CHAPTER XXVIII.

_Chapter whereby the Heart of a person is not taken from him in the

Netherworld._

O Lion-god!

I am Unbu(1.), and what I abominate is the block of execution.

Let not this Whole Heart of mine be torn from me by the divine

Champions(2.) in Heliopolis!

O thou who clothest(3.) Osiris and hast seen Sutu:

O thou who turnest back after having smitten him, and hast accomplished

the overthrow:

This Whole Heart of mine remaineth weeping over itself in presence of

Osiris.

Its strength proceedeth from him, it hath obtained it by prayer from

him.

I have had granted to it and awarded to it the glow of heart at the hour

of the god of the Broad Face, and have offered the sacrificial cakes in

Hermopolis.

Let not this Whole Heart of mine be torn from me.(4.) It is I who

entrust to you its place, and vehemently stir your Whole Hearts towards

it in Sechit-hotepit and the years of triumph over all that it abhors

and taking all provisions at thine appointed time from thine hand after

thee.

And this Whole Heart of mine is laid upon the tablets(5.) of Tmu, who

guideth me to the caverns of Sutu and who giveth me back my Whole Heart

which hath accomplished its desire in presence of the divine Circle

which is in the Netherworld.

The sacrificial joint and the funereal raiment, let those who find them

bury them.(6.)

NOTES.

1. _Unbu_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂ is one of the names of the solar god, the

offspring (_Todt._, 42, 19) of Nu and Nut. As a common noun the word

_unbu_ means the Hawthorn or some other kind of flowering bush. This god

is called ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ ‘the golden Unbu’ in the Pyramid Texts

(Teta 39). We have no means of determining the exact sense of this word,

which as an appellative expresses an attribute possessed both by the Sun

and by the fruit, foliage, or other parts of the tree.

2. _Divine Champions._ ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ in the earlier papyri,

⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ in the later; and sometimes both readings occur in

the same MS. Such determinatives as ⁂ certainly do not denote very

pugnacious qualities in the divine Champions.

3. _Clothest._ ⁂⁂ is a word of many meanings, and the context

generally determines which is the right one. In the present instance we

have no such help. Some of the more recent MSS. give ⁂, the

determinative of _clothing_.

4. M. Pierret here breaks off his translation of the chapter, with the

note: “La fin de ce chapitre est absolument inintelligible; les

variantes des manuscrits hiératiques ne l’éclaircissent pas.”

Like many other portions of the book this chapter is hopelessly corrupt,

and the scribes did not understand it better than we do. They have

probably mixed up different recensions without regard to grammatical

sense. The deceased addresses gods in the plural ⁂, but immediately

afterwards we have the singular suffix ⁂.

5. _Tablets_ or _records_. ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ See _Zeitschr._,

1867, 50. The word already occurs in the Pyramid Texts, Pepi I, 364, in

the sense of _memory_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, ‘his

memory for man and his love for the gods.’

But there is another word, ⁂⁂⁂⁂ (_Denkm._, III, 65 _a_),

which signifies a _stand_ upon which objects are placed.

6. The last words of the chapter were extremely puzzling to the scribes

of the later periods, who altered them in ever so many ways. The older

MSS. read ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.

And this is borrowed from an ancient text, which may be found on the

sarcophagus of Horhotep, line 338. The variants ⁂⁂, ⁂⁂, of

the papyri, and ⁂⁂ of the sarcophagus show that it is the

sacrificial joint which is meant, and not a verb as the scribes of a

later period thought. For this verb they had to discover an object and

accordingly we find ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ ‘I trod _their

caverns_.’ ⁂⁂⁂⁂ was in like manner converted into a verb.

See the introductory note to chapter 29.

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