Message #120527

[Josie Linde]

hyenas.[1] Behold, I gather together the charm from every place where it is and from every man with whom it is,[2]' swifter than greyhounds and fleeter than light. (4) Hail thou who towest along the makhent boat of Ra, the stays of thy sails and of thy rudder are taut in the wind as thou sailest over the Lake of Fire in Neter-khert. Behold, thou gatherest together the charm (5) from every place where it is and from every man with whom it is, swifter than greyhounds and fleeter than light, [the charm] which createth the forms of existence from the (6) mother's thigh (?) and createth the gods from (or in) silence, and which giveth the heat of life unto the gods.[3] Behold, the charm is given unto me from wheresoever it is [and from him with whom it is], swifter than greyhounds and fleeter than light," or, (as others say), " fleeter than a shadow."

Appendix: The following chapter, which generally appears in other early copies of the Book of the Dead, is closely connected with the preceding chapter. It is here taken from the Papyrus of Nebseni.

(1) [CHAPTER XXV.] THE CHAPTER OF CAUSING THE DECEASED TO REMEMBER HIS (2) NAME IN NETER-KHERT. [He saith]: "May my name be given unto me in the great Double House, and may I remember my name in the House of Fire on the (3) night of counting the years and of telling the number of the months. I am with the Holy One, and I sit on the eastern side of heaven. If any god advanceth unto me, (4) forthwith I proclaim his name."

Vignette: The scribe Ani, clothed in white, and with his heart in his right hand, addressing the god Anubis.[4] Between them is a necklace of several rows of

[1. Var. behiu, an animal which is identified with the hyaena croenta by Hartmann (see Aeg. Zeit., 1864, p. 12, Col. 2).

2. Reading with the Nebseni papyrus ###.

3. Here the text is different from any given by Naville. The chief variants are ###, "which createth the gods from (or in) silence, and which maketh them powerless"; and ### "which maketh the gods to speak [from being] silent, and which maketh them speechless."

4. In the vignettes of this chapter published by M. Naville (Todtenbuch, Bd. I., Bl. 38) the deceased is represented: (1) seated, and addressing his heart, which stands on a support; (2) standing, holding in his hands a heart, which he offers to three deities. Another vignette represents a priest tying a heart on to a statue of the deceased; and in the late recension of the Book of the Dead published by Lepsius (Bl. 15) the deceased holds a heart to his left side and addresses a human-headed hawk emblematic of the soul.]

{p. 308}