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

learned editor calls 1 B. This chapter is found in so very few copies that the text cannot as yet be restored. The two texts published by M. Naville differ widely from each other. It was known however down to the Roman period, though not inserted into copies of the Book of the Dead. It is called _Chapter of introducing the Mummy into the Tuat on the day of burial_. The 124th chapter bears a similar title. The word here translated mummy is probably not to be understood of the visible mummy, but of the living personality which it enclosed. The chapter opens with an invocation, “Hail to thee, who art in the sacred region of Amenta, the Osiris, [the deceased] knows thee and thy name, defend him from those Worms which are in Restau, who live upon the flesh of men and swallow their blood.” The names of the Worms were given, but in consequence of the gaps in the text they cannot now be recovered. The chapter finished with prayers in which the deceased identifies himself with Horus, who has taken possession of the throne which his father has given him; he has taken possession of heaven, and inherited the earth, and neither heaven nor earth shall be taken from him, for he is Râ, the eldest of the gods. His mother suckles him and offers him her breast, which is on the horizon at Dawn. [Illustration: VIGNETTE TO CHAPTER IX.] ----- Footnote 5: Sharpe, _E.I._, pl. 97. The papyrus _Da_ which is of the same period reads ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ in the title of Chapter 17, instead of ⁂⁂ ‘glory,’ ‘éclat.’ The ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ correspond by their name very closely with the _devas_ of Indian mythology, and the dead are called ⁂⁂⁂⁂ on the pious hypothesis of their having obtained ‘glory.’ The word has nothing to do with ‘intelligence.’ It is particularly applicable to the heavenly bodies, the sun, moon and stars—‘the glittering ones,’ and the horizon at sunrise ⁂ _ḫut_, and ⁂⁂⁂ ‘fire’ derive their names from their _éclat_. Footnote 6: See _Denkm._ II, 71 _b_, 72 _a_, _b_, 101 _b_; _cf._ 98 _h_, 116 _c_, and III, 260 _c_. Footnote 7: The evidence produced by W. Max Müller in behalf of this reading of the priestly name is quite convincing. Footnote 8: The human head (with a beard) sometimes given to the bird, merely indicates the _aivine_ nature of the soul. Footnote 9: This is one of the meanings of ⁂⁂⁂, but in this place it may simply mean ‘going round in a ship.’ ------------------------------------