The Egyptian Book of the dead
=Isle of Corn and Barley=, divine district, I arrive in thee. I
encounter and I bear off that which proceedeth from the head of Rā: the
pair of horns which have the force of purification.(19.)
I make myself fast to the Block of Moorage on the heavenly stream, and I
utter my praise to the gods who are in the Garden of Hotepit.
NOTES.
The text of this chapter handed down by the Turin papyrus and those
which agree with it contains nothing very difficult for a translator,
but on being compared with the older copies it is found to consist of a
collection of small fragments of the older text put together without any
regard to their original order or context. And about three-quarters of
the old chapter are suppressed in the new recension.
The editors of the fine papyrus of Sutimes in their notes upon this
chapter remark, that in the Turin text the sentences are in quite a
different order from that of their papyrus, “On peut y voir,” they say,
“l’effet de lectures et de transcriptions en rebours du sens, par des
scribes ayant mal compris les éditions en colonnes rétrogrades.”
This is, curiously enough, the very fault of the papyrus of Sutimes
itself, which is here wrong from beginning to end,[98] though probably
derived from an excellent original. It begins with the “Isle of Corn and
Barley,” and jumbles together quite incoherent sentences.
The oldest copy of the chapter yet discovered is that of the Tomb of
Chā-em-hait, at Thebes, and by a strange fatality it has been published
in such a form that in order to read it correctly, we must begin with
what is printed as line 11 and finish with line 1. We have it also in a
very incomplete condition. We miss the first eighteen lines contained in
the papyrus of Nebseni and the last words of every line.
The papyrus of Nebseni is the only complete text we have, and here as
well as elsewhere it is extremely incorrect. Some parts are so corrupt
that a translation must necessarily be dependent upon conjectural
emendations which can have no genuine claim upon the reader’s
confidence. We must be content with waiting till better authorities are
discovered.
The Gardens of Hotepit and Aarru are the Paradise, Elysian Fields and
Islands of the Blessed of the Egyptian imagination.[99] They were
supposed to be situated in the neighbourhood of the rising Sun, but
certain features were apparently suggested by the islets of the Delta.
The usual meaning of the word _Ḥotepit_, ⁂⁂,[100] when written
according to the orthography of the Pyramid Texts, is _oblations_,
_offerings_. This, however, is only a derived meaning. The word really
only expresses a _predicate_ of the things offered, as _putting
together_, _uniting_, _reconciling_; ⁂ _Ḥotep_ might signify _Rest_,
or _Peace_; very appropriate names for such a garden. ⁂⁂ is the
name of a god who dwells here.[101] There is also a goddess here called
_Ḥotepit_ ⁂⁂⁂, mentioned in the Pyramid inscription of Pepi I
(line 423), as mother of the great Scarab: and the same name is given to
Hathor in the temple of Dendera. The name of Ḥotep (with different
determinatives[102]) belongs to one of the islands of this blissful
place.
The Pyramid Texts furnish some interesting information not contained in
the Book of the Dead. We are told that the approach to the Garden is
over the Lake of Putrata (see chapter 40, note 1), that there is a great
lake (? that of Konsit) in the middle of the Garden of Ḥotepit, upon
which the great gods alight, and that the _Achmiu Sekiu_, the starry
deities who never set, there feed the departed from the _wood of life_
(⁂⁂⁂⁂ _lignum vitæ_) “upon which they themselves live, in
order that he too may live.” Shu and Tefnut are mentioned as divinities
of this place. But perhaps the most remarkable fact is that Horus had
enemies even here, who, however, were annihilated by the divine weapons
at the disposal of the departed worthy, who was led there in order that
“he might sit among the stars in heaven.”
And here it was that the beatified personage sat upon his throne of
steel, which was decorated in front with faces of the lion-god
⁂⁂⁂⁂ _Maaḥes_, the feet of it being the hoofs of the great
Bull _Sma-urà_, and extended his hand to the coming generation of men
(the ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂), whilst the gods approached him in
submissive attitude, and made offerings to him. It was, perhaps, from
these offerings that the Garden derived its name.
The Garden of Aarru, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ is often mentioned
in connection with that of Ḥotepit, and may perhaps be considered as the
most notable part of it. It is through its Gate that the Sun-god rises
up into Heaven.
It takes its name from a plant ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ _ȧarru_ (later,
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, B.M. 551; ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, _Ag_,
Chapter 17; ⁂⁂⁂⁂,[103] _Ba_, Chapter 110, by phonetic
dissimilation of _rr_ into _nr_). The usual form in later times is
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, but we find even shorter forms in ⁂⁂,
B.M. 32, and ⁂⁂⁂. The determinative ⁂ of a reptile,
indicates a _creeping_, _climbing_, _twining_ plant, such as the
convolvulus, hop, or vine.[104]
The term ‘Garden’ implies in this connection nothing more than a
cultivated enclosure.
The names of different localities which are invoked by the deceased and
appear on the vignette of the chapter, have here been made prominent by
means of heavy type.
1. _Rise in Hotepit_, or (later on) _Hotep_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂ is the
name of one of the localities. The word ⁂ as I have often said, has
the sense of _rising up_, _coming to light_, _making an appearance_, and
like the Greek φαίνομαι is especially applicable to the appearance of
daybreak, or the rise of the heavenly bodies.
2. _Turning_, ⁂. The group has the apparent sense of _building_, but
the primitive sense is _turning_, as in the making of pottery. The
preposition ⁂ which follows it in this place seems to show that
building is not meant.
3. This, of course, sounds like nonsense, but so does the original as it
has come down to us. The papyrus of Ani, which reads ⁂⁂⁂,
forces the sense of _day_ upon the sign ⁂, which in the sense of
_turn_ would have been far more intelligible. There was the ‘Portion of
Sutu,’ and the ‘Portion of Horus,’ each being half the world,
topographically, or half the twenty-four hours as regards time.
I suspect that ‘day’ is a faulty interpretation of the ambiguous ⁂,
and that the true sense of the passage is that Sutu is satisfied with
the share which comes to his turn, and thereupon delivers Horus from
imprisonment in the lower world. The perplexity, or ignorance of the
copyists is seen in the very next words. One has ‘he who is in Merit,’
others ‘he who is in my mouth,’ and two ‘he who is in the egg,’ if this
be the sense of the very questionable group ⁂⁂⁂⁂, which
looks like a mistake for ⁂⁂⁂, a well known title of Anubis.
4. _Again and again renewed_ ⁂⁂⁂⁂.
5. _His papyrus._ So the word ⁂ _meḥit_, which occurs in the rubric
of Chapter 134, has hitherto been translated. But the vases ⁂ or
⁂, as determinatives, rather imply ‘inkstand’ or ‘palette for
holding colour.’ In this place it is the writing itself and not the
material, paper, ink or inkstand, which is meant. And from the entire
context Thoth is the god who is spoken of.
6. _He reconcileth the two Warrior gods with each other_,
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. The final
words _en ȧru-sen_ show the origin of the Coptic form ⲛ̀ ... ⲉⲣⲏⲟⲩ
_invicem_.
7. _Grind_ ⁂⁂⁂, the Coptic from of which is ⲥⲓⲕⲓ. From the
notion of ‘reducing to powder,’ that of the frequent word ⁂⁂⁂
‘wearing away,’ ‘decay,’ is derived.
8. _Let my arteries be made fast, and let me have the enjoyment of the
Breeze_, or _that I may have enjoyment_. The oldest meaning of the word
_artery_, ἀρτηρία, in Hippocrates, Aristotle and the earlier Latin
writers is _wind-pipe_, and, in the plural, _air-ducts_. But, even when
the word was also applied to what we call arteries, these were supposed
to convey _air_ whilst the veins conveyed _blood_. “Sanguis per venas in
omne corpus diffunditur et spiritus per arterias” is the classic
doctrine in Cicero (_de Natura Deorum_, 2, 55). Pliny says (_Nat.
Hist._, XI, 89), “arteriae carent sensu: nam et sanguine.” This error is
corrected by Galen, who has a treatise on the question “Whether Blood is
_naturally_ (κὰτα φύσιν) contained in the arteries?” The error of the
ancients arose from the arteries always being found empty after death.
The blood flowing from a wound inflicted upon them was inferred to have
been intruded into them by the rupture of the veins. The Egyptian
doctrine of the ‘arteries’ ⁂⁂⁂ (Coptic ϩⲁⲛⲙⲟⲩⲧ) in the head,
by means of which air is conveyed to all parts of the person, was first
found by M. Chabas in the _Berlin Medical papyrus_. The passage of the
Book of the Dead on which this note is written is no doubt the earliest
allusion to the doctrine.
9. _Hesit_ [_the Cow-goddess_] ⁂⁂⁂, ⁂⁂⁂,
⁂⁂⁂⁂, ⁂⁂⁂ is one of the many names of Isis or
Hathor. She is represented as suckling her son Horus (see picture in
Lanzone, p. 844), and it is this which characterizes her and from which
she derives her name. She is asked on the Louvre tablet (c. 14) for “the
white liquor which the glorified ones love.” This is distinctly called
‘milk’ on the Florentine tablet 2567, and vases of her milk are
mentioned (Dümichen, _Resultate_, 27, 6) in the inscriptions of Dendera.
A picture of her given in Dümichen’s _Historische Inschriften_ (II, 32)
identifies her with Hathor, and calls her “divine mother, mistress of
heaven and sovereign of the gods,” while others call her “the divine
mother and fair nurse.”
There can be no doubt about the right reading of the name which is
_Ḥesit_; the ⁂ is written in so many texts (see _Pepi_, I, 306,
_Amamu_, 21, 1, Lepsius, _Auswahl_, IX, and the form ⁂⁂⁂ at
Philae), that there is no reason for confounding the name with that of
_ḥetemit_. We must therefore attach no importance to this latter name
when applied in the vignette of the Turin _Todtenbuch_ to one of the
divine abodes which bears the name of the goddess, and is written
exactly like it.
10. _Uach_ ⁂⁂⁂⁂ _blooming_, _flowering_.
11. _The winged things of Shu are given to me, and my Kau follow me._
⁂⁂⁂, ⁂⁂⁂, is a word of very rare occurrence. Birch
and Naville understood it of the _netting_, and Brugsch, of the
_pluming_ of birds. Both meanings may be disputed, but whatever Shu did,
was done to birds, and these are said to be given to the deceased.
The prayer that a person may travel over the blissful parts, followed by
his _kau_ ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, is repeatedly found on the
early monuments. Several papyri say that the deceased is followed by
‘the gods and the _kau_.’
12. _T’efait_ ⁂⁂, an abode abounding in ⁂⁂⁂⁂
_delicacies_.
13. _He is in heaven_ ⁂⁂⁂. The reading ⁂ to which
Brugsch at one time attached much importance, has turned out to be
one of the many blunders of the text of Sutimes. But the true
reading is not without its difficulties. If ⁂⁂ is taken as
equivalent to ⁂⁂ we have a strange anticipation of a change
in language of which the “enigmatical” texts of the royal
tombs[105] give the first intimation, but which first becomes
conspicuous in the demotic period. In a previous passage we have
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, where Nebseni has
⁂⁂⁂. But the important preposition ⁂ had already
dropped out of the earlier text of Chāemhait. The demonstrative
particle ⁂⁂ which occurs in both places may be rendered
‘there [he is],’ ‘le voilà.’
14. _I salute the stream of T’eserit_: a corrupt passage like so many
others in this chapter. The first word ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ ‘salute’
is rare but correct and well attested. The proper name is but one of the
contradictory readings. It has, however, the advantage of being a real
name and suitable to the passage, being that of a goddess mentioned in
connection with the next abode. ⁂⁂⁂ _T’eserit_ is a name