CHAPTER LXXII.
_Chapter whereby one cometh forth by day and passeth through the
Ammchit._(1.)
Hail to you, ye Lords of Rule,(2.) devoid of Wrong, who are living for
ever, and whose secular period is Eternity.(3.) I make my way towards
you. Let me be glorified through my attributes; let me prevail through
my Words of Power, and let me be rated according to my merit.
Deliver me from the Crocodile(4.) of this Land of Rule.
Let me have a mouth wherewith I may speak, and let my oblations be
placed before you; because I know you, and I know your names: and I know
the name of that great god to whose nostrils ye present delicacies:
Tekmu is his name. And whether he maketh his way from the Eastern
Horizon of Heaven, or alighteth at the Western Horizon of Heaven, let
his departure be my departure, and his progress be my progress.
Let me not be stopped at the Meskat; let not the Sebau have mastery over
me; let me not be repulsed at your gates, let not your doors be closed
against me; for I have bread(5.) in Pu and beer in Tepu. And let me join
my two hands together(6) in the divine dwelling which my father Tmu hath
given me, who hath established for me an abode above the earth wherein
is wheat and barley of untold quantity, which the son of my own body
offereth to me there as oblations upon my festivals.
Grant me the funereal gifts, beef, fowl, bindings, incense, oil, and all
things good and pure upon which a deity subsists, regularly and
eternally, in all the forms I please.
Let me come down or go up to Sechit-aarru and arrive in Sechit-hotep.
I am the god in Lion form.
_If this book is learnt upon earth, or executed in writing upon the
coffin, he will come forth by day in all the forms he pleaseth, with
entrance into his house without repulse. And there shall be given to him
bread and beer and flesh-meat upon the table of Osiris. He will come
forth to Sechit-aarru, and there shall be given to him wheat and barley
there, for he will flourish as though he were upon earth, and he will do
all that pleaseth him, like those gods who are there: undeviatingly, for
times infinite._
NOTES.
This chapter is often found not only in papyri but upon coffins, in
accordance with the rubric at the end. The earliest copy is on the
coffin of Queen Mentuhotep. A very fine copy is on the alabaster
sarcophagus of Seti I, and our museums are rich in funereal monuments
inscribed with this ancient text. A very similar text is found at the
end of chapter 99.
1. _Ammehit_ is the name given in chapter 149 to the sixth abode in
Amenta, but here and in other places it is simply one of the names of
the Netherworld. In the inscriptions, for instance, of the tomb of Queen
Tita,[86] “passing through the two folding doors of the Ammehit” is in
parallelism with “going in and out of the divine Netherworld.”
2. _Lords of Rule._ This is the reading in most documents, but there are
others which have an equal claim to authority. The invocation is
sometimes made to the ⁂⁂ “those who are possessed of a _ka_,” that
is the “spirits made perfect,” those who have already passed through the
requisite trials, besides the gods who have never passed through the
stage of mortality, all of whom are possessed of a _ka_.
The invocation, according to another reading, which is that of chapter
99, is addressed to the ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ “those who are beautiful or
perfect of _ka_.” Here the papyri add _lords of rule_, and the
invocation, whatever the reading may be, is always addressed to those
who have in their power the laws which regulate the universe.
3. _Whose secular period is Eternity._ ⁂⁂⁂ _ḥentȧ_ is the
period of 120 years (see _Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch._, XIV, 264) which was
their αἰών, _aevum_, corresponding in idea, not in actual time, to our
century. The secular period of the gods is eternity.
4. _The Crocodile._ Are we to understand this of the crocodile-headed
monster pictured in the representations of the Psychostasia? These
pictures are not known to us from as early a date as the chapter itself,
but they may have existed. Perhaps, however, this passage may have
suggested them.
5. _Bread._ The Egyptian word ⁂ _ta_, like its homonym ⁂, implies
something _pierced_ or _perforated_. The sacrificial cake חַלָּה in
Leviticus viii, 26 has the same meaning and, like חַלִיל _a pipe_, is
connected with חָלָל, _perforavit_, _confodit_, _aperuit_, _profanavit_.
See _Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch._, 1893, p. 386.
⁂ _ta_, a door or gate, and some other homonyms evidently come under
the same conception; cf. _porta_ and πείρω.
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PLATE XXI.
BOOK OF THE DEAD.
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