CHAPTER VI.

_Chapter whereby the funereal Statuettes may be made to do work for a

person in the Netherworld._

O Statuette(1.) there! Should I be called and appointed to do any of the

labours that are done in the Netherworld by a person according to his

abilities, lo! all obstacles have been beaten down for thee; be thou

counted for me at every moment, for planting the fields, for watering

the soil, for conveying the sands of east and west.

Here am I, whithersoever thou callest me.

NOTE.

1. This chapter is inscribed on the funereal statuettes, of which

enormous quantities are found; sometimes by hundreds in the

neighbourhood of a single mummy. Much information on the subject, both

archæological and philological, will be found in Mariette’s _Catalogue

Général des Monuments d’Abydos_, p. 25 and following, and in M. Loret’s

articles “Les Statuettes funéraires du Musée de Boulaq,” published in

the _Recueil de Travaux_, tomes IV and V.

In the earlier texts ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂,

⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂; in the later

⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. The latter word being read _ušebti_, has very

naturally been considered as derived from ⁂⁂⁂⁂, in Coptic

ⲟⲩⲱϣⲃ, ‘to answer.’ For the statuette is addressed at the beginning of

the chapter, and it replies at the end. But there is no reason for

supposing that the earlier form had the same meaning.

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