The Egyptian Book of the dead
“destroyed all the seed royal” of Judah. The annals of eastern[118] and
even western[119] nations are full of such occurrences. But, in
positions less exalted than that of claimants to royalty, ambition or
covetousness are motives to crimes like that of the wicked uncle of ‘the
Babes in the Wood.’[120] The reading ⁂⁂⁂⁂, which has for
determinative the sign ⁂ of _smallness_, seems to indicate that the
victims of the crime are _minors_, perhaps _wards_.
Some of the papyri (even that of Nebseni) have a _calf_, ⁂, as
determinative of the word, and as the ‘slaying of calves’ is not
necessarily a crime, other scribes have added ⁂⁂, ‘sacred,’ and
thus made the sin one of sacrilege.
The same word, like the Greek μόσχος and the Latin _pullus_, might be
applied to the young of all kinds of animals; but the Egyptian scribes
have in such cases a propensity to use a determinative which forces a
wrong sense upon the word.
4. _Instead of truth_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. There are two
ways according to which this expression may be translated, but only one
of them can be the right one. ⁂⁂⁂ is a compound preposition,
_instead of_, _in loco_, _anstatt_, _au lieu de_, بمنزلة. And this is
evidently the right construction. If ⁂ be taken as the simple
preposition governing ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, the meaning will be that
the deceased did not “tell lies _in the cemetery_.” The Pyramid Texts
(Unas, 394) have the expression ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂(_sic_),
“Right instead of Wrong.”
5. This is only an approximate version of a passage, the true text of
which was lost at an early period. M. Maspero (_Origines_, p. 189)
understands it as follows: “Je n’ai jamais imposé du travail à l’homme
libre quelconque, en plus de celui qu’il faisait pour luimême!” The last
words are the translation of ⁂⁂⁂, according to _Td._ (tomb
of Ramses IV) all the other ancient texts having ⁂, ‘_for me_.’ But
the chief difficulties occur at the beginning of the sentence.
6. _Shorten the palm’s length_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. Many papyri
read ⁂, which is a superficial measure, more in place under the next
precept.
7. _The fields’ measure_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.
8. _The beam of the balance_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.
_The tongue_ [rather _plummet_] _of the balance_,
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.
The balance is so frequently represented in false perspective by
Egyptian artists, that Sir J. G. Wilkinson has given an account of it,
which is quite unintelligible to those who have ever so moderate a
knowledge of statics. Mr. Petrie’s description is the true one. “The
beam was suspended by a loop or ring from a bracket projecting from the
stand.... Then below the beam, a long tongue was attached, not above the
beam as with us. To test the level of the beam, a plummet hung down the
tongue, and it was this plummet which was observed to see if the tongue
was vertical and the beam horizontal.”—_A Season in Egypt_, p. 42.
In Pl. XXXVI, a few pictures will be found which give a more correct
notion of the Egyptian balance than some of the absurd representations
which defy a scientific explanation.
It is evident that if the tongue is fastened at a wrong angle, the beam
will not really be horizontal when the tongue is shown by the plummet
line to be vertical. This seems to be the fraud alluded to in the text.
The word ⁂⁂, ⁂⁂, the name given to the plummet,
apparently signifies a cup _full_ of liquid. It is etymologically
identical with ⁂⁂⁂⁂, _a toper_ (ⲑⲁϧⲓ, ϯϩⲉ, _ebrius_,
_ebrietas_), ⁂⁂⁂, ⲧⲓϧⲓ, _a crane_, and ⁂⁂⁂ the
crane-god, Thoth.
The apparatus of which the plummet forms so important a part, whether
for the balance or for building purposes, is called ⁂⁂⁂
(_Denkm._, III, 26), ⁂⁂.
9. _The manors of the gods_, ⁂⁂⁂. I understand ⁂⁂ as
property acquired by royal grant. Aâhmes at El Kab says that he has
_acquired_ (⁂⁂⁂⁂) much land through the royal bounty. The
deceased in the later copies of the Book of the Dead (Ch. 1, 24),
acquires the allotment of land, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, in the
Garden of Aarru, and Ani (Pl. III) acquires “a permanent allotment
(⁂⁂⁂) in the Garden of Hotepit like the followers of Horus.”
10. _Ponds._ The right reading is ⁂⁂⁂, as Birch already noted
in his _Dictionary_, from the excellent papyrus _Ao_ of the XVIIIth
dynasty.
Hieratic papyri also give the determinative ⁂.
The determinative ⁂ which some of the papyri give to the word, and
which is a self-evident blunder, is probably copied either from ⁂,
or from ⁂. The sign ⁂, and a man striking with an instrument,
which also occur, are mere symbols of the operation by which either
_quarries_, or _ponds_, are _cut_.
11. _Thou of the Nose_, or rather _Beak_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂, in
allusion to one of the chief characteristic features of the Ibis god
(πρόσωπον ἐς τὰ μάλιστα ἐπίγρυπον; _Herodotus_, II, 76, in his
description of the bird). Thoth, the god of Chemunnu, is meant by this
appellative.
He is so called, ⁂⁂⁂, on the statue of the King Horus in the
Museum of Turin (l. 8), and ⁂⁂⁂ on the very much more ancient
altar, of the VIth dynasty, belonging to the same museum. The same
appellative[121] is found in the list of gods upon each of the Memphite
cubits described by Lepsius.[122]
12. _Eater of the Shadow._ The Demotic version interprets this of “his
own shadow.” I am rather inclined to interpret it by “the gnomons which
were without shadows at noon,” and the “well of Syene” (Strabo, 817) at
the Summer Solstice; when the Sun was vertical.
13. _Thou of Lion form_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂. The Demotic has “Shu and
Tefnut.” But as there are only forty-two gods in all, we must here think
of a single god with a lion’s head, as in such pictures as _Wilkinson_,
III, Pl. XLIX; _Denkm._, III, 276, and many sarcophagi (_e.g._, Leemans,
_Mon._, III, L, Pl. III).
Even some of the Theban papyri have two divinities by way of
determinatives to the group.
14. _Sluggish_, ⁂⁂⁂; ⁂⁂⁂⁂, ⁂⁂⁂⁂,
_sluggishness_. Coptic ϭⲛⲁⲩ. See my note (_Proc. Soc. Bib. Arch._, XI,
p. 76) on the Inscription of Kum el Ahmar.
There are however other readings; none of them apparently of any value.
15. _Thou of the Bright Teeth_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. The
Demotic equivalent is, “who openeth his teeth,” and so exhibits their
brightness.
16. _Âati_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, a name about which the copyists have
bungled. It is one of the names of Râ in the Solar Litany, where it
appears (l. 23) as ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, or ⁂⁂. Whether
applied to the Sun, to the Fish of the name, or to a Ship, the name
means _Cutter_, ‘that which cleaves’ its way.
17. _Ṭuṭu_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, with many variants, showing that the
scribes did not understand the sense of the syllable ⁂⁂, some of
them adding the bird of evil ⁂, others the ⁂ determinative of
_mountain_. The name on the Sarcophagus of Seti (Bon. II, A. 30) has a
snake for determinative, and some papyri call him _Ṭuṭu_. The god may be
recognised in later texts. In the Calendar of Esneh there is a feast on
the 14th day of Thoth, in honour of ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, Tutu, ‘the
son of Neith,’ and the text gives the important determinative ⁂, of a
_serpent_, _worm_, or _slug_. I feel sure, therefore, that we should in
the text read the name Tutu, and consider ⁂ as a determinative.[123]
The symbolism would then be identical with that in Pl. XXIII,
illustrative of Chapter 87. The Sun-god there rises up like a worm out
of the Lotus of Dawn, whereas in another picture a slug (⁂) is seen
moving upon the flower.
⁂⁂, _Ati_, where the god makes his appearance, is the name of the
ninth Nome of Lower Egypt.
18. _I trouble myself only with my own affairs._ I understand this of
the virtue spoken of by Cicero (_de Officiis_, I, 34), “nihil praeter
suum negotium agere, nihil de alieno anquirere, minimeque esse in aliena
republica curiosum.” It is the same to which Plato refers in the
_Timaeus_, 72 A; εὖ καὶ πάλαι λέγεται τὸ πράττειν καὶ γνῶναι τὰ τε
ἑαυτοῦ καὶ ἑαυτὸν σώφρονι μόνῳ προσήκειν, not in the sense of a selfish
indifference to a neighbour’s welfare or the public good, but in
opposition to the ways of the busybodies, who tattle and “speak things
which they ought not” (1 Tim., v, 13).
The Egyptian ⁂⁂⁂ is a rare word. Brugsch’s etymology of it is
an impossible one, and his identification of it with ϣⲱⲥⲙ is not less
unfortunate.
19. _Amu_, or _Amit_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂, ⁂⁂⁂⁂, ⁂⁂⁂.
This seems to be the favourite reading. It means the _town of Palm_.
But, as the name was written ideographically, it appears in some copies
as the town of other trees, such as _Nehait_, or _Nārit_.
Amu was a place in the north of Egypt, which Brugsch thinks he has
identified with a town called Apis (the site of which is itself
doubtful).
The most interesting thing known about Amu (Dümichen, _Rec. de M._, IV,
Pl. XV, 90 _a_), is that in the rites performed on the 16 Choiak, Horus
is represented as raising up the body of Osiris out of the water in the
form of a crocodile; and that Osiris was known under the name of
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, _The Crocodile, Lord of Amu_.
The 142nd chapter of the Book of the Dead, which gives a list of the
names of Osiris, has (l. 17) that of ⁂⁂, ‘Osiris of Crocodile
form,’ or ‘with Crocodile head.’[124] The variants of this group,
however, show the reading ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, ‘king,’ or
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, ‘of kingly form.’ There is but little doubt that
(as M. Naville says, _Zeitschr._, 1882, p. 190) ⁂⁂⁂⁂ on the
Turin tablet published by Professor Piehl, means ‘King of the gods,’ and
that Ptahhotep in the Prisse papyrus (IV, 1) addresses not Osiris, but
King Assa as ‘my Lord the King,’ Goodwin had already asserted this
meaning in his “_Story of Saneha_,” and in the _Zeitschr._, 1874, p. 38.
The orthography of the crocodile name here played upon is remarkably
vague, ⁂⁂⁂⁂, ⁂⁂⁂, and ⁂⁂⁂ (_rapax_,
Louvre, C, 26). It is this last form which enables us to see the
paranomasia in ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, _rapax sicut Raptor_
(_crocodilus_) of the Prisse papyrus (VII, 6), and brings the word into
connection with _ȧta_, or _ȧti_, ‘he who is seized’ of the Sovereignty
(see _supra_, Ch. 40, note 10).
20. _Chemiu_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, ‘one who overthrows.’ His
appearance is made at _Kauu_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂, the Canobic entrance
to the Nile, which the Libyan invaders had taken possession of in the
time of Rameses III (Great _Harris Pap._, 77, 2).
The _transgression_ here disavowed is understood by some of the scribes
as a violation of ritual precepts, such as those regarding sacred
seasons.
21. _Who raisest thy voice_ ... _words of Righteousness_,
⁂⁂⁂⁂ is an attribute assigned to Isis in the Hymn to Osiris
(line 14) on the Stele of Amenemhait in the Bibliothèque Nationale; and
it is there further defined through the addition of the words
⁂⁂⁂⁂, ‘with _clearness_ of utterance’ (_cf._ Ch. 1, note
2). One of the chief names of Isis is ⁂⁂⁂⁂ ‘Mighty in
Words of Power.’ She is also described in the Hymn as ‘Most potent of
tongue (⁂⁂⁂⁂) and unfailing of speech.’[125]
Her name _Urit ḥekait_ may have suggested the name _Urit_ as the place
of her manifestation. But we do not know if _Urit_ is to be taken as the
name of a town or if some papyri are correct in reading ⁂⁂⁂,
which may mean _tribunal_.
There were in ancient Egypt _six_ great courts of justice,
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.
A High Priest of Ptah of Memphis, named Ptahmes, in the early part
of the eighteenth dynasty, who was President of these six
Courts,[126] has left a very remarkable attestation relative to
the 24th Precept, on a beautiful scribe’s palette in basalt
(Louvre, _Inv._, 3026). The inscription, after saying that the
whole country was subject to the jurisdiction of Ptahmes, proceeds
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. “He
turned not a deaf ear to the truth, through the terrors of his
Eye;” that is, “the terrors of his Eye” were not used for the
perversion of Justice. But what is meant by his “Eye”? M. Pierret
(in his _Inscr. inédites du Louvre_, pt. 1, p. 96) suggested the
‘Eye of Horus.’ I think it has reference to the position of
Ptahmes as ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. He was ‘the King’s Eye,’