It is most probable that the Cat became the representative of the Sun because of the homonymy between the Egyptian name⁂⁂⁂⁂mȧȧuof the animal and the attributive⁂⁂⁂mau, ‘shining’ said of the Sun. But the Egyptian scribe gives a different etymological explanation. Sau said of Râ “he is⁂⁂maȧuof what he hath made.”⁂⁂may, like the Latinexemplar, be either the type or the prototype, the copy or the original. The creatures of Râ were made after his likeness. Sanskrit literature, from the Çatapatha Brahmana down to the Vishnu Purâna, is full of similar etymologies. The Egyptians from the very first delighted in this play upon words.

18.Neḥebu-kau,⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂or⁂⁂⁂⁂is the son of Seb and Renenut. The etymology of the name is indicated in the Pyramid texts.⁂⁂⁂⁂neḥbuis to ‘carry, sustain, support’ (whence⁂⁂⁂⁂neḥbeta neck, and⁂⁂⁂⁂neḥba yoke), and the rest of the word is the plural ofka, which is susceptible of more than one meaning. It might signify the divine or humanka, but the word is sometimes (e.g., Todt., 125, 32) written⁂‘victuals.’ The god is one of the forty-two judges of the dead, and in some copies of the Book of the Dead he is described as coming forth from his⁂⁂⁂, a word most frequently used for the source of the Nile. The serpent⁂which is a most frequent determinative of the name, is an additional reason for identifying this god with the Nile: a conclusion which seems fully justified by the Pyramid texts, which speak of him as Water⁂, and describe him as⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, “of many windings.” (See Pepi I, 341 and 487.)

19.This Devourer has the same functions as the strange animal called⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂Âmemitin the pictures of the Psychostasia. The later scholia add that the Devourer comes from the ‘basin of Punit,’ the Red sea. They add other names,⁂⁂⁂⁂Mâtes‘Flint,’ “stationed at the gate of Amenta,” and⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂or⁂Baba, who, in ch. 63, 2, is described as the first born of Osiris. He is a terrible god from whom the deceased prays in ch. 125, 36, to be delivered. His name implies ‘one who searches or probes thoroughly,’ as a digger or miner. And such are his functions at the judgment of the dead.

Instead of⁂⁂tesem, a ‘hound,’Lareads⁂⁂⁂⁂sȧu, a sheep.

20.The⁂⁂⁂Mesqȧtis a⁂⁂⁂‘a place of scourging.’ The word⁂⁂⁂is known as signifying violent treatment by beating, and has been illustrated by Chabas and Goodwin. SeeZeitschr., 1874, p. 62. In the 72nd chapter the deceased prays that he may not perish at theMesqȧt. A kindred word⁂⁂⁂⁂Mesqasignifies ‘a hide.’ We can understand the connection between δέρω ‘flay, cudgel, thrash’ and δέρμα ‘a hide.’ And we ourselves have the familiar phrase of ‘giving ahiding.’ But purification as well as punishment was found at the heavenlymesqȧt. It is mentioned in the Harris Magical papyrus[6, 3] simply as a heavenly thing. In the more recent scholia the purifier is said to be Anubis, who is behind the chest containing the remains of Osiris.

After the scholion which has just been translated the early texts pass on to the 18th chapter.

For the rest of the chapter we are compelled to follow the texts of the papyri. The character of this portion differs considerably from the former part, and is clearly an addition. The speakers rapidly succeed each other. “I am Tmu,” “I am Isis,” “I was conceived by Isis,” “Isis destroyeth what in me is wrong,” and finally “I am Uat’it.”

21.Cher-âbat and Heliopolis like all the localities here mentioned are in heaven not upon earth.

22.Uat’it is literally ‘the pale one,’ a name of the Dawn. But here the fiery dawn is spoken of, ἠώς φλογερά, πυρίβρομος.

23.Hemen⁂⁂⁂is a divinity seldom, if ever, mentioned after the “Middle Empire.” In the Pyramid texts he has a Snake (the River) in his hand.

24.The last line of the chapter has suffered in all the best papyri. See M. Naville’s collation. In the papyrus of Ani the chapter is unfinished. The later papyri end the chapter by saying that “it has been granted to the speaker by those who are in Tattu to destroy by fire the souls of his adversaries.” This consummation is already found inLa.

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