The Egyptian Book of the dead by P. Le Page Renouf and Edouard Naville

greatly in the texts. But if we wish rightly to understand the sense of the chapter, we must bear in mind that it is not the animals themselves that are meant, but the characteristics implied by the names of the animals. And as the Sanskrit _vṛkas_, the Greek λύκος, the old Slavonic _vluku_, the Gothic _vulfs_, and our own _wolf_, signify the _robber_, so does the Egyptian ⁂⁂⁂⁂, whether signifying _wolf_, _wolfhound_, or _bloodhound_, indicate _speed_. The names of the second animal in the earlier texts, whether they stand for hyænas ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, or for other animals of the chase (⁂⁂⁂⁂), imply either _speed_ or _ferocity_. And what must we understand under the latter term? We must look to the context. It is of a god speaking of himself and of his attributes. He is proud of them, and certainly does not wish them to be taken in a bad sense. Nor is it necessary that we should do so. We have only to remember what we learnt at school. Cicero (_de Sen._, 10, 33) contrasts the ‘ferocitas juvenum,’ the high _pluck_ of the young, with the ‘infirmitas puerorum,’ and the ‘gravitas’ and ‘maturitas’ of later periods of life. Livy uses the term _ferox_, in the same sense as Cicero. What we have to understand of the Egyptian expression is, ‘mettlesome, of high, unbridled spirit.’ In the later texts the _Bennu_ bird has been substituted for the beasts of the chase.