The Egyptian Book of the dead
O Bull of Amenta! let me be borne to thee!
I am that Rudder of Râ, wherewith he conveyeth the Ancient(1.) ones.
I am not burnt, I am not consumed.
I am Babai, the eldest son of Osiris, who striketh the eye of every
god(2.) in Heliopolis.
I am the Heir, the primary power of motion and of rest(3.).
I have made firm my name, and have preserved it that I may have life
through it.
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CHAPTER LXIIIB.
_Chapter whereby one is not boiled in water._
I am that ready Rudder wherewith Râ conveyeth the Ancient ones, and I
raise the effluxes(4.) of Osiris to the Tank from flames impassable; a
wrecked one,(5.) but not to be consumed.
I lie helpless as a dead person,(6.) and I arrive at the lair of the
Lion who defieth slaughter, ...(7.) following the road by which I set
out.
NOTES.
The Chapters 63A and 63B are united into one in the later MSS. without
any other division than ⁂, indicative of a different reading. None
of the early papyri contains both chapters. The text of 63B is extremely
corrupt, and without rational interpretation.
1. _I am that Rudder of Râ, wherewith he conveyeth the Ancient ones._
This passage is twice found in Horhotep (311 and 329), the word for
Rudder being written ⁂⁂⁂⁂.
2. _Who striketh the eye_, ⁂⁂⁂. The peaceful determinative may
perhaps be intended to diminish the force of the very expressive ⁂ in
the verb of striking. But I believe that this passage may fairly be
illustrated by the words of Lucretius IV, 324 and following:—
Splendida porro oculi fugitant vitantque tueri,
Sol etiam caecat, contra si tendere pergas.
Praeterea splendor quicumque est acer adurit
Saepe oculos ideo quod semina possidet ignis
Multa, dolorem oculis quae gignunt insinuando.
3. _The primary power of motion and of rest._ These words have a
modern sound, but they express the sense of the original,
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.
4. _Effluxes_, ⁂⁂⁂, the ἰχώρ, the vital _sap_, as it were, of
the body of Osiris, which is the source of life both to men and to
gods,[71] and in default of which his own heart (Unas 12) would cease to
beat. It is celebrated in all the mythological texts extant from the
time of the Pyramids down to the latest inscriptions of Denderah and
Edfu, and even in Demotic documents.[72] All moisture was supposed to
proceed from it, and the Nile was naturally identified with it.
In the Pyramid texts (Pepi 66) ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ is put
in parallelism with ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.
5. _A wrecked one._ So I understand ⁂ from Chapter 125, 38, but the
whole context here is so doubtful that no translator who respects
himself would warrant the sense.
6. _I lie helpless like a dead person._ ⁂⁂⁂, _ḥefṭ_ is the
condition of an infant on the knees of its nurse. And I understand
⁂⁂⁂ in its well known euphemistic application to the dead.
7. ⁂⁂⁂ is the most probable reading here, but it is a
_hapax legomenon_ with nothing in the context to explain it.
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Footnote 71:
In one of the ancient chapters preserved in the tomb of Horhotep, the
deceased, speaking in the person of Horus, talks (319) of quenching
his thirst with the ⁂⁂⁂ of his father Osiris.
Footnote 72:
See a very interesting passage in _Pap. Rhind_ 4, 4, with Brugsch’s
translation.
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CHAPTER LXIV.
_Chapter whereby one cometh forth by day from the Netherworld._
I am Yesterday, To-day, and To-morrow, for I am born again and again;
mine is the unseen Force,(1.) which createth the gods and giveth food to
those in the Tuat(2.) at the West of Heaven; I am the Eastern
Rudder,(3.) the Lord of Two Faces, who seeth by his own light; the Lord
of Resurrections, who cometh forth from the dusk and whose birth is from
the House of Death.
Ye two divine Hawks(4.) upon your gables, who are giving attentive heed
to the matter; ye who accompany the bier to the tomb, and who conduct
the ship of Râ, advancing onwards from the highest place of the Ark in
heaven—the Lord of the Shrine(5.) which standeth in the centre of the
Earth;
He is I, and I am He.(6.)
Mine is the radiance in which Ptah floateth over his firmament.(7.)
Oh Râ, who smileth cheerfully, and whose heart is delighted with the
perfect order of this day as thou enterest into Heaven and comest forth
in the East: the Ancients and those who are gone before acclaim thee.
Let thy paths be made pleasant for me; let thy ways be made wide for me
to traverse the earth and the expanse of Heaven.
Shine thou upon me, oh gracious Power;(8.) as I draw nigh to the divine
words which my ears shall hear in the Tuat; let no pollution of my
mother be upon me; deliver me, protect me from him who closeth his eyes
at twilight and bringeth to an end in darkness.
I am the Overflower, and Kam-ura(9.) is my name: I bring to its
fulness(10.) the Force which is hidden within me.
Oh thou Great One, who art Shoreless,(11.) and callest upon the Powers
of the South, at the moment when the god is carried forth, saying:—
“Behold the Lord of his Flood; see, the Shoulder is fastened(12.) upon
his neck and the Haunch upon the head of the West” offerings which the
two goddesses of the West(13.) present to me when the weeping bursteth
forth from me at what I witness, as I am borne round on the Tenait in
Abydos,(14.) and the bolts made fast on the gateways(15.) above your
images are in the reach of thine hand and from within thee.
Thy face is as that of a hound whose nostril sniffeth at the covert to
which my feet convey me.
Anubis is my bearer, for he who lulleth me to rest(16.) is the god in
Lion form.
Do thou save me!
I am He who cometh forth as one who breaketh through the door; and
everlasting is the Daylight which his will hath created.
“I know the deep waters” is my name.
I satisfy the desires of the Glorified, who are by millions and hundreds
of thousands....[73] I am the guardian of their interests, actively
working at the hours of the day and adjusting the arms of Sahu; twelve
in circling round, uniting hands, each of them with another. But the
sixth of them in the Tuat is the ‘Hour of the overthrow of the Sebau,’
which cometh here in triumph; the same which maketh way into the Tuat;
the same which is yoked with Shu.
I shine forth as the Lord of Life and the glorious order of this day:
the blood which purifieth and the vigorous sword-strokes by which the
Earth is made one.
I sever the horns(17.) from those who unite in resistance to me; the
hidden ones who rise up in opposition against me; those who go upon
their bellies.
I come as the ambassador of the Lord of lords to avenge the cause of
Osiris in this place. Let not[74] the Eye consume its tears.
I am the Guide of the house of Him who dwelleth in his treasures.
I am come from Sechem to Heliopolis to inform the Bennu of the matters
of the Tuat.
Oh goddess Aucherit, who concealest that is within thee, but raisest up
forms, like Chepera, grant that I may come forth and see the orb of the
sun, and walk forth in the presence of the great god, who is Shu and
abideth for eternity.
I travel on high, I tread upon the firmament, I raise a flame with the
daylight which mine eye hath made, and I fly forward towards the
splendours of the Glorified in presence of Râ daily, giving life to
every man who treadeth on the lands(18.) which are upon the earth.
Oh thou who leapest forth, conductor of the Shades and Glorified ones
from the Earth, let the fair path to the Tuat be granted to me, which is
made in behalf of those who are in faint condition and for the
restoration of those who are in pain.
Who art thou, who devourest in Amenta?
I am He who presideth in Restau. “He who entereth in his own name, and
cometh forth in quest; the Lord of the Eternity of the Earth” is my
name.
She who hath conceived hath set down her burden; _which turneth round
before descending; the door is shut at the wall which is
reversed_....[75]
His Eye hath been given to Horus and his face brighteneth at the dawning
of the day.
I am not exhausted: I become the Lion god and the palm flowers of Shu
are upon me.
I am not one who drowneth.
Blessed are they who see(19.) the Bourne:(20.) beautiful is the god of
the motionless heart who causeth the stay of the Overflowing.
Behold! there cometh forth the Lord of Life, Osiris thy support, who
abideth day after day.
I embrace the Sycomore,(21.) I am united to the Sycomore.
I part the two deities of morning that I may come to hold the Eye,(22.)
and cause it to rest in its place.
I am come to see Râ at his setting, and I unite with the breeze at his
coming forth: my two hands are pure for adoring him.
May I be restored! May I be restored!
I fly up to heaven and I alight upon the earth; and mine eye turneth
back there towards the traces of my footsteps.
I am the offspring of Yesterday; the tunnels(23.) of the earth have
given me birth, and I am revealed at my appointed time.
May I be under shelter from the warlike handed god who cometh behind me,
may my flesh be sound and may my glories be a protection to the limbs of
one who waiteth for the purpose of taking counsel. May the Cycle of the
gods listen to what I say.
_To be said on coming forth by day; that one may not be kept back on the
path of the Tuat, whether on entering or on coming forth; for taking all
the forms which one desireth; and that the soul of the person die not a
second time._
_If then this chapter be known the person is made triumphant upon earth
[and in the Netherworld] and he performeth all things which are done by
the living._
_This chapter was discovered on a plinth of the god of the Hennu Bark_
(24.) _by a master builder of the wall in the time of King Septa, the
Victorious._(25.)
_This composition is a secret; not to be seen or looked at._
_Recite the chapter when sanctified and pure; not approaching women, not
eating goat’s flesh or fish._
NOTES.
This is one of the most important as it is one of the most ancient
chapters. The text of it was already doubtful at the time of the XIth
dynasty. It had been handed down in two recensions, both of which were
inscribed on the coffin of Queen Mentuhotep, the discovery of one of
these being attributed to the time of King Septa of the 1st dynasty, and
that of the second to the time of Menkaurâ, the king of the third
pyramid. These two recensions are also found in the papyrus of Nebseni.
The MSS. present innumerable various readings, few of which are of the
slightest value. These have been collected, as far as they could be
discovered, in the French and some other Museums in 1876, in a very
admirable work upon the chapter, by M. Paul Guieysse,[76] who has
translated and commented upon it and and all the variations of it known
to him at the time. Since then the papyrus of Nebseni has been
published, and M. Naville has given all the variants found in the few
existing papyri of the best period. I have notes of the readings of the
papyri in the British Museum, and also those of a cast (now in the
British Museum) taken from a block in serpentine, belonging to the
Museum of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.
With such light as could be derived from these extremely divergent
authorities I have done my best (taking as the basis of my translation
the texts in the papyrus of Nebseni and the rubric in which the
discovery is ascribed to the time of king Septa) towards exhibiting the
chapter in as intelligible a form as seems to me possible. Some passages
as yet defy translation in consequence of the corruption of the text.