Egyptian Book of the Dead

CHAPTER LXXIV.

CHAPTER LXXIV. Chapter whereby the legs are set in motion upon earth. Do what thou hast to do, O Sekaru ( twice ); as The god who is in his own house, and as The god who standeth on his legs in the Netherworld. I shine above the Leg( 1 ) as I come forth in Heaven, but I lie helpless with corpselike face. Oh I faint, I faint, as I advance; I faint, I faint before the teeth of those whose mouth raveneth in the Netherworld. Note. 1. The Leg. In this place, as in chapter 98 and other texts, a constellation in the northern sky is meant, which many years ago I identified with Cassiopeia. 139 This constellation, according to chapter 98, is in the Northern sky and in the Great Stream [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] , by which I understand the “Milky Way.” This position is also in accordance with the ancient text on the Coffin of Amamu, pl. XXVI, line 22. The Leg is as close to the Pole as the Great Bear (called the Thigh in Egyptian Astronomy) but in the opposite direction, and in consequence of this position it never sets below the horizon. Hence in the Pyramid Texts (Pepi I, 411 and Merenrā 589) it is called [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] . And here, according to these texts, as in the Book of the Dead (see chapter 86), purification was obtained. The god [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] (also named among the 42 judges) whose face looks backwards, and who is said to be gate keeper of Osiris, must be a star ( e.g. γ Cepheus) in the immediate neighbourhood of the Polar Star which represented Osiris. On the ancient coffins of Amamu and Sit-Bastit there is a chapter [87] for assuming the form of a Vulture [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] , in which the speaker says “I am the Vulture god who is on the [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] .” I suspect that in the formula [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] said of Osiris on the stelæ of the twelfth dynasty, the constellation in heaven and not a place at Abydos was meant. 86 . Brugsch, Rec. , II, pl. 63. The whole tomb has now been published by M. Bénédite in the Mémoires de la Mission Archéologique au Caire , tome 5. 87 . It was afterwards incorporated with chapter 149.