THE FUNEREAL RITUAL or BOOK OF THE DEAD

THE work, of which the following is an attempted translation, consists of a group of Hermetic books, which have been called the Funereal Ritual, or Book of the Dead. It is not, indeed, strictly a Ritual in the more extended sense of that term, but consists of several Hermetic works divided into separate chapters, each preceded by a title indicating its purport, and each principal section followed by directions explaining its use. These, like our rubrics, are traced in red ink, in order to attract attention, and distinguish them from the general body of the text. The whole, in its complete form, is accompanied by illustrations or vignettes. The titles of the sections are either books or chapters; and, although it appears reasonable to conclude that the term Book had a more extended signification, even when the length of text was not so great as that of the chapters, the terms are often found interchangeable, and the text, called in the title Chapter, is often in the contents styled a Book, as if it were entire.

Nor was there any certain order of the chapters. It may be stated as a general rule that, previously to the age of the Turin Ritual, no two papyri have their chapters in the same relative order. After the 26th Dynasty, the canon of the order was comparatively fixed, and the Rituals of that age exhibit greater uniformity of arrangement than before. This order, which was fixed under the Saite dynasty, must have been adopted {126} upon some such principle as the logical sequence of the various portions, or the antiquity of the different compositions, of the work. The former hypothesis was advanced by Champollion, who considered the Ritual as a mythical description of the progress of the soul in the future state. It receives, indeed, some support from the fact that it commences with the hymns recited on the descent of the mummy into the sepulchres; that it may be considered to continue to give the prayers and invocations addressed to the deceased for the last time; that it recites over the various portions of the mummy, bandages, and coffin, the formulae necessary to protect the deceased from the material or spiritual enemies whom he was supposed to encounter, ending with the consecration of the various amulets placed on the body for its protection; and, last of all, that it gives the formula, on the final placing or deposit of the coffin in the sepulchre. But, on the other hand, the fact that some later chapters of the Ritual, and especially the chapters appended to the general body of it (cc. 162-165) filled with foreign barbaric names and of mystical import, are evidently of a later age, would lead to the presumption that these apocryphal sections are placed at the end of the canon on account of their later composition, and that the books may have been arranged as much with regard to the antiquity of their composition as to their logical sequence.

Besides these Rituals there were one or two other works of a religious nature found at a later period, either separate or complete in themselves, or else in connexion with Rituals. The first of these, not earlier than the 26th Dynasty, is the Sai-an-Sinsin, or Book of the Lamentations of Isis[1]; another work of {127} the same nature occurs in a papyrus of the British Museum[2], recording the metamorphoses of the Gods. In the tombs of the Priestesses of Amen-Ra papyri are often found dissimilar to the Ritual, filled with representations and short texts like those which occur on the walls of the tombs, or on the sides of the coffins, of the 19th Dynasty. These papyri, called by Egyptologists Solar Litanies, are sometimes styled "The Book of the Commencement of the Tip of the West, and of the Treading the Paths of Darkness;"[3] and they refer to the 11th and other hours of the night, not entering into the scope of the great Funereal Ritual. The earliest appearance of Rituals is in the 11th Dynasty. It is then that extracts of these sacred books are found covering the inner sides of the rectangular chests which held the mummies of the dead[4]. Some of the sarcophagi of this age contain portions of the 17th and other chapters of the Ritual, besides others with texts not preserved in that of Turin, and which had probably become obsolete at that late period[5]. What is more remarkable, at least two different versions of the same theological doctrines are introduced, showing that the strict letter of their creed varied even at this epoch. At a later period, on the coffin of the Queen Mentuhetp, of the 11th Dynasty[6], the 17th, 18th, 64th, and other chapters occur. The most important fact, however, in connexion with this coffin is, that the 64th chapter is as usual attributed to the age of {128} Menkheres, who is in the Ritual of Parma[7] the same Menkheres as the builder of the 3rd Pyramid. The history of the development of each chapter is a point which requires further researches; but, from the inscriptions scattered on coffins of various ages, we shall probably be able to discover the approximate dates of the different parts. At the age of the 18th Dynasty, the 54th is a favourite one[8]; at the time of the 26th, the 72nd had come into vogue[9]; at a still later period many other chapters appear. Rituals dated in kings' reigns are unfortunately too rare to cite[10]; but many papyri, evidently, from the names and titles of the deceased and character of the writing, of the period of the 18th Dynasty, contain the greater portions of the Ritual, but not the last mystical chapters of the Turin Papyrus, one of which is so recent, that an eminent hierologist thinks he can recognise in it the Gnostic name of Christ.

But it was not only on papyrus and linen that the Ritual was inscribed; the whole of the paraphernalia of the sepulchre, at a later period, was covered with extracts from these Hermetic books. On monuments of the 4th and 11th Dynasties, indeed, no extracts of these books {129} are found; but on those of the 12th portions of an earlier ritual are by no means uncommon[11]. In the 18th Dynasty, not to speak of mummy cases, cartonages, or the wraps of mummies, and such like objects, the walls of the tombs are sometimes covered with scraps, or even abridgments, of ritualistic literature[12]. A granite statue of the nurse of the Queen-Regent and sister of Thothmes III contains a distinct and well-known chapter[13]. From this period the walls of the tombs begin to be covered with chapters of special import, such as the negative confession, which occurs more than once in the tombs of the kings[14]. After this period, the chapters of the Ritual usurp the place of the historical or mythic representations hitherto found on the walls of sepulchres. At the time of Bokkhoris, a tomb of an individual of the same name contains several chapters[l5]; and other sepulchres of that age are abundantly provided with religious formulae derived from this book[16]. In later times, commencing with the 26th Dynasty, the Ritual is constantly present on the external covering and coffins of mummies, and one chapter, the 72nd was especially orthodox and often employed. At all epochs, certain amulets, such as the sepulchral scarabei[17], had their ritualistic formulae inscribed upon them. In the 18th and subsequent Dynasties, the sepulchral figures have the 6th chapter, or a variation of it not found in {130} the Ritual[18]. In the 26th, the amulets of the tie, the nilometers, and other objects, have their appropriate chapters. But in the Ptolemaic period chapters or extracts taken from a text not in the Turin Ritual occasionally occur, showing that other ideas than those hitherto current were in vogue[19].

The oldest papyri containing portions of the Ritual have been assigned to the 18th Dynasty, and this is probably the age of the earliest known in Egypt at the present day[20]. These are written in a cursive linear hand, coarsely traced in vertical columns, and they are generally read in inverse order. The text in the more carelessly written examples has often been abridged for the sake of the vignettes, which have been first prepared; but in other instances the text, as well as the vignettes, is most carefully prepared, and in some are found important chapters no longer extant during the 26th Dynasty and subsequent reigns. In the 19th Dynasty the handwriting is less careful, and the text by no means so complete, although the vignettes still show great beauty of art. During the 26th or Saite Dynasty hieroglyphical Rituals are rare; but the hieroglyphics are executed with great care, the papyrus remarkably white and fine, and the vignettes executed in outline with the most elaborate finish and detail. After that period the Rituals rapidly deteriorate. The hieroglyphs partake of the character of scrawls hastily executed, and filled with faulty or many groups of signs; sometimes illo- {131} gical and senseless repetitions of detached or truncated members of the sentences. This is the period, or even later, to which the Ritual of Turin belongs, and it exhibits all its characteristic carelessness. The Rituals continue to deteriorate in style and script under the Persians and the Ptolemies; and, at the commencement of the Roman dominion in Egypt, they had been superseded by mere extracts of the sacred books, or formulae derived from other sources. The hieroglyphs at this later period are scarcely distinguishable from the demotic. In the other kind of writing, the hieratic, several Rituals remain, but none are known of so early a period as the 18th Dynasty; in the 21st there are many short extracts from them, chiefly chapters relating to the heart, and made for priestesses of Amen-Ra[21]. In the 26th Dynasty there as many hieratic Rituals nearly complete; and they continued in extensive use till the age of the Ptolemies, when the fashion was introduced of inscribing portions, or the whole, of the Ritual, on the external linen bandages of mummies, in a small neat hieratic script, with carefully drawn vignettes, all in black outline. At the close of the age of the Ptolemies the hieratic writing became rapidly degraded, and the text of the Ritual abandoned for mere extracts from other books. As early as the days of Augustus demotic writing was introduced for sacred purposes; first as liturgical with the hieratic, subsequently for entire Rituals superseding altogether the ancient texts, and intermingled with Greek translations either of individual names or entire texts[22]. In the 2nd and 3rd centuries the demotic itself became extinct, the few works of this nature remained having been burnt as magical. What was known of ancient dogmas was preserved {132} by the Gnostics, Valentinians, and Basilidians, or in such Coptic works as the Pistis Sophia[23].

The style of the composition, in spite of the opinions hitherto advanced, bears little of the character of poetry or hymns, although abounding in the usual Egyptian antithesis. In this respect it contrasts strongly with the contents of the hieratic papyri yet published, in which the writers are diffuse, metaphorical, and fond of repetition, approaching nearer to the colloquial than to the hieratic style. The composition is monotonous, regular, almost entirely destitute of prefix pronouns, and often curtailed of the affixes and other complements of verbal roots necessary for a due understanding of the text. It bears a great resemblance to the lapidary style, in which the object is to spare labour, and consequently has only the main features, as it were, traced out, the mind of the reader supplying the deficiencies of the connecting links. The contents are necessarily mystic, and unintelligible as to their esoteric or internal meaning. Many of the books are said to be mysterious, and all are really so.

The number of variants, or different modes of rendering the same words or phrases, in the different Rituals, is immense; and these, when properly weighed, constitute the key to the meaning of the text, the names of the groups, and the value of the sounds. Unfortunately all Rituals, at all epochs, are not equally correct, and some critics have abandoned the subject at once as being a useless investigation of error. No doubt the scribes were often hasty, ignorant, and mercenary; but, in many instances the Rituals are as trustworthy as the best classical manuscripts of the middle ages. A collation of the best and principal in the museums of Europe would {133} be a most important aid to Egyptian studies; but it is a work requiring the labour of a life, and almost beyond what can be hoped to be realised by private enterprise, and not is likely to be undertaken by governments, which take litt1e interest in any except practical studies and the material sciences. In the meantime the student must be content to accept the Turin version as the basis of his researches. Like other objects of the funereal equipments papyri were always on sale ready made, blank spaces being left for the insertion of the name of the purchaser, which was inserted in another hand; but, in many instances, especially in the hieratic papyri, the whole was prepared for the person for whom it was ordered, as the ink and handwriting show the document to have been written off at once. In other cases, owing either to ignorance or carelessness, the titles, rubrics, or vignettes of chapters, were omitted. About one third of the text of ordinary Rituals consists of repetitions of the names and titles of the deceased, and a fourth, at least, of the remaining text is a repetition of certain parts[24].

The Ritual is, according to Egyptian notions, essentially an inspired work; and the term Hermetic, so often applied by profane writers to these books, in reality means inspired. It is Thoth himself who speaks, and reveals the will of the Gods and the mysterious nature of divine things to man. This Hermetic character is claimed for the books in several places, where "the hieroglyphs" or theological writings and "the sacred books of Thoth" the divine scribe, are personified. Portions of them are expressly stated to have been written by the very finger of Thoth himself, and to have been the composition of a "Great God."[25] In other parts the God himself addresses the other Gods; and in many places the invocation is made by Thoth {134} on behalf of the deceased, rather than by the deceased himself. At a later period their Hermetic character is still mow distinctly recognized, and on a coffin of the 26th Dynasty Horus announces to the deceased that "Thoth himself has brought him the books of his divine words," or "Hermetic writings."[26] On the wooden tablet of one Petosi, a priest of Amen Ra, in possession of Mr. Perring, the deceased states: "I have made sixty-four books to decapitate the Apophis, cast his soul into the fire, his body into flames, and his limbs into the Eye of Horus;" expressions scarcely applicable to any other books than the Ritual. They were, in fact, in the highest degree mystical, and profound secrets to the uninitiated in the sacred theology, as stated in the rubrics attached to certain chapters, while their real purport was widely different. To the soul they assured a passage from the Earth; in transit through the Purgatory and other regions of the dead; the entrance into the Empyreal Gate by which the souls arrived at the presence of the Sun; the admission into the Bark or orb of the Sun, ever traversing in brilliant light the liquid ether; and protection from the various Liers-in-wait, or adversaries, who sought to accuse, destroy, or detain it on its passage or destiny.

The deceased, in fact, lived again after death, or, according to Egyptian notions, did not die again in Hades. The first death of the soul was its birth into the world imprisoned in the human form, considered as the egg of the God Seb, or Saturn. The mortal indeed was not a mere union of soul and body, for at least five distinct principles are necessary to complete man, consisting of the ba, soul; the akh or khu, intelligence; the ka, existence; the khaba, shade; the kha, body; and sah, mummy. Of these, the ba had a special shape peculiar to Egyptian mythology; {135} it was represented by a hawk with human head and arms, to personify its volatile and solar character and human intelligence. In the future or separated state the soul still continued to revisit the body; but a distinct return, or apokatastasis, is by no means definitely mentioned in the Hermetic books. The distinction between soul and body in the future state is not rigorously kept up, and the deceased is often described as if existing as a mortal even in the Hades. The absorption of the soul into the Deity is perhaps alluded to in some passages where the deceased states that be "becomes a God," or that he is transformed into "the soul of the world" or the God Ptah, the demiourgos. These transformations were in the future, and are not to be confounded with transmigrations of the soul during its terrestrial existence.

Considerable portions of the Ritual, however, referred to the preservation of the body, and especially to that of the heart. That the body should not waste or decay was an object of great solicitude; and for this purpose various bandlets and amulets, prepared with certain logical preparations, and sanctified with certain spells or prayers or even offerings and small sacrifices, were distributed over various parts of the human form or mummy. In some mysterious manner the immortality of the body was deemed as important as the passage of the soul, and at a later period the growth or natural reparation of the body was invoked as earnestly as the life or passage of the soul to the upper regions. The whole of the Ritual, indeed, is not accompanied as it should be with these rubrics, many having been without doubt omitted in the Turin copy, but its scheme supposes a complete series of rubrics explanatory of the nature of the chapters and their object. These details resemble rather the enchantments of a magician than solemn rites, although a hidden and
mystical meaning must have been attached to them.

{136} The distinction, however, between the soul and its parts and combinations is by no means well preserved, and some of the rubrical directions apply equally to the human condition before as after death. The great facts connected with it are its trials and justification. The deceased, like Osiris, is the victim of diabolical influences; but the good soul u1timately triumphs over all its enemies, by its gnosis, or knowledge of celestial and infernal mysteries.

The principal orders of Gods mentioned are the Nu, similar or associate Gods; the Pu.t, or celestial cycle; the Gods, Neteru; and the chiefs, Gaga.

The spiritual types have already been described; besides which there are the enemies of the deceased, the Khefti, or accusers; the Mu, or dead; and Bet mes, or depraved. Two antagonistic beings appear throughout the Ritual: Osiris and his triad, the supporters and prototype of the good or justified; and Set and his devils or conspirators, the evil principle, always endeavouring to subvert the good principle, or Osiris and his followers. Physically, they are divided into light and darkness; symbolically, they are represented by the Sun and the great dragon Apophis. Next to these the God Tum, the Solar demiourgos or creator, not only appears at an early period, but plays a prominent part in the Ritual. It is Tum, the Sun, invisible in darkness, from whom all being proceeded, and to whom the deceased is indebted for the vital principle of breath. The soul, indeed, not being described as a created, may be considered as an uncreated, being; but the existence, the breath of life, is the especial gift of Tum. The chief guardians of the deceased, however, are the Gods of Abydos. On all occasions the sister Goddesses Isis and Nephthys render him aid. Thoth justifies him, Anubis embalms him, Horus defends him. Inferior offices, indeed, are rendered by other deities, by Ptah, by Athor, and by Khnumis; but the great Theban triad is seldom mentioned, and then {137} only in the later or apocryphal portions. The Ritual evidently dated from a period long anterior to the rise of the Ammon worship at Thebes. Of Khem, indeed, the procreative type of Ammon, there occurs an early notice and a mystical explanation; but Ammon, Mut, and Khons enter very slightly into it.

One of the earlier attempts to subdivide and classify the Ritual was that of Champollion[27] who, with a view to the facility of arrangement, rather than under the guidance of any logical or philosophical principle, divided it into three portions. He conjectured that the first, of the three great sections terminated with the 15th chapter; the second with the 125th; and that the third went on to the end of the papyrus. These sections he subdivided in a peculiar manner, according to the titles or contents of the chapters themselves, and in a manner difficult to verify without having the texts of the papyrus to collate. The Ritual in general he called the Book of Manifestation to Light. Lepsius has proposed another division; he considers the first portion to terminate with the 17th chapter; and the 125th to be either the end of the second portion, or commencement of the third; but the arguments deduced so on the manner in which certain Rituals terminate are but feeble at best. There are other reasons besides strict adherence to order, such as haste, the sparing of expense, and similar considerations, which may have abridged the labours of the scribes. Still, the order proposed by him is the most convenient to follow, and he has given for the first time a full text of the hieroglyphical Ritual, and arranged the whole in chapters and lines. Till the publication of his work, no proper idea of its extent and order was attainable by students {138} in general; the previous publications of Cadet[28], the Description of Egypt[29], Senkowski[30], Young[31], Belmore[32], and others, derived from abridged or inferior sources, having conveyed very imperfect notions of its contents.

I. The title of the first 16 chapters, or first section, has been differently interpreted as the Chapter of Manifestation to Light, or as the Light; or the Chapter of Departure from the Light, i.e. of Death. The positive connexion between the chapters is not very clear. The 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th are indeed connected, but the 5th and 6th refer to the sepulchral figures deposited with the dead; the 8th and 9th to the passage or approach to the West; the l0th and 11th to the Justification, which had just taken place; the 14th is one of the group; the 15th and 16th contain prayers to the rising and setting Sun. The first chapter, which is undoubtedly the proemium of the whole book, contains the invocation of Thoth himself.

The principal ideas connected with the earlier part of the Ritual are, the living after death[33], and the being born again as the sun, which typified the Egyptian resurrection. The soul is here spoken of as the greatest of things in creation[34]. The deceased goes in like the hawk and comes out as phoenix or heron[35], and enters the great or celestial gate; having passed through the roads of darkness[36]; he comes forth with justification, and eats, drinks, and performs the other functions of life, as if he were still among the living[37]; the corruption of the deceased is wiped out of his heart[38]. One chapter {139} contains a group of prayers addressed to the rising and the setting sun, within the cabin of whose boat the soul eternally traverses the celestial ether.

II. One of the most remarkable chapters is the 17th, which contains the esoteric explanation of the Faith of the Egyptian, and enters into discussions upon certain sacred dogmas. These esoteric commentaries, giving the various opinions of the Egyptians upon the meaning of certain deities and their types, are continued through the 18th, 19th, and 20th chapters of the Ritual, which embrace the great Crown of Justification, or the fourteen trials in presence of as many groups of deities, whose number represents half the lunar houses, before whom the deceased is justified by Thoth.

III. This Crown of Justification is three times repeated, showing that at least three separate versions existed at the time of the construction of the Ritual; and three rubrics are appended, one to each chapter, proving that different ideas prevailed as to the influence it exerted over the welfare of the deceased. These chapters consist, in fact, of two separate books, and are apparently of the greatest antiquity, occurring in the inscription of the coffin of the Queen Mentuhetp, and in another of an individual deceased during the 11th Dynasty. They belong, as will be seen, to an early part of the funereal recitations.

IV. The chapters of the Crown of Justification are followed by a group (cc. 22-26) which essentially relate to the Reconstruction of the deceased, or the preservation of the contents of his body. The parts required to be preserved are the heart, the tongue, the mind or brain, or the charms or spells according to some readings; and, in certain papyri, the head Of these, the heart is deemed the most important. They remind us of the mystical destruction of Osiris, and the discovery and readjustment of his limbs by Isis. Like them all, they give details upon two main points: the invocation of the deceased, and a statement as to who he is or what he requires; and the {140} reason why the proposed parts are to be restored to him. It is worthy of remark that these parts are the recipients of the intellectual rather than of the sensuous impressions, the mental devisers of sin, and the agents of intellectual existence.

V. The next group, from the 27th to the 42nd, contains the measures necessary to be adopted in order to prevent the different parts of the body, which have connexion with the feeling and senses, from being taken away by the Typhonian animals in Hades. In the natural order, these should refer to the deceased being deprived of his heart and brain, which he had already recovered by the mystical employment of the previous chapters. After the 33rd it is not stated what portions of the body the reptiles attack; the object of the chapter seeming to be to repel the mystical or actual destroyers from the body of the deceased. One of these vipers is called the Eater of the Ass, itself a Typhonian animal, and another appears connected with the spine. The 42nd contains a kind of summary of the things to be done in order to repel all evil, for which purpose the deceased is mystically and cosmically transformed into the principal deities of the heaven and earth; in hieroglyphical language, "there is not a limb of him not as a God." It appears also from these chapters that the deceased does not die although he may be eaten, but escapes alive through the bellies of these monsters. The rubric states that the object of this group of chapters is to enable the deceased to go wherever he chooses.

VI. The next group extends from the 43rd to the 63rd and is divided into smaller subordinate groups having a closer connexion among themselves. Thus, c. 50 treats of how to avoid going to the infernal block, where the demon headsman decapitated the {141} wicked; and c. 43 of avoiding the decapitation; c. 44 the means of escaping the second death of the soul; and c. 51 how to escape from some other means of destruction; c. 45 how to avoid pollution; c. 46 how to escape corruption. The others (cc. 48 and 49) contain exits or manifestations, while c. 47 commences the viaticum of the dead, the reception of the chair and seat; cc. 52 and 53 enable the deceased to eat and drink only what is pure, while the remaining chapters are devoted to providing the deceased with fresh air, the celestial water of the Goddess Nu, the principle of the element itself, and to escaping the fiery ordeal. The food of the deceased is stated in these chapters to be the bread of Ra and Seb (c. 53), the breath which he receives is the north wind emanating from the nostril of Tum, and connected with the Orphic egg of Seb or the Egyptian Khronos (c. 54); and of this particular portion, one of the oldest in the Ritual, being found on monuments of the 18th Dynasty, there are two versions. A third version (c. 57) represents either the Hapi or Nile, or the Osiris dwelling in a house built for him by the God Khnumis and the Goddess Sefkh-abu, or "seven-rayed," in which the God or the deceased changes his quarters according to the direction in which the winds blow. He also escapes from the inundation or deluge in his ark or makhen, made of plaited corn, the paddles of which are of straw, perhaps symbolizing the support of men by corn during the inundation (c. 58). Different dogmas also prevailed about the celestial waters. The principal one is that they emanated from the Nu or celestial element, or rather from the sycamore, the emblem of that Goddess. It is by these waters that the deceased is strong or prevails; but it was also believed that these waters were given by the Hapi or Nile, and even the God Tum was thought to confer them on the deceased. The other object of them was to protect the deceased {142} from the burning flames of the Egyptian Phlegethon. Besides these are the two chapters of Manifestation, more properly connected with the subsequent group.

VII. The most remarkable chapter of the next group is the 64th, with which it commences. It rarely occurs in the Rituals, and when it does the rubric is often wanting. It is one of the oldest of all, and is attributed, as already stated, to the epoch of the King Gaga-Makheru, or Menkheres, part of it and its rubric occur in the hieratic inscription placed round the interior of the sarcophagus of the Queen Mentuhetp of the 11th Dynasty; and a variation of the rubric recurs in the Ritual of Parma. This chapter enjoyed a high reputation till a late period, for it is found on a stone presented to General Perofski by the late Emperor Nicholas, which must have come from the tomb of Petemenophis in the El Assasif, and was made during the 26th Dynasty. It was not only a mystical chapter, the supposed production of Thoth himself, but could only be read by monks or persons of ascetic lives; and it seems to have been an introduction to the 30th chapter, which appears on monuments of the 11th Dynasty: but its language is not that of the 4th Dynasty, nor of the time of the pious Menkheres; and some more recent compiler of the Hermetic books has evidently paraphrased it for the Ritual of Turin. The next chapter, the 65th is a duplicate of the 2nd. The 66th, 67th, and 68th are connected with the opening of the doors of heaven to allow the soul or deceased to pass. The latter, with its two other versions (cc. 69, 70), bears the title of Chapter 1, and to it are appended two other versions. A rubrical direction attached to the last of these three chapters proves their subject matter to refer to the earlier part of the Ritual, and the exit, or departure from the earth. Another series of chapters (cc. 71-75) refers to the manifestation and Exit of the sou1 from earth. The first {143} of these is to preserve the soul in the precincts of the Taser or hill. It was especially needed to save the soul from the seven mortal sins, which lie in wait at the balance ready to destroy the heart of the deceased or arrest his further progress. The next, the 72nd, is repeatedly found on coffins, sarcophagi, and other monuments of the 26th Dynasty, and was considered requisite for the absolution of the deceased, to expedite the passage of the soul from earth, its entrance into Elysium, its reception of the mystical food of the Gods, by virtue of which the spirits of the blest become invested with a divine nature. The 73rd chapter, a repetition of the 9th, instructs the deceased how to pass through the West, or Gate of the setting Sun, to traverse the Roads of Darkness, and to behold his father Osiris. This would seem to be a prelude to the great judgment in the Hall of the Two Truths.

VIII. The next group of chapters comprises the transformations or genesis of the soul. These transformations have reference to the mortal transmigration of the soul in order to alleviate the final union with the Deity, by the terrestrial sufferings involved in the degradation of the soul into inferior types; but refer to its transformation in the future state, and its assimilation to the Cosmic soul of the Universe. They may possibly involve the absorption of the soul into the Soul of the Earth or Universe. In this respect these chapters coincide with the Platonic doctrine of the infernal transformations of the soul. These were desired or "wished" by the soul, and are repeatedly mentioned as essential to the recovery of the heart which otherwise was lost, and the loss of which, as will be seen from the novel of the Two Brothers, involved the absence of the animating principle. The soul could exist, indeed, without the heart, but its union with the body depended upon the heart being in its proper place. The series of transformations so comprised the {144} change into the hawk of gold, the author of time (c. 77); into a second hawk, called the divine hawk, or the hawk of time (c. 78); the principal Gods (c. 79); the orb of light (c. 80); the lily of the nostril of the Sun (c. 81); the God Ptah, the demiourgos, or active creative power of the material world (c. 82); the Phoenix, or Bennu (c. 83); the Shen-shen, or heron (c. 84); the sou1 (c. 85); the swallow (c. 86); the soul of the world (c. 87); and the crocodile (c. 88); to which some Rituals add the goose. In all these chapters the deceased states himself emphatically to be the respective type of the deities figured in the vignettes.

To enter into the mystical notions connected with these chapters would far exceed the limits of this Introduction, but they appear to represent the soul as permeating space, time, and matter, and being absorbed or identified with the Demiourgos himself. The soul, in the 79th chapter, is the Creator himself, and in the 81st the germ of light; celestial food is supplied it, while the soul itself is the self or body of the deceased, and dies and is renewed like the sun daily. The 89th is one of the most important of the whole, for it represents the visit of the soul to the body. The deceased here asks that his soul may behold his body.

IX. The subsequent group of chapters are not arranged with the logical precision of the preceding: for the 90th is that of the reception of a tongue from the God Thoth; the 91st and 92nd recur to the liberation of the soul from its confinement; the 93rd to the navigation to the East; the 94th to the palette for writing and inkstand asked of Thoth; and two other chapters (cc. 95, 96) to a subject already treated on, the opening of the mouth by the same God. Another chapter, the 97th, refers to the food of the deceased; and a group of five (cc. 98-102), to the navigation of the deceased in the boat called the makhem, or else the Boat of the Sun, which in the 99th calls upon the deceased to tell the names of {145} all its parts. This is the boat of the Fiery Phlegethon, the dreary barge of Charon (c. 98); but its mystical names (c. 99) confer upon it a pantheistic meaning. The subsequent chapters are of a miscellaneous nature, and call for no particular notice. Two of them relate to food (c. 105 and c. 106); one (c. 103) to liberating the Goddess Athor, another (c. 104) to sitting with the Great Gods. It is in this portion that a few chapters occur which are repented elsewhere amongst the mystical Halls: thus the 107th is the second Abode of the 149th, and the 108th and 109th are found again as the fourth Abode. It would be reasonable to connect these with cc. 112-116, which refer to the knowledge of the Spirits of another region; but the 110th, that of proceeding to the Elysium, intervenes. This chapter of Elysium distinctly represents two portions: the first, the sowing, reaping, and offering of the mystical corn to the Hapi or Nile; the second, the transport of the food of the West, and the traversing of the celestial waters. Besides these, the places of the Spirits in the isles of the West are mentioned. In one of these isles a meskhen, or Place of "New Birth," is situated, and in the same direction are various pits or pools fatal to the reprobate or Unjustified. Some of the chapters of the Spirits are repeated in the later versions of the Halls at the close of the Rituals.

X. This Book closes with a series of chapters referring to the going into and out of the Hades, and the approaching the ministers of Osiris (cc. 117-124), and in this part is another version of cc. 12, 13. These latter chapters are chiefly connected with the actions of the deceased in the Aahlu or Hades. It does not, however, appear that they had all reference to this passage, for some are mixed up with the preparation of certain amulets or charms.

XI. This part of the Ritual is followed by the portion most generally known, and which forms the Book of Going to the Hall of the Two Truths. It is, {146} perhaps, the one most frequently repeated on the coffins and other monuments of the 19th Dynasty. It contains the address to Osiris and the Forty-two Demons of the Dead, each of whom presides over and avenges some particular sin or fault. The general principles of the Egyptian decalogue are expounded in the opening chapter, then the whole of the forty-two sins are negatively affirmed not to have been done, before each demon. For this purpose each of them leaves the far and distant region in which he is located, and hastens, as a bird of prey, to be fed upon the blood of the wicked. The mode by which the deceased averts the evil is to announce that he has not committed any of the forty-two sins. These are principally of a general nature, such as are common to all codes of morals and religion; some, however, are of a local character, and refer to neglect of particular formulae, or sacrifices of a special nature. In a subsequent part it will be seen that the day of "trying words" and the days of "the great judgment" are synonymous. Here the deceased prays to escape from the God or demon Aa (or beast). But in the scene of the Great Judgment, the demon, called Am.t, or the devourer of the dead, has the head of a crocodile, the forepart of a lioness, and the hind-quarters of a hippopotamus. One of the penalties or rewards of the future state is the metempsychosis, meskhen. The most remarkable part of the chapter, however, is that containing the mystical address of the Door and Hall of Truth itself. The various parts of the Door address the deceased, and forbid him to pass through unless he tells them their mystical names. This power of speech inherent in the architectural members of the Hall finds a parallel in those earlier fables and allegories, both of sacred and profane writers, in which the trees of the forest and the various objects of still life hold short dialogues, and point a moral or adorn a tale. These have continued down to the present day, a French author celebrated for his wit {147} having given us the tittle-tattle of two chimney-pots. The mystery of names, the knowledge of which was a sovereign virtue, and which at a later period degenerated into the rank heresy of the Gnostics and the magic of enchanters, appears to have existed not only in Egypt but elsewhere. Traces of it are found in the Cabala, in the spurious gospels, and in early Roman history, in which the hidden and secret name of the city was one of the fatal things of Rome. It prevailed in the Greek and Asiatic mythology, and even in the apocryphal tale of Ali Baba.

This chapter has also some connexion with the Masonic mysteries, in which the mystical names of the various parts of the doorway, according to the revelations real or supposed of some of the initiated, are actually found in the Egyptian mysteries, so far as can be gathered from the obscure hints on subjects so removed from popular knowledge or philosophical speculation. The rubrical directions of this chapter are peculiar. The worshipper said it, clad in pure linen, shod in white sandals, anointed with a fragrant oil or essence, and offers flesh, fowl, and burning frankincense. The representation of the deceased as a pilgrim approaching the mystical Hall was then painted on pure linen in yellow outline. This was to be thrown into a field untrodden by the hoof of a horse. The virtue of this mystical book was transmitted undiminished to his children. He would then give satisfaction to the royal circle, probably to the court of Osiris, and would dine at the table or altar of the Great God. From the Gate of the West, the region of Bliss, he would never be separated, he would be led along as or with the kings, who twelve in number, presided over the regions of the West, reminding us of the stern and inexorable judges of the Greek Hades, and he would be in the service of Osiris.

XII. The 126th chapter is entitled in the hieroglyphs {148} the "Book of Adoring the Gods of the Orbit, said by a person when he approaches them to see that God (Osiris) within the Gate." This represents a scene which has been called the Egyptian Phlegethon. There are four apes, described as seated at the prow of the Boat of the Sun, who led the deceased to welcome the God, sustained him with the sacred food, and enabled him to pass the secret gateways. Part of it is comprised in the following or 127th chapter of the Ritual, which contains an address to the Gods of the Solar Orbit; and the 128th, with which it concludes, is a prayer to Osiris, which, according to the rubrical directions, ought to be said on the occasion of the offering to the God Osiris on the festival of the Uka or Door-post.

XIII. The 129th chapter, which bears the title of a separate Book, is a mere repetition of the 100th.

XIV. The 130th chapter is the first of a new Book which continues to the 138th of the Ritual. The first of them has a certain connexion with the preceding two. Its object indeed is to give life to the soul, to allow it to stand in the Boat of the Sun, and pass the numerous crowds of the Empyreal Gateway, but the prayers or ceremonies were to be gone through on the birthday of Osiris, a festival as old as the 12th Dynasty. This chapter was to be read over a model of the Boat of the Sun, in which the deceased was represented standing; certain offerings were then to be made to this model by representation. The object of this rite was to prevent the second death of the soul in Hades. Like the preceding chapter, c. 64, which existed in the reign of King Menkheres, this is said to have been found in the palace of the great house of the King Gaga-Minkheru[39]. This king was finally supposed to be merely a variant of the name of Thoth, but it has been since supposed to be the name of a monarch of the 3rd Dynasty[40], {149} apparently Gaga, and it is to his age that some texts of the 64th attribute the discovery of that chapter. It is undoubtedly of an early date, for it occurs in the inscription of the interior of the coffin of the Queen Mentuhetp of the 11th Dynasty. It is said to have been found in a stone box, and to have been made by Horus for his father Osiris. The subsequent chapters (131, 132) refer also to the passage to Heaven and Hades made by the deceased, but are of minor importance. The deceased passes to the spot where the Sun is situated, and finally approaches to see his own house in the Hades.

XV. The next chapter, the 133rd, is called a new book, which, by its title, is connected with the 148th of the Ritual, although with a different text. Its object is to make the dead prevail, and enter into the Solar Boat, where the souls of the blessed especially resided. There are no less than three other chapters on this very point, cc. 134, 135, 136. All these are mere prayers and addresses to the Sun. The rubrical directions show their object to be to introduce the deceased into the Boat of the Sun, and to prevent him dying again in Hades. The things necessary to be done, and which were of a mystical nature, had, as in certain other chapters, to be done alone, and no other eye was to behold them. These chapters were to be recited, and their rubrical directions performed, at certain periods. Two were to be performed on the day of the month, by which must be understood the first day of the month, or in that part of the month when the moon is new (c. 135); and they lasted till the 6th of the month, after which the moon must have entered upon another quarter. They are followed by three others completing this Book; the first (c. 137), called the chapter of "Making a Spark," refers to subjects connected with the hypokephalaia, mystical dish placed under the head of the deceased, more fully {150} detailed in the 162nd chapter. The next (c. 138) refers to the passage or going to Abydos, and contains an invocation to the Gods of that region. The last chapter (139) contains an adoration to the God Tum.

XVI. This Book is followed by another of great importance (c. 140), if the precise meaning of the expression, "the filling of the Eye," could be made out. It is entitled "What is to be done on the 30th Epiphi, when the Eye is full." It seems, indeed, that the Eye and its personification, or God which bears it on its head, returns to its original luminous condition on the 8th hour of the night of the 30th Epiphi, which is a lunar or stellar rather than a solar phenomenon, and would apply to the harvest or autumnal moon, when that luminary appears largest during its annual course. The Eye is supposed, not only in this but in other texts, to have been exhausted by its career or course. According to the rubrical directions, it was the subject of a great festival, and offerings were to be made before two eyes, one of lapis lazuli or an imitation of it, the other of red jasper. The offerings were made before them, the worshipper "facing the sun." This festival, it will be observed, was movable. On the tablet of one Thothmes[41], a Memphite functionary of the 18th Dynasty, a considerable portion of the text refers to the festivals. "The great inspectors come out," it states, "to the end of the dais under the trees of life and perseas, on the 30th of the month Tybi, the day of the filling of the Eye in Annu [Heliopolis]; having been questioned, thou answerest in Rusta [region of the Two Truths] on the 3rd of the month Epiphi." This makes a period of 60 days between the epoch of the filling of the Eye in the 18th Dynasty, and at the date of the construction of the Turin Ritual; which, being only 240 years, is clearly not reconcilable with a mere festival which {151} shifted one day in four years, and other phenomena must be consequently involved in it.

XVII. XVIII. The next chapters, the 141st and 142nd, are those of instructing the dead in the knowledge of the Names of the Gods of the Northern and Southern Heaven, those in the Horizons, and those of the Empyreal Gate, which were to be publicly recited on the festival of the "Ninth," and accompanied by appropriate offerings. They appear, in fact, to be the litanies prepared for the Service of the Dead. The festival would, of course, stand in the calendar as the Festival of the Names of the Gods. These are arranged in a tabular form, and amount to 60, twice the number of the days of the month. In the second of these chapters (142), the object of which is that the deceased may come forth as or when the Sun does in all his transformations, the names to be known are those of the God Osiris; of which the title gives 156, which is no subdivision of the number of days in the year, although constructed on a multiple of 6. To eke out this number, others have been added to those of Osiris. This arrangement of the names of the Gods in a tabular form is not uncommon in the Egyptian monuments. Not only is it recorded on some monuments of the 12th Dynasty that they are dedicated to certain Gods in all their names, but the same is said in tables of the God Ptah the demiourgos, and Ra the solar principle, found in monuments of the time of Ramesses II[42]. These "thousand" names, such as Isis is said to have possessed, were part of the mystical nature of the Gods, and no doubt traced in some logical order the principal events of the life of Osiris, or recorded attributes. They indicated also the various regions in which the God was honoured throughout Egypt, to which there are parallels in the Indian religions. The Gnosis, or knowledge of the name of the God, both in {152} its external and esoteric sense, was in fact the great religious mystery, or initiation of the Egyptians. This name-knowledge is still further developed in the subsequent chapters, the nature of which has already been pointed out.

XIX. The part which follows this forms in fact a special or particular Book, although not really so designated in the Ritual. The 144th chapter consists of the Seven Stairs, or allu; the 145th of the Twenty-one Pylons or Gateways, sba; both of which are septenary numbers connected with the lunar month. The 146th chapter contains another version of the Fifteen Gateways, while the 147th is a repetition or subsequent version of the Seven Staircases, or allu. The 149th, which is connected with these, contains the Fourteen Abodes, aa.t, of the Hades, or the Aah-naru, which are of the same nature as the Halls and Staircases. These chapters contain descriptions of the mystical house of Osiris in the Aahenru, or Elysium; where each staircase or pylon has a name written on the door, a demon inhabitant with a secret or mystical name, and a demon doorkeeper, the names of all of which it was essential for the deceased to know, if he hoped to pass through them unscathed. It would seem that he entered into each of these places appropriately clad, holding a stick, or other instrument, made of a particular wood. He addressed the demons as if familiar with their names, and finally received their permission to depart. The description of these regions is in every way horrible. They are terrible to the Gods themselves, not only as being inhabited by fearful demons, but in some instances as regions of fiery flames, rivalling in all their horrors the Phlegethon, or burning stream of the Greek Hades. A similar series of regions is described on the sarkophagus of the monarch Nekhtherhebi in the Infernal Purgatory, into which the Sun enters in his passage {153} through the hours of the darkened hemisphere, or region of the Night. These called karr, or Halls, are ten in number, and the groans and screams of the damned burst on the ear of the passer-by in a mingled chorus of agony and confusion. They howl as lions, roar as bulls, squall like tom-cats, tinkle as brass, and buzz with the incessant hum of bees. Such descriptions, indeed, belong rather to the Solar litanies, like those describing the regions of utter darkness and silence, in which, in the tombs of the kings, the souls of the wicked lie deprived of the cheering beams of the Solar disk, and the reviving voice of the Great God, the Sun. Still they give an esoteric notion of the nature of the regions of the damned, rivalling the cold Hades of Homer, or the hotter Hell of a Dante or a Milton. Whether they were of a purgatorial nature, or the wicked were detained there, does not appear, but a more minute examination of the principal tombs and sarkophagi of the kings will hereafter throw a fuller light upon the nature of the Egyptian Hades.

XX. Between the 147th and 149th chapters, and apparently forming, with the 149th and following group, a new book, is the 148th chapter. It is called "the Book of instructing the Dead how to please the Sun, and of making him prevail like or before certain Gods." This, like some of the preceding books, was to be recited and its instructions followed out on certain festivals (the 1st day of the month, the 6th and the 15th, and on the festival of the Uka of Thoth, the Birthday of Osiris, the Manifestation of Khem, and the Night of the hakr), in order to let the deceased pass the mystical regions of the Akar or Hades, and to allow the soul to come out of them. It is one of the highly mystical, it is said to be like no other, indeed it is specially stated that there is no other comparable to it. No one has spoken it, no eye has seen it, no ear has {154} heard it, the deceased is carefully to preserve it, not to babble about it, and no one but the person interested is to know it. Here the deceased obtains the necessary knowledge of the Seven Cows and Bull, the Four Mystical Eyes, and the Four Paddles of the Sun, arranged according to the four points of the compass. It continues through the 149th and 150th chapters, or vignettes of the mystical Abodes, which are probably of a zodiacal character.

XXI. The 151st chapter contains the vignette and part of the text of a subject often represented upon coffins, and connected with the Osiris myth. This grand drama, in which the Goddesses in their lamentation address their deceased brother, while the various Gods of the embalming, or future state, confer certain benefits on the deceased and revived God, is most fully developed in the temple of Philæ, where there are pictures of the later Ptolemaic period representing this myth. It is here that Osiris is created, here that he dies, here that he is lamented, and here are to be found those links of legends which connect the pictures with the legends of Plutarch. The double Anubis particularly appears here in this chapter, if these vignettes can be really designated by such a name, the subject represented being the mystical embalmment of Osiris. The next chapter (the 152nd) is that of building a house on earth; the vignette and text are, however, connected with the drinking of the waters of the Sycamores of the Goddess Nu (cc. 57, 59). The subsequent chapter (153) is that of escaping the net spread for the deceased in Hades. In the Papyrus of Kebseni at the British Museum, the deceased is represented walking any from a net which has been spread to entrap him by the diabolical ensnarer. From the rubrical directions, it appears that this chapter was to be employed to prevent a second death in Hades.

{155} The 154th, which is of a mystical nature, is intended to preserve the body from decay. In it will be found some singular notions connected with the metempsychosis of decay, and which resemble in part the pantheistic notions of the Pythagorean or Buddhist philosophy. A little group of chapters (cc. 155-160) closes this portion of the Ritual. These contain directions for making and engraving the inscriptions on the six mystical amulets ordered to be placed on the throat of the dead. These amulets are; the tat, or so-called nilometer, of gold; the get., or buckle, of red jasper; the nrau, or vulture, and the uskh, or collar, of gold; the utu or sceptre, and tablet, of felspar. In some Rituals there is another, that of the pillow, urs, of red hematite, often found on mummies along with other amulets, such as the counterpoise of a collar made of serpentine, and the angle or level of hematite, for the consecration of which no doubt chapters existed, though not inserted in the Ritual of Turin.

XXII. The l6lst chapter refers to what has been called the orientation of the coffin, which is ordered to be so placed that the four winds may blow upon the four sides of it. The last chapter of the Ritual has relation to the hypokephalaion, which is to be placed under the head of the deceased. According to the rubrical directions, indeed, this chapter ought to be said over an image of gold placed at the throat of the dead, and should be painted on a book of linen, or papyrus, placed under his head. It is supposed to revive the vital warmth of the mummy. These disks, or hypokephalaia, as they have been called, represent the pupils of the mystical Eyes of the Sun; and the delineations depicted on them are supposed to be seen in the mystical Eyes. The book, or chapter, is indeed highly mystical, and is, to its rubrical directions, to be kept a profound secret. The terms in which the Cow is addressed {156} in long polysyllabic words evidently represent the form of an idiom not Egyptian. At the end of it are the words "it is ended," the common Egyptian "finis." This last chapter is not found on Rituals or monuments of an early date, and the precise time of its introduction here is uncertain. It can, however, hardly be older than the 26th Dynasty, for, although some of the mystical names resemble those in the so-called secret writing of the 2lst, they differ from them in many essential particulars.

XXIII. The next three chapters are supplementary, though really connected with the 162nd. They are not only stated to be supplementary, but also to form "a second Book to that of the Coming forth as the Sun;" from which it is to be presumed that the 162nd chapter closes the long series of the subdivisions of the Great Ritual, commencing with the first chapter. They consist of two versions of the mystical Eyes. The mystical names, it will be observed, have relation chiefly to Amen-Ra, a God who has hitherto scarcely appeared in the Ritual. They seem to be derived from the language of Hes, who belonged to the Pet or An of the land of Kens or Nubia. The last of these chapters, which is for the same purpose as the preceding, is filled with similar expressions, derived from the same mythology. With them the Ritual closes; and they undoubtedly belong to the later development of the religion, as they contain names, repetitions or variations of which are only found in the Rituals of the Gnostics or Valentinians.

Considered as a whole, the Ritual is the most important of the religious texts which have come down to the present day, as regards the extent and variety of information that it affords. At the same time it must be borne in mind that the deities referred to are either strictly Solar, or peculiarly attached to the Hades, or infernal regions. The great Theban and Memphite {157} and Elephantinean Triads rarely appear. The information throughout is destitute of these esoteric explanations which alone could confer on it a vitality or intelligible meaning. Like all Oriental writings, its mysteries are conveyed in allegorical language, the principal personages being often alluded to by epithets, or qualifications, rather than by their proper names, and their actions are shortly and elliptically described. The style is concise and straightforward, and devoid of metaphor and indulges in none of those flights of imagination or luxuriances of the pen which distinguish the heroic official bulletins of the temples, or the familiar correspondence of the Theban scribes. It is scarcely possible to conceive that the whole is of a poetic nature, although possibly some portions, such as the psalms or prayers of the rising and setting sun, may have had a rhythmic or even a metrical flow.

So important a book has naturally not altogether escaped the attention of hieroglyphical students, or remained entirely untranslated. Champollion, in his description of the Papyri of the Vatican[43], gave some account of it; there are short translations in the works of Cailliaud[44] and Ideler[45], in the catalogue of the Egyptian collection of the Louvre[46]; and more numerous extracts from it or its texts are given by Champollion in his Letters[47], Grammar[48], and Dictionary[49]. All these together, however, are far from furnishing a general idea of the Ritual, its scope, or its contents. The first attempt at an intelligible ac- {158} count of the whole, accompanied by a translation of several chapters, was that of Dr. Hincks, no doubt a valuable introduction to its study[50]. Then M. Seyffarth produced a burlesque interpretation of a few chapters[51]; and M. Brugsch subsequently gave a short precis[52] with some translations.[53] Useful portions of various Rituals, and valuable translations of different chapters, have also been given by M. de Rouge[54], by M. Chabas[55] and Mr. Heath[56]; and some by myself[57], and more recently by M. Uhlemann, one of the misguided followers of Seyffarth[58]. A general account of its contents has been given by M. Francois Lenormant[59]. All these together, however, will convey a comprehensive idea of the extent of the Ritual, its nature, and the mystical character of the work.

It now only remains to offer a few observations on the translation here given. The text adopted has its basis in that of the so-called Ritual of Turin, published by Lepsius, in his "Todtenbuch." This long funereal papyrus, and probably on the whole the most complete exists in the museums of Europe, was copied in 1836 by Lepsius, and the copy collated a second time in 1841 and published at Leipzig in 1842; since which time it has formed {159} the groundwork or canon of comparison for subsequent writers in examining other papyri. It was originally supposed to have been written at a very early period in Egyptian history, but modern critics now consider it not older than the age of the Ptolemies, perhaps even later. Still, with a very few exceptional passages, the hieroglyphs, as they appear in the text, are the same as those in use during the 18th Dynasty, and it is a comparatively recent copy of some version or versions not posterior to the 18th or 19th Dynasties. The author has availed himself of the labours of others in rendering these chapters of which they have given translations, but without servilely following them as to the meaning. By examining several papyri he believes he has been enabled to give a more precise meaning to several passages than is to be gleaned from the Turin version. But a critical running commentary on the whole would not only have been more voluminous than the scope of the present volume will allow, but it would have required more time and leisure than he has at his command. Such a task must be left to a future inquirer, sent by some enlightened government to complete his studies in the museums of Europe; and it is possible that France or Prussia, animated hereafter by the traditional encouragement they have afforded to the cultivation of literature, and in their zeal for intellectual rather than material culture, may undertake the task. The world is already indebted to them for their noble publications of the monuments of Egypt; they have already shown that, animated by the highest motives, they have not coldly or disdainfully left to unaided individual enterprise the performance of a task beyond its strength. Besides the Turin text, other valuable ones have been prepared: as that of the scribe Nebset, by M. A. Mallet[60], belonging to the {160} museum of the Louvre; the hieratic ritual of Paris, by M. de Rouge[61] and those given by Dr. Lepsius in his Denkmaler[62], and Dr. Leemans[63].

The present translation, the first which has been attempted of the whole of this mystical book, will probably furnish matter for criticism, and may hereafter be improved; but it will at least be found to have embodied the genera1 sense of the different chapters, and to have given an adequate idea of the whole book. It will also form, with the translations made up to the present time of various hieratic papyri and other document, and the grammar and dictionary of this work, a useful chrestomathy for students.

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{161}
THE FUNEREAL RITUAL[64]

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[The Manifestation to Light]

[Vignette representing the Procession of the Dead to the sepulchre and accompanying ceremonies.]

OH Bull of the West! says Thoth[66], King eternal, I am the Great God at the divine keel [bark]. I have contended for you. I am one of the chief Gods justifying Osiris against his enemies, the day of weighing the words of thy evildoers, oh Osiris! I am one of the Gods born of Nu [Rhea, or the Primordial water], smiting the accusers of the meek one, taking the profane there. I look to thy evildoers, oh Har [Horus]! I have fought for thee. I have succeeded [passed] in thy name. I am Thoth, justifier of the words of Horus against his enemies, the day of weighing words in the great abode in An [Heliopolis]. I am Tat, the son of Tat, conceived in Tat, born in Tat. I am with the {162} wives of Osiris lamenting over Osiris in the Region of the Dead, justifying Osiris against his accusers. The Sun says to Thoth: Stop them, justify Osiris against his enemies. The stoppage is made; says Thoth.

I am with Horus the day of clothing Tesh-tesh [the Nile], to open the door to wash the heart of the meek one, keeping secret the secret places in Rusta. I am with Horus supporting the right shoulder of Osiris in Skhem. I come and go from the Realms of Fire [the Phlegethon]. I expel the wicked [or the opposers] from Skhem. I am with Horus the day of the Festival of Osiris Onnophris, justified, making the sacrifice of the Sun the day of the Festival of the 6th and 10th in Annu [Heliopolis]. I am the priest in Tattu, the spondist of Abydos, growing tall among the tall. I am the priest in Abydos, the day of calling the world. I see the hidden places of the Rusta. I am the maker of the Festivals of the Spirit Lord of Tattu. I am the blessed (?) of his keeping. I am the great workman who made the Ark of Socharis on the stocks. I am the receiver of the Festival of ploughing the Earth [khebsta] in the land of Suten-Khen [Bubastis].

Oh Companions of Souls made in the House of Osiris, accompany ye the Soul of the Osiris[67] with yourselves to the House of Osiris. Let him see as ye see, let him hear as ye hear, let him stand as ye stand, let him sit as ye sit. Oh Givers of food and drink to the Spirits, Souls made in the House of Osiris! give ye food and drink in due season to the Osiris with yourselves. Oh Openers of Roads! Oh Guides of Paths to the Soul made in the abode of Osiris! open ye the roads, level ye the paths to the Osiris with yourselves. He enters the Gate of Osiris. He goes in with exultation, he comes out in peace. The Osiris is {163} neither stopped nor turned away. He goes in as he wishes, he comes out as he likes. He is justified, he does what he is ordered in the House of Osiris, he proffers his words with you. The Osiris goes to the West in peace. He is not found wanting in the Balance. I do not make or reckon my judgment in many parts, thy Soul is set up [stands up] to the face. It has been found sound-mouthed [truthful] upon earth. I place myself before thee, oh God of the Gods! I have penetrated the Region of the Two Truths. I rise as a living God, I set like the Daimons in heaven. I am like one of you, placing the foot in Kal, I see the great constellation which traverses the ether. The Lords of the Gate or the Daimons do not turn me back from seeing it. I smell the kuphi of the Gods seated with them. I have hailed the Priest of the Chest, I have listened to the peaceful prayers. I have kept on the deck. My Soul has not been turned away from its master.

Hail, Dweller in the West! Osiris, Lord of the Region of the great Winds![68] let me stand in peace at the West! The Lords of the Hill receive me. They say to me, Glory, glory in peace [or rather, Come, come in peace]. They give me a place where is the chief of the Great Gods. The two Nurse-Goddesses receive me at the time. I come before Onnophris justified. I follow Har [Horus] in Rusta, Osiris in Tattu. I make all the transformations to place my heart in every place in which I desire it to be.

Let this book be known on earth. It is made in [pictures of] writing on the coffin. It is the chapter by which he comes out every day as he wishes, and he goes to his house. He is not turned back. There are given to him food and drink, slices of flesh off the altar of the Sun. When he passes from the fields of the Aahlu [Elysium], corn and barley are given to him out of them. For he is supplied as he was on earth.

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II. The chapter of coming forth as the sun, and living after death[65].

OH One gleaming in the Moon! I come forth from thy multitudes. I revolve. Those who belong to the Spirits take me. I have opened the Gate. Then the Osiris comes forth from the day, having done what they have wished on earth among the living.

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III. Another chapter like it.

OH Tum! oh Tum! coming forth from the great place within the celestial abyss, lighted by the Lion-Gods. The words of the Lion or those who belong to the Phallus. The blessed Osiris has come from their corner doing all thy work ordered. Oh Workmen of the Sun, by day and by night! the Osiris lives after he dies like the Sun daily; for [as] the Sun died, and was born yesterday, [so] the Osiris is born. Every God rejoices with life; the Osiris rejoices, as they rejoice, with life. I am Thoth, who comes out of the temple of Annu [Heliopolis].

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IV. The chapter of Passing through the Road above the Earth.

I AM the one leaving the cold, guiding the Lion-Gods. I have come, I have given the fields to the Osiris.

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V. The chapter of How a Person avoids doing work in Hades.

I REQUIRE a quiet Soul coming alive at the hour, from, the hearts of the Apes [fascinaters] or turners away.

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VI. The chapter of Making the working Figures of Hades.

[Vignette—A figure.]

OH Figures! Should this Osiris have been deemed for all the work to be done in Hades, when the evil has dragged a person beneath it. Let me call on you to perform constantly what is to be done there, to plough the fields, to draw waters out of the wells to transport the food of the East to the West. Let me call you to obey the Osiris.

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VII. The chapter of Escaping out of the Folds of the great Serpent.

OH the Captain (?) capturing, taking by theft the living and dying! Thou hast not quieted me; no poison comes on my hands. For if thou dost not crouch, I do not crouch to thee. Thy sins have not come, found out on these my hands. I am one out of the nostril of the heaven. My acts are the acts of the Gods, I am the mysteriously named arranger of places for millions. I am the emanation of Tum. I am the one who knows.

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VIII. The chapter of Passing through the West as the Sun or Day.

THE hour opens, I shut the head of Thoth, the Eye of Horus instructs. I make the Eye of Horus, the splendour of the decorations in the tip of the Sun, the Father of the Gods. I am the same Osiris who is the Lord of the West. Osiris has known his Gate in which I am not. I am Set among the Gods. I do not die. Stand thou, oh Horus he has been reckoned among the Gods.

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IX. The chapter of Passing through the West as the Sun does, and of passing the Doorway.

OH Soul! greatest of things created, let the Osiris go. Having seen he passes from the Gate, he sees his father {166} Osiris, he makes his way in the darkness to his father Osiris, he is his beloved, he has come to see his father Osiris, he has pierced the heart of Set to do the things of his father Osiris, he has opened all the paths on heaven and earth, he is the son beloved of his father, he has come from the mummy, a prepared Spirit. Oh Gods and Goddesses give way!

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X. The chapter of Coming forth with Justification.

I COME forth with justification against my enemies; I have reached the heaven, I have passed through the earth. I have crossed the earth at the footsteps of the blessed Spirits, a living chief. I am prepared with millions of his charms. I eat with my mouth, I void. Because I then am the God Lord of the Gate. I have done so, firm in conduct.

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XI. The chapter of Coming forth against his Enemies in Hades.

OH Eater of his hand going on his way! I am the Sun who comes out of the horizon against his enemies. He does not correct or he does not take me. I eat my hand as the Lord of the Crown. I do not hold or I do not raise my feet, for I am Shai. My enemies make no injury or overthrowing of me. It is not able to do it to me. He has not taken [from] me. I stood as Har [Horus]; I sat as Ptah; I prevailed as Thoth; I was powerful as Tum. I have walked with my feet, I have spoken with my mouth; I escape from him, he does not take me.

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XII. The chapter of the Going in and coming out by the Osiris.

THOU hast turned back [Hail to thee], oh Sun! the holder of the secrets of the Gate in the abode of Seb at the balance of the Sun, who places the feather in it {167} daily. May I have trampled the earth, may I go as a powerful one!

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XIII. The chapter of the Going in after the coming out.

I went in as a Hawk, I came out as a Phoenix. I have made me a path. I adore the Sun in the happy West. Plaited are the [plaiting the] locks of Osiris. I follow the dogs of Har [Horus]. A path has been made for me. Glory! glory to Osiris!

Said [over] the drop [of an earring] of ankham flower placed on the left ear of the Spirit, with a second drop of cloth of fine linen. The name of the Osiris is placed on it the day of the funeral.

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XIV. The chapters of Rubbing away the Stain from the Heart (?) of the Osiris.

Hail to thee sending moments, dwelling in all hidden places! Declare thou the words to the Osiris. His great sin is not divine, or his fault complete, falling into the hands of the Lord of Truth, for I have corrected the injuring evil in him, the God turns the evil to truth, correcting his fault. The God Contention is then as the God Peace, with the great hold he has in his hand. I have brought it to thee. Thou livest by it, the Osiris lives by it, he is at rest, obliterating all the stain [evil] which is in the heart by it.

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XV.

Hail, Sun, Lord of Sunbeams! shine thou in the face of the Osiris. He has been adored in the Gateway, he has sat at the twilight. His Soul comes forth with thee [the Sun] to the heaven, proceeding in the cabin, towed in the Ark. It moves as the never-resting Gods in the heaven.

The Osiris says, in worshiping the Lord of the Age: Hail, oh Sun, creator, self-created! Perfect is thy light {168} in the horizon, illuminating the world with thy rays. All the Gods rejoice when they see the King of the Heaven. The Lady of the Hours is placed upon thy head, the upper and lower crown are placed on thy brow: she is placed before thee; coming figured in the forepart of the Boat, tormenting thy enemies in the Gate who come to stop thy person, looking at this thy good form. I have come to thee, I am with thee beholding thy disk daily. Do not dissipate me, do not turn me away, my substance subsists so that I may see thy perfections like all thy subjects, because I am one of thy great types on earth. I have followed the Land of the Age. I have reached the Land of the Age, when thou hast ordered every God, oh Sun!

Hail, shining in the horizon on the day thou hast traversed the heaven in peace, justifying all faces who rejoice to see thee walking from the hidden to them! Thou hast been placed at the Empyreal Gate every day, grown and formed under thy form. Thy rays are in their faces. Unknown is thy gold, indescribable is thy colour, in the Region of the Gods [say] we are beholding all the colours of Pant. It has been examined hidden on their faces. Thou hast been made the one alone in his being, in thy transformation in the ether. May I go as I have gone? I do not dance like thy form, oh Sun! not being the Great Ruler borne along in the river of millions and billions of moments. Young thou makest them pass, thou settest, thou darkenest the hours, or the days, and nights, like as thou hast heaped them; thou hast darkened thy colours, illuminating the world; thy arms have been made strong by the Sun, thou shinest in the heaven.

He has adored in the Gate at thy setting. He speaks to thee when rising, in adoration. Prolong thy transformation, risen, or great in thy perfections, smiting and gilding thyself, producing them, not born in the horizon, shining above. May I have reached the upper part of {169} ages in the abode of thy servants! I combine with the noble Spirits, the wise of the Hades. I come forth with them to see thy perfections. Thou shinest at dawn, thou followest thy mother Nu, directing thy face to the West. My hands adore thy setting, thou settest from the Land of Life. Then thou art making an age, adored in peace in the Nu [firmament], placed in thy heart, invincible are thy divine years, they are made to all Gods.

Glory to thee, shining in the firmament, illuminating the world on the day when he has been born, produced by thy mother out of her hands! Thou hast shone, thou hast rendered it divine. The great light shining in the heaven, supporting its adorers by thy stream, making festive all countries, cities, gates, and houses daily supported by thy goodness, preparing food, things, supplies, giving victory, prevailer of prevailers [first of the first], obliterating every place for faults, the great king crowned in the cabin, the great one capped in the Ark. Thou illuminatest the Osiris in Hades, thou lettest him be in the West, smiting the evil, placing him out of sin, letting him to be with the great blessed. He has followed the Spirits from the Hades, he has been conducted from the fields of the Aahenru [Elysium] after proceeding in joy.

I proceed to the heaven, I go over the clouds, I kneel [I bend] as [or in] the stars. Adoration has been made to me in the Bark. I have been addressed in the cabin. I saw the Sun in the midst of his box when I hailed the disk daily. I see the Perch in his transformations in the waters coming forth in splendour. I see the Silurus (?) each time when he attacks his enemies. He has felt my blows cutting his back. I open to thee, oh Sun! a good sail [wind]; it destroys, it breaks. The ministers of the Sun rejoice to see him the Living Lord; his heart rejoices, he has overthrown all his enemies. When I see Horus at the ropes, Thoth at its [the Boat's] hands: all the Gods rejoice when they see him {170} coming in peace, animating the heart of Spirits! The Osiris is with them, his heart is delighted.

Hail, coming as Tum, created by the creator of the Gods! Hail, thou piercing the Gateway, traversing all doors! Hail, thou who hast come as the Soul of souls reserved in the West! Hail, thou judge[s] of the Gods, weighing words in the Hades! Hail, thou over the Gods, illuminating the Gateway with his perfections! Hail, thou in the west, making the Gateway by his intelligence! Hail, thou descending light, formed in his disk! Hail, thou magnified and enlarged, thy enemies fall on their blocks! Hail, thou greater than the Gods, rising in the heaven, ruling in the Gate! Hail, thou who hast cut in pieces the Scorner and strangled the Apophis! Give thou the sweet breath of the North wind to the Osiris!

Haroeris, the great guide of the world, at peace in the Hill of the Amenti, illuminating the Gateway with his light, the Souls in their secret places, the Light dwelling in the horizon, putting forth evil against the wicked, has opened. Thou hast strangled thy enemies.

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Adoration to Tum who sets from the Land of Life.

THE Osiris says, in adoring the Sun, the Horus of the two horizons, when he sets from the Land of Life: Glory to thee, oh Sun! Glory to thee, oh Tum, in thy course perfected, crowned, prevailing! Thou hast traversed the heaven, thou hast perambulated the earth, thou hast followed above in yellow, thou hast lodged dancing. The Gods of the West give thee glory, they rejoice at thy perfections. Adored are [thy] secret places. Thou hast purified the Chiefs, thou hast created the life of the earth for them, conducted by those in the horizon, towed by those belonging to the cabin. They say: Glory to thee! arresting thy person "coming, approaching in peace." Thou hast been addressed as the Lord of Heaven, Ruler of Hades, clasped [by] thy mother Nu. Seeing in thee {171} her son the Lord of Terror, greatest of the terrible, setting from the Land of Life, she became obscure. Thy father Tann, the Lord of the Earth, has been transported, his arms have been whirled behind thee: transformed and made a God upon earth, he has placed thee among the blessed. For the Osiris justified in peace is the Sun himself.

Said when the Sun sets from the Land of Life, his hands drooping.

GLORY to thee, oh Tum, setting from the Land of Life, in the colours of the Gate! Hail, thou, setting from the Land of Life, Father of the Gods! Thy mother accompanies thee from Ma nu, her arms receive thee daily. Thy person is typified [?] in Socharis, having rejoiced as thou wishest. The doors in the horizon have opened to thee, thou settest from the hill of the West. Thy splendours! they reach the earth and illumine the earth; the attached to the West and the adorers come forth to see thee daily. The Gods give thee welcome from earth. Thy servant is "Being" [I]. In thy following is the reserved Soul, the engendered of the Gods who provided him with his shapes. Inexplicable is the semsem [genesis], it is the greatest of secrets. Thou art the good Peace of the Osiris. Oh Creator, Father of the Gods, incorruptible! What is in this book is eternal. I establish myself through it, I have said what has been disposed in it, at peace through the abundance. Loaded is my shoulder with food and drink. I combine [agree, do] as the book, arranging it in great pace.

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XVI.

1. Deceased adoring Sun's boat. 2. Goddesses of West and East adoring Light. 3. Shu lifting the disk to be adored by the eight Apes. 4. Ancestral worship.

[Here ends "The Manifestation to Light"]

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{172}

[The Egyptian Faith]

[Vignette.—The Deceased in Hall,—the boat of the Ram rowed by the Kings,—the deceased and Khem,—the West,—Horizon and Lions,—Bennu,—Bier of Osiris,—Abode with Snakes,—Eye,—Cow, &c.]

I AM Tum, the only being in Nu [the firmament]. I am the Sun when he rises. His rule commences when he has done so. Let him explain it. The Sun is in his rising when the rule which he has made begins, the Sun begins, rising in Suten Khen [Bubastis]; being in existence, Nu elevates the firmament; he is on the floor which is in Sesennu [Hermopolis]. He has strangled the children of wickedness on the floor of those in Sesen [Hermopolis].

I am the Great God creating himself. It is Water, or Nu, who is the father of the Gods. Let him explain it. The Sun is the creator of his body, the engenderer of the Gods who are the successors of the Sun.

I am [the one] never stopped by the Gods. Let him explain it. Tum or the Sun in his disk, when he shines from the Eastern horizon of heaven.

I am Yesterday. I know the Morning. Let him explain it. Yesterday is Osiris, the Morning the Sun; the day on which are strangled the deriders of the Universal Lord, when his son Horus has been invested; or the day is the victory of his arms, when the chest of Osiris has been confronted by his father the Sun.

He has given battle for the Gods, when Osiris, Lord of the hill of the West, ordered him. Let him explain it. The West is what the Souls of the Gods have had made for them, when Osiris, the Lord of the West, orders {173} [it]; the West is the Future, it is where the Sun has made every God go to, when he has fought there.

I know the Great God who is in it [the West]. Let him explain it. He is Osiris, or Adorer of the Sun is his name, Soul of the Sun is his name. Begotten by himself is his name.

I am the great Phoenix which is in Annu [Heliopolis]. I am the Former of beings and existences. Let him explain it. The Bennu [Phoenix] is Osiris who is in Annu [Heliopolis]. The Creator of beings and existences is his body; or it is Eternity and Ages. The Age [Aion] is the day; Eternity is the night.

I am Khem in his two manifestations, on whose head are placed two plumes. Let him explain it. Khem-Horus is the sustainer of his father Osiris. His manifestation is his birth. The plumes on his head are Isis and Nephthys, walking to place themselves behind him, when they are mourners [birds], then they are placed on his head; or the plumes are the great asps before his father Tum, or his eyes are the plumes on his head.

I am from earth, I have come from the city. Let him explain it. That is the horizon of his father Tum. Evil destroying evil. Let him explain it. What has been cut away is the corruption of the Osiris. Scraped away is the the evil he retains. Let him explain it.

Clean is the Osiris the day he was born in the great nest of the great one who is in Suten-khen [Bubastis].

The day when the Spirits of that Great God, who is in it, are pure. Let him explain it. Passer of Years is one name, Ocean is another name. The Pool of Natron and the Pool of Salt [?], or Generator of Years is one name, Ocean is another name. For there is a Great God in it. It is the Sun himself.

Going on the way, I knew the head of the Pool of the two Truths. Let him explain it. Rusta is the Southern Gateway, Anrutf is the Northern Gateway of the abode of Osiris. For the Pool of the two {174} Truths is Abydos, or it is the path by which his father Tum goes when he goes forth to the fields of the Aahenru, approaching to the Region of the Horizon.

I go from the Gate of the Taser [Hill]. Let him explain it. The Aahenru is the producer of grain for the Gods behind the chest. The Gate of the Taser, it is the Gate of the transit of Shu. There is the North Gate, it is the Gate of the doorway; or they are the doors through which his father Tum goes forth when he goes forth to the Eastern horizon of the heaven [saying] to those who belong to his race.

Give me your arm, I am made as ye. Let him explain it. The blood is that which proceeds from the member of the Sun, after he goes along cutting himself. Those Gods who are made attached to the generation of the Sun are Hu [taste], Ka [touch]: they are followers of their father Tum daily.

The Osiris has filled the Eye after he went and woke it the day of contending of the two Lion-Gods. Let him explain it. It is the day of the battle between Horus and Set, when [Set] he puts forth the ropes against Horus, when Horus has [not] taken the gemelli of Set. Thoth did the same with his own fingers.

The Osiris has bound his hair to the Eye at the time of battle. Let him explain it. It is the left Eye of the Sun when it sheds blood after he sends it, for Thoth is the binder of his hair, he brings it round, not fallen down, to its Lord; or, for the Eye wastes when it weeps. The second time Thoth was wiping it [?].

The Osiris has seen the Sun who is born in the star [morn] at the thigh of the Great Water [Cow]. The Osiris goes forth, he goes forth in turn. Let him explain it. Nu [water] is the Water of the heaven; or, the image of the Eye of the Sun is the Gate in which he has been born daily. The Great Water [Cow] is the Eye of the Sun, because it is one of the Gods who belong to Horus; whose words exceed {175} the wish of the Lord. Let him explain it. [They are] Amset, Hapi, Tuautmutf, Kabhsenuf.

Hail, ye Lords of Truth, Chiefs behind Osiris, smiting for faults, Followers of Her whose peace is sure [Heptskhes]! Let me come to you without fault. I do as ye do to the Seven Great Spirits in the service of their Lord, the Creator [or Judgment]. Anup made their places on that day [they answer] of our coming to you. Let him explain it. The Gods, Lords of Truth, I am Thoth and Astes Lord of the West; the Chiefs behind Osiris are Amset, Hapi, Tuautmutf, and Kabhsenuf. These same are behind the constellation of the Thigh [Ursa major] of the Northern heaven. The Givers of blows for sins, the Followers of Heptskhes, are crocodiles in the water. Heptskhes is the Eye of the Sun or Fire, the Followers of Osiris burning the wicked souls of his enemies. For if there is evil I guard his Eye from the Lords of the Age, whilst he proceeds from the belly of his mother. These Seven Spirits are Amset, Hapi, Tuautmutf, and Kabhsenuf, Maaentefef, Karbukef, Harkhent S'Khem. Anup places them for the protection of the coffin of Osiris, behind the wash-house of Osiris; or, these Seven Spirits are Het-het, Ket-ket, The Bull who never made smoke to swell in his flames, Going eating his hour, Red-eyes, Follower of the House of Ans, Hissing to come forth and turn back, seeing at night and bringing at day. The Chiefs are of Anrutf; the eldest is of his father the Sun. It is the day when we come to you. Says Osiris to the Sun: Come, behold me! The Sun stops himself in the West.

I am the Soul in his two halves. Let him explain it. Osiris goes into Tattu, he binds the soul of the Sun there. One and the other are united. He is transformed into his soul from his two halves, who are the sustainer of his father, and Horus who dwells in the shrine; or, the soul in his two halves is the soul of the Sun and the soul of Osiris, the soul {176} of Shu, the soul of Tefnu, the souls who belong to Tattu.

I am the Great Cat which is in the Pool of Persea, which is at Annu [Heliopolis], the night of the battle made to bind the wicked, the day of strangling the enemies of the Universal Lord there. Let him explain it. The Great Cat which is in Tattu, at the Pool of the Persea, placed in Annu [Heliopolis], is the Sun himself, called a cat. For he has been called cat [by name] Ra, for it is like what he has done, he has made his transformation into a cat[70]; or it is Shu making the likeness [?] of Seb and Osiris. For those who are in the Pool of the Persea, which is in Annu [Heliopolis], are those born wicked justifying what they do. For the night of the battle their march is from the East of the heaven. The battle is made in heaven and on the whole earth.

The Sun in his egg, gleaming in orb, shining from his horizon, floating in his clouds, who hates sins, forced along by the conducting of Shu, without an equal among the Gods, who gives blasts of flame from his mouth, illuminating the world with his splendour. Save thou the Osiris from that God whose forms are mystic. His eyebrows are the arms of the Balance, the night of Theft-reckoning. Let him explain it. He is Arm-bringer. The night of Theft-reckoning is the night [ending] of flame against the fallen. The accuser of the sinful to be dragged to his block, punishing souls. Let him explain it. It is Maget, it is the annihilator of Osiris; or, it is Sap, he is with a head bearing Truth; or, it is the Hawk, who is with heads, one is having [or supporting] Truth, another has Sin, he has made the one having Sin to cause Truth to come under [bearing] it; or, it is Har who dwells in Skhem; or, it is Thoth; or, it is Nefer-Tum son of Bast. Oh Chiefs who return things to the enemies of the Universal Lord. Save ye the Osiris from the chief con- {177} ductors, and the inferior executioners. The meek man injured does not escape from their custody. Those attached to Osiris do not prevail over me, I do not proceed to their braziers, because I know them, I know the name of Maget, who belongs to them in the House of Osiris. His bow is in his hand; he is invisible, going round in that region, with flame in his mouth, to Hapi he gives orders. He is invisible. The Osiris lived sound on earth like Ita; he has a good sleep like Osiris. I have made no opposition to those who are over their [lamps] censers, because they are the servants of the Universal Lord [or] Khepra in the pictures. The Osiris flies as a hawk and cackles as a goose; he does not perish for an age like Nahab. Let him explain it. It is Anup, it is Horus, it is he who dwells in S'Khem; or, it is Horus of the place of turning back; or, it is the Chiefs stopping the enemies of the Universal Lord there; or, it is the Great Opener of the place of Rejection. They do not exult there. I do not proceed to their braziers. Let him explain it. The images there over their censers are the image of the Sun, and the image of the Eye of Horus.

Oh, Lord of the Great Abode, Chief of the Gods! save thou the Osiris from the God whose face is in the [shape of] a dog, with the eyebrows of men; he lives off the fallen at the angle of the Pool of Fire, eating the body and digesting the heart, spitting out the bodies. He is invisible. Let him explain it. Eater of Millions is his name. He is in the Pool of Pant [Red Sea]. For there is the Pool of Fire, which is in the Region of Anrutft at the Place of the Rejection. Every one who treads in it deficient falls to his blows; or, Hardness [Sword] is his name, he who is the doorkeeper of the West; or, Beba is his name, he who is the watcher of the of the West; or, He who is over Time is his name.

Oh, victorious Lord, presiding