CHAPTER CXXXVIII.

_Chapter whereby one is enabled to enter into Abydos._

Oh all ye gods who are in Abydos, [each one and his](1.) divine circle

likewise in its entirety, who are coming with acclamation to meet me:

let me see my father Osiris: let me be held as one who cometh forth as

of his house(2.).

I am Horus, the Lord of Kamit, and the heir of Tesherit,(3.) which I

have also seized. I, the invincible one, whose eye is potent against his

adversaries: who avengeth his father, and is fierce at the drowning of

his mother;(4.) who smiteth his adversaries and putteth an end to

violence on their part....(5.).

Oh thou of the potent Lock, king of hosts, who art seized of the Two

Worlds; whose father’s house is seized(6.) [by him] in virtue of the

writs(7.); my balance is perfectly even, my voice is law, and I prevail

over all mine adversaries.(8.)

NOTES.

1. [_Each one and his._] These words are necessary for the purpose

of bringing out the meaning of the text. Every god, it has already

been said, has his circle of associates. The feminine suffix ⁂

after ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ shows the concordance with

⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, which, like other collective nouns, is of the

feminine gender.

2. The exact text here is doubtful, and the sense of ⁂⁂ depends

upon it. ⁂⁂ or ⁂⁂ is the well known title of a priestly

official, whose presence was required in the ritual of the dead. He is

sometimes in attendance upon royal personages. Here according to its

etymological sense the word might simply mean a relative.

3. _Kamit_ ⁂⁂⁂, the “Black Land” is Egypt; _Tesherit_

⁂⁂, the “Red Land,” is whatever lies beyond the limits of Egypt.

4. _The drowning of his mother_ ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.

_Drowning_ maybe too strong a word, but immersion at least is meant. We

are at present without any other reference to this incident in the

career of the goddess Isis.

5. Here occurs a word, ⁂⁂⁂ or ⁂⁂⁂ of doubtful

meaning. As the next word to it begins a sentence, it must be considered

as connected with the words preceding it. I am not satisfied that

“silently” or “causing silence” would be a grammatical solution of the

question.

6. Seized (throughout this chapter) in the juridical sense of _seisin_

or feudal possession.

7. _Writs_ ⁂⁂⁂, a reading of three early papyri, which has

disappeared in the later ones. The Turin _Todtenbuch_ has ⁂⁂⁂,

“with his two hands.”

8. Here the chapter ends in _Pi_, and even sooner in the later texts.

The three older papyri differ as to the words which immediately follow,

and are certainly corrupt and unintelligible.

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