The Egyptian Book of the dead
_ḥti_ in _Aa_. A discrepancy not less violent is encountered after the
next three words. The oldest extant form of the chapter is that of _Aa_,
the papyrus of Nebseni; it is also the shortest, and the other forms
appear to me to exhibit signs of interpolation. But M. Naville was quite
right in taking the text of _Ca_ as his basis for the collation of the
texts.
1. This whole passage, as it stands, in the MSS. is extremely obscure,
and I can only make sense of it by conjecturing that a preposition has
been omitted by the copyists.
The knees of a goddess are frequently mentioned in connection with the
birth of a divinity. Here the Babe is mentioned (_cf._ opening of
Chapter 42), and the closing of the knees. The word _ānḫ_, ‘live,’ has
for its primitive meaning ‘rise up,’ and it is in this sense that I
translate it here.
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CHAPTER LXVI.
_Chapter whereby one cometh forth by day._
I know that I have been conceived by Sechit and that I am born of Neith.
I am Horus, who proceedeth from the Eye of Horus; I am Uat’it, and I
come forth like the Hawk which soareth aloft and resteth upon the brow
of Rā at the prow of his Bark in Heaven.
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CHAPTER LXVII.
_Chapter whereby the doors of the Tuat are opened and one cometh forth
by day._
Let the doors be opened of the caverns of Nu, and let the feet be
loosened of those who are in glory.
Let the caverns of Shu be opened, that he may come forth at large, and
that I may issue from my funereal pit to my seat which is at the prow of
the Bark of Rā; let me issue without disaster to my seat which is at the
prow of the Bark of Rā, the all-radiant one, as he riseth up from his
lair.
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CHAPTER LXVIII.
_Chapter whereby one cometh forth by day._
Let the two doors of Heaven be opened to me: let the two doors of Earth
be opened to me: let the bolts of Seb open to me, and let the First
Mansion be opened to me, that he may behold me who hath kept guard over
me: and let him unloose me who hath wound his arms around me and hath
fastened his arms upon me into the earth.
Let the Re-hunit(1.) be opened to me, let me pass into the Re-hunit; let
the Re-hunit be given to me, that I may come forth by day whithersoever
my heart desireth.
Let me have possession of my heart, let me have possession of my Whole
heart; let me have possession of my mouth, let me have possession of my
legs, let me have possession of my arms, let me have possession of my
limbs absolutely; let me have possession of my funereal meals, let me
have possession of air, let me have possession of water, let me have
possession of the stream, let me have possession of the river, let me
have possession of the banks.
Let me have possession of all things soever which were ritually offered
for me in the Netherworld. Let me have possession of the table which was
made for me upon earth—the solicitations(2.) which were uttered for me
“that he may feed upon the bread of Seb.”
That which I execrate, I eat it not. Let me feed upon the bread of the
red corn of the Nile in a pure place, let me sip beer of the red corn of
the Nile in a pure place; let me sit under the branches of the palm
trees [in Heliopolis] in the train of Hathor, when the solar orb
broadeneth(3.), as she proceedeth to Heliopolis with the writings of the
divine words of the Book of Thoth.
Let me have possession of my heart, let me have possession of my Whole
heart; let me have possession of my arms, let me have possession of my
legs, let me have possession of my funereal meals, let me have
possession of air, let me have possession of water, let me have
possession of the stream, let me have possession of the river, let me
have possession of the barks.
Let me have possession of all things soever which were ritually offered
for me in the Netherworld. Let me have possession of the table which was
made for me upon earth.
Let me be raised up on the left and on the right; let me be raised up on
the right and on the left.
Let me sit down and let me stand up, and strain for the breeze [with] my
tongue and mouth like a skilled pilot.(4.)
_If this scripture is known, he will come forth by day and he will
travel over the earth in the midst of the living, uninjured for ever._
NOTES.
Copies of this chapter are found on the coffins of Mentuhotep and
Sebak-āa at Berlin, and have been published by Lepsius in his _Aelteste
Texte_, pl. 8, 21, 22, and 34. They are unfortunately in very mutilated
condition, and my translation follows the text of the Theban papyri.
1. The _Re-ḥunit_ in this place is clearly not an Egyptian locality, but
a passage between the Netherworld and heaven or earth.
2. _Solicitations_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ _ambire_, _ambitio_, and in a
bad sense _ambages_.
3. This passage explains what is meant in Chapter 28 by the _god of the
Broad Face_. One of the papyri (_Ia_) adds the well known epithet of the
setting sun ⁂⁂ ‘old.’
It is Hathor who proceeds to Heliopolis, as the feminine suffix which is
used in the oldest texts, proves.
4. M. Lefébure (Papyrus de Soutimès, p. 3, note 8) understands the
passage as meaning “_I seek_ the direction of _the wind_ in order to
avoid it.” But I am inclined to recognize a superstition still current
among sailors, the “whistling for a breeze.”
The oldest copies and the more recent ones have different readings, and
though the words _uḫa ḫemu_ occur repeatedly in the Pyramid Texts, the
second word is not written ⁂⁂⁂⁂, as in the Theban papyri,
but ⁂⁂⁂⁂.
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CHAPTER LXIX.
_Otherwise said_:
I am a Flaming One, and brother to a Flaming One.
I am Osiris, brother to Isis. He who avengeth me is my son Horus, in
company with his mother, upon mine adversaries; adversaries who have
done to me all wicked and evil things.
Chains have been put upon their arms and hands and feet in consequence
of the evil things which they have done to me.
I am Osiris, the eldest of the great cycle of the gods(1.) and heir of
his father Seb.
I am Osiris, the Lord of the heads of life; powerful before and behind;
his phallus extendeth to the limits of the human race.[81]
I am Sahu, who assigneth the bounds as he saileth round the starry
throng of Heaven, the body of my mother Nut, who conceived me at her
will and brought me forth at her desire.
I am Anubis on the day of the Rending asunder.
I am the Bull in the Field; I, even I, Osiris, who shut up his father
and his mother on the day when the great slaughter took place. My father
is Seb and my mother is Nut.
I am Horus, the eldest of Rā as he riseth.
I am Anubis on the day of Rending asunder: I am Osiris.
O great One, who enterest and speakest to him who presenteth the tablets
and guardeth the door of Osiris,(2.) grant that I may come in and be
glorified, let me be appraised, and let me be made vigorous, that I may
come and avenge myself.
Let me sit at the cradle(3.) of Osiris, and put an end to my suffering
and pain; let me be made strong and vigorous at the cradle of Osiris, so
that I may be born with him and renewed. _Said twice._
Let me seize that Thigh(4.) which is under the place of Osiris, with
which I may open the mouth of the gods and sit by him, like Thoth the
Scribe, sound of heart,(5.) with thousands of loaves, beer, beef, and
fowl upon the table of my father, and the flesh of oxen and birds of
various kinds,(6.) which I offer to Horus, which I present to Thoth, and
which I sacrifice to the Lord of Heaven.
-----
Footnote 81:
_Cf._ note on the _Ass_ of Chapter 40.
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CHAPTER LXX.
_Another Chapter._
I have come to an end(7.) for the Lord of Heaven. I am written down as
sound of heart, and I rest at the table of my father Osiris, King of
Tattu, and my heart is stirred by his country. I breathe the eastern
breeze by its hair(8.); I grasp the north wind by its side lock; I grasp
the south wind by the skin as I make the circuit of heaven on its four
sides; I seize the east wind by the skin, and I give the breezes to the
faithful dead amid those who eat bread.
_If this scripture is known upon earth he will come forth by day, he
will walk upon earth amid the living: his name will be uninjured for
ever._
ce NOTES TO CHAPTERS LXIX AND LXX.
These last two chapters are always found together, and always appended
to the ancient Chapter 68. This is the case not only in the papyri, but
in tombs like that of Bakenrenef.
1. The later texts say “the eldest of the five gods.”
2. _Who presenteth the tablets and guardeth the door of Osiris._ See
picture of Thoth in the Psychostasia.
3. Where Osiris renews his birth.
4. _The Thigh._ The iron instrument so called used in the ceremony of
‘Opening the mouth’ of the deceased.
5. _Sound of heart_ implies that the conscience of the deceased has been
recognized as blameless.
6. _Oxen and birds of various kinds._ These kinds are named in the text,
but we have no corresponding European names.
7. _I have come to an end._ The first two words of this chapter are
evidently copied from the end of the last, but instead of _menḥu_,
‘sacrificial slaughter,’ the notion of _menȧ_ or _meni_ ‘coming to an
end,’ has been substituted. Later texts read “I do _not_ come to an
end.”
8. _Its hair._ All this paragraph sounds very strangely, and translators
are tempted to understand that the _hair_, _side-lock_, and _skin_ of
the deceased are acted upon by the winds.[82] But the feminine suffix
shows that the converse is the case. The speaker catches the air and
distributes it, as we are afterwards told, to the faithful departed.
-----
Footnote 82:
But we “catch Time by the forelock,” and so did the Greeks.
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CHAPTER LXXI.
_Chapter whereby one cometh forth by day._(1.)
O Divine Hawk, who comest forth in Heaven, Lord of Mehurit.(2.)
Make thou me sound,(3.) even as thou hast made thyself sound, who
revealest thyself,(4.) who disrobest thyself, and presentest thyself to
the Earth.
May his will towards me be done by the Lord of the Lord of the One
Face(5.).
I am the Hawk in the Tabernacle and I pierce through [that which is
upon] the Vail.(6.)
Here is Horus, the Son of Isis: Horus the Son of Isis.
Make thou me sound, even as thou hast made thyself sound, who revealest
thyself, who disrobest thyself, and presentest thyself to the Earth.
May his will towards me be done by the Lord of the One Face.
I am the Hawk in the Southern Heaven, and Thoth in the Northern Heaven,
who appease the Flame when raging and who convey Law to the god who
loveth it.
Here is Thoth: Thoth.
Make thou me sound, even as thou hast made thyself sound, who revealest
thyself, who disrobest thyself, and presentest thyself to the Earth.
May his will towards me be done by the Lord of the One Face.
I am Unbu of En-areref, the Flower of the Abode of Occultation.
Here is Osiris: Osiris.
Make thou me sound, even as thou hast made thyself sound, who revealest
thyself, who disrobest thyself, and presentest thyself to the Earth.
May his will towards me be done by the Lord of the One Face.
O thou who art upon thy two legs [_or_ who art terrible upon thy two