Egyptian Book of the Dead

CHAPTER CXXXI.

CHAPTER CXXXI. Chapter whereby one proceedeth into Heaven by the side of Rā. ( 1 ) Oh Rā( 2 ) who art shining this night: if there be any one among thy followers, let him present himself living as a follower of Thoth, who causeth Horus to come forth this night. The heart of the Osiris is glad, because he is one at the head of them. His adversaries are brought to a stop by the warriors( 3 ) of the Osiris N , who is a follower of Rā, and hath taken his arms of steel. He cometh to thee, his father Rā, he followeth Shu and calleth for the Crown. He putteth on Hu( 4 ) and is arrayed with the Lock which is on the path of Rā and is his glory. And he arriveth at the Aged one, at the confines of the Mount of Glory, and the crown awaiteth him. The Osiris N raiseth it up. Thy Soul is with thee, and strong is thy Soul through the terror and the might which belong to thee, Oh Osiris N , who utterest the decrees which Rā hath spoken in Heaven. Hail to thee, great god in the East of Heaven, who enterest into the Bark of Rā in the form of the Divine Hawk and executest the decrees which have been uttered; thou who strikest with thy sceptre from thy Bark. The Osiris N entereth into thy Bark and saileth peacefully to the Fair West; and Tmu saith to him: Art thou coming in? Mehenit is millions upon millions in length from Amur to Ta-ur( 5 ) an endless river wherein the gods move. ( 6 ) ... whose path is in the fire; and they travel in the fire who come behind him. Notes. 1. None of the oldest papyri yet known contain this chapter. This of itself is not an argument against its antiquity, and there is 262 really no reason for supposing it to be less ancient than the chapter which precedes it. The latter portion of the text is, however, very corrupt and we have unfortunately no means as yet of correcting it. 2. O Rā. The name of the god is sometimes omitted in MSS. The context, however, requires its presence. It may nevertheless be asked: how can the Sun-god be said to be shining in the night? The question might as pertinently be asked: how can Horus (in the very same line) be said to come forth in the night? The answer to both these questions is that the Sun, whether as Rā or as Horus or Osiris, shines in the night through the agency of Thoth, the Moon. For further information see Notes to next chapter. 3. Warriors [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] . I take this group as = [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] or [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] . But a papyrus gives the variant [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] . 4. He putteth on Hu. This, is certainly obscure; but it is not the less in conformity with the doctrine of the Pyramid texts. The deceased ( Pepi I. 432, Merira 618) is borne to a region where he is fed from night till daybreak, and then seizes upon the god Hu, [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] . And according to other texts ( Unas , 446, Teta , 250) the deceased seizes ( [Source image: ⁂] ) upon Hu, and after Sau has been fastened to his feet enters the bark and seizes upon ( [Source image: ⁂] ) the Mount of Glory. 5. Mehenit [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] , or in the masculine form [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] , is the name of the mythological serpent which personifies the subterranean path from West to East of the Sun’s nightly course. In the Book of Hades ( e.g. on the Sarcophagus of Seti, passim ) it is represented as extending over the back, top and front of the shrine in which the Sun-god is borne in his Bark. The many folds of the serpent are symbolical of the turnings and windings of the river or canal ( [Source image: ⁂] ) over which the god is conveyed. This river is here described as infinite in length. This is one of the instances from which it is clear [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] , like the corresponding Coptic ⲟⲩⲉⲓ , has the meaning of length . See P.S.B.A. , XVII, 190. The length ‘from West to East’ is described as ‘from Amur to Taur ’ [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] . Amur is known from many texts to signify the West (see supra , Chapter 64, note 13 ). 263 The East is known as Ta-ur or Ta-urit . The royal Ritual at Abydos (Mariette, I. 37) says [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] . And as one of the values of the sign [Source image: ⁂] is ta as in [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] (Louvre, B. 14), I feel sure that we should read Ta-ur (or in the feminine Ta-urit ) rather than Nif-ur or Nif-urit , even in such passages as those quoted supra in Chapter 128, notes 1 and 2, which have no necessary references to earthly geography. 6. There is a corrupt passage here, which I have at present no means of correcting by manuscript authority. M. Pierret thus renders it: “Le dieu qui partage les paroles y fait son chemin de millions d’années, seigneur sans égal, dont le chemin est dans le feu.”