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.

This constellation, according to chapter 98, is in the Northern sky and

in the _Great Stream_ ⁂⁂⁂, 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 ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. And here,

according to these texts, as in the Book of the Dead (see chapter 86),

purification was obtained.

The god ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ (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 ⁂⁂⁂,

in which the speaker says “I am the Vulture god who is on the

⁂⁂⁂⁂.”

I suspect that in the formula

⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ said of Osiris on the

stelæ of the twelfth dynasty, the constellation in heaven and not a

place at Abydos was meant.

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Footnote 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.

Footnote 87:

It was afterwards incorporated with chapter 149.

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