The Egyptian Book of the dead
take this as representing the second person singular. ⁂⁂, the
person _at rest_ (Osiris) is the one invoked, and is here translated by
the vocative.
2. The words which follow are evidently the words of Osiris and those
attached to him, which are addressed to the deceased and are repeated by
him. The text here, as indeed everywhere, is very corrupt.
3. _Thrown open_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂. I have explained the sense of the
verb ⁂ _mes_ (_Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch._, 1882, p. 70) as _stretching
out_, of which notion ⁂ is the determinative. ⁂⁂⁂ is =
⁂⁂ × ⁂. _Mesi uat_ is ‘pandatur via.’
-----
Footnote 91:
The Egyptian _ka_.
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CHAPTER XCIII.
_Chapter whereby one avoideth being conveyed to the East in the
Netherworld._
Oh thou Phallus of Rā, who fliest from the storm, disablement ariseth
from Baba who useth against me might beyond the mighty and power beyond
the powerful.
If I am conveyed away, if I am carried off to the East; if all evil and
injurious things of a feast day of fiends are perpetrated upon me
through the waving of the Two Horns, then shall be devoured the Phallus
of Rā and the Head of Osiris.
And should I be led to the fields wherein the gods destroy him who
answereth them, then shall the horns of Chepera be twisted back, then
shall blindness(1.) arise in the eyes of Tmu and destruction,(2.)
through the seizure of me, and through my being carried off to the East,
through there being made over me a feast day of the fiends, through all
the murderous work perpetrated upon me.(3.)
NOTES.
This chapter contains one of those threats (of which there are other
instances) made to the gods. The speaker is in fact so identified with
divinity that any evil which happens to him must be conceived as
involving the same calamity to the gods and to the universe.
There is a very considerable difference between the earlier and the
later texts. There is very great confusion in the text of the Turin
_Todtenbuch_ as compared with that of the Cadet papyrus.
1. _Blindness_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂ in the earlier and ⁂⁂ in the
later texts. The latter form, which has for determinative pearls or
globules of some kind, reminds one of the disease formerly called _gutta
serena_.
2. _Destruction_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. But this word is written in
different ways in the papyri. With ⁂ as a suffix it would mean ‘my
destroyer.’ _Ca_ gives ⁂ as a determinative, and thus creates a god
_Hetmu_, or at least a name punning upon that of Tmu, to which it is
united.
3. The more recent texts, like those of the Turin _Todtenbuch_, insert a
negative particle before the mention of each disaster. They pray that
the Phallus of Rā may _not_ be devoured, that the blindness may _not_
come upon Tmu, and so on.
------------------------------------
CHAPTER XCIV.
_Chapter whereby one prayeth for a Palette and an Inkstand._
Oh mighty one, who seest thy father, and who hast charge of the Book of
Thoth.
Here am I, I come and am glorified and filled with Soul and Power and
provided with the writings of Thoth, which I bring in order to purify
the tunnel which is in Sutu.(1.) I bring the Palette and I bring the
Inkstand as the instruments of Thoth, the secrets of which are divine.
Here am I, as the Scribe; I bring the remains of Osiris;(2.) and the
writing which I have made upon them is decreed by the great god to be
good, daily, among the good. Thou hast decreed, Horus of the Two
Horizons, that I shall be the author of Maāt and tend(3.) it daily to
Rā.
NOTES.
1. _In Sutu_; that is, in Darkness. _See_ chapter 96.
2. The _remains_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂. This word, though commonly applied
to corruption and impurity of dead matter, is taken in an inoffensive
sense when applied to the gods. Compare, _e.g._, _Pepi I_, line 477 and
following.
3. _Tend_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂ _mesi_ (not _sebi_) stretch out, _pandere_,
_protendere_.
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CHAPTER XCV.
_Chapter whereby is opened the place wherein Thoth resteth._
I am the Dread one(1.) in Storm, who guard the Great one(2.) against
assault.
I smite like the Flint-god: I sprinkle like the Sprinkling-god.(3.)
I am the protection(4.) of the Great one against assault and I give
vigour to the sword which is in the hand of Thoth(5.) in the storm.
NOTES.
The papyrus _Ad_ gives this chapter the title of “assuming the form of
the Smen-goose,” and Dr. Birch published the text of this papyrus in the
_Zeitschrift_ of 1869 (p. 25) as one of those additional chapters which
“do not occur in the Ritual of Turin.” This is of course an error of
oversight. This chapter is in the Turin _Todtenbuch_, and the papyrus
_Ad_ merely gives it under an erroneous title, which was evidently meant
for another text.
1. _The Dread one_, ⁂⁂⁂. Instead of this _Ad_ has
⁂⁂⁂, which I cannot regard otherwise than as a simple blunder
of the scribe. ⁂ is a well known anaglyph in certain scenes, but
there is no evidence of its being a variant of the name of Chnemu.
2. Two of the ancient papyri _Ca_ and _Ad_ read _Horus_, the others have
the _Great goddess_, and so has _Ad_ in the next line. The more recent
texts have (not _urit_, ‘the great one,’ but) _urerit_, ‘the crown.’
3. _The Sprinkling god_ ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ _Aashu_. This god is
mentioned but once in the Book of the Dead, and his name is here
interpreted conjecturally in consequence of the function assigned to him
and of the not unlike word ⁂⁂ _ȧš_ ‘spit.’
4. _Protection._ I read ⁂ instead of ⁂ in the early papyri.
5. _Thoth._ The recent texts have _Chepera_, an evident error. The
allusion is to the storm or distress from which Thoth rescues the Eye of
Horus.
------------------------------------
CHAPTER XCVI.
_Chapter whereby is opened [the place] where Thoth [resteth]._
I am he who dwelleth in the middle of his own Eye. I have come that I
may deliver Maāt to Rā, and may propitiate Sutu with the libations for
Akar and the red victims of the Faithful of Seb.
------------------------------------
CHAPTER XCVII.
_Said at the Bark_: Staff of Anubis, may I propitiate those four
Glorified ones who follow after the Master of [all] things.
I am the Master of the champaign at their behest, and I am the Father of
the inundation, when he who hath charge of the canals is athirst.
Look therefore upon me, oh ye great and mighty gods, who are foremost
among the Spirits of Annu; let me be exalted in your presence. I am a
well-doer towards you. Lo I come, that I may purify this Soul of mine in
the most high degree; let not that impediment proceeding from your mouth
be issued against me which giveth one over to ruin: let me be purified
in the lake of propitiation and of equipoise: let me plunge into the
divine pool beneath the two divine sycomores of Heaven and Earth.
Now let my Fold be fitted for me as one victorious against all
adversaries who would not that right should be done to me.
I am the Only one; just and true upon the Earth. It is I who say it.
* * * * *
NOTES.
Chapters 96 and 97 are really but one chapter, which M. Naville has
found in only two MSS. of the early period. The end of what Lepsius
calls chapter 97 is hopelessly corrupt. On comparing the three copies
given by M. Naville (two of them being from the papyrus of Nebseni) it
will be seen how impossible it is to restore a grammatical text out of
such discordant materials. The difficulty is not removed by having
recourse to the papyri of a later period.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PLATE XXV.
BOOK OF THE DEAD.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PLATE XXVI
BOOK OF THE DEAD.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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CHAPTER XCVIII.
_Chapter whereby one saileth a ship in the Netherworld._
Oh thou Leg in the Northern Sky,(1.) and in that most conspicuous but
inaccessible Stream; I rise up and come to light as a god, I am
conspicuous but inaccessible.
I rise up and live, and bring myself to light as a god.
I cackle even as the Smen-goose, but I stoop(2.) like the Hawk at the
nets of the Great Fowler.
I sail across the Sky, and Shu standeth erect and the Achmiu Stars(3.)
are instantly active in raising the ladder which lifts the Setting Stars
away from destruction.(4.)
And I bear that which repelleth mischief as I make my voyage over the
Leg of Ptah.
I come from the Lake of Flame, from the Lake of Fire, and from the Field
of Flame, and I live....
I stand erect in the Bark which the god is piloting ... at the head of
Aarru,(5.) and the Achmiu Stars open to me ... and my fellow
citizens(6.) present to me the sacred cakes with flesh.
NOTES.
There is but one papyrus of the older period which contains any portion
of this chapter, and it does so very imperfectly.
On referring to M. Naville’s edition it will be seen that not only the
title but the greater part of the chapter is destroyed. The later copies
have texts so different from the original form, that it is unsafe to
attempt a restoration except within very strict limits.
It is absurd to attempt a translation from a mixture of divergent and,
at the same time, incorrect texts.
1. See note to chapter 74. The _Stream_ which is so conspicuous but
cannot be reached is the Milky Way, and the _Leg_ is the constellation
Cassiopeia in the Northern Sky.
2. _Stoop_, ⁂⁂⁂. This comparison occurs repeatedly in the
Pyramid Texts, and others of the early periods.
3. _Achmiu Stars_ ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ so _Ab_, giving another
proof that the word is to be taken as a _noun_, and not as a _negative_.
4. See chapter 30A, on “The Crocodile of the West who lives on the
Setting Stars.”
5. So _Ab_, but perhaps wrongly. I dare not fill up the lacunæ of this
text.
6. _Fellow-citizens._ The translation here is necessarily conjectural.
But I understand by _fellow-citizens_ (συμπολῖται) the dwellers of that
_city_ of which the deceased says, in chapter 17, “I arrive at my own
city, ⁂⁂.”[92] And this _city_ is explained by the ancient