CHAPTER XXIX.

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

Netherworld._

Back thou Messenger(1.) of thy god! Art thou come to carry off by

violence(2.) this Whole Heart of mine, of the Living XYZZY(3.) But I

shall not surrender to thee this Heart of the Living. The gods have

regards to my offerings and fall upon their faces, all together, upon

their own earth.

NOTES.

The two most ancient copies of this chapter are found upon the coffins

of Amamu, Plate XXX, and of Horhotep, _Mission Arch. Française au

Caire_, t. 1, p. 157, lines 335-337. The papyrus of Ani is the only one

of the early period in which it occurs. None of these texts is perfect.

A part of the text of Amamu has been destroyed, but there remains enough

to show that Horhotep has omissions. And in the text of Ani the word

⁂⁂⁂ has slipped in from the 28th chapter, and is entirely out

of place where it now stands.

The scribes of a later period had to exercise their ingenuity on the

subject. They changed ⁂⁂⁂ _ḫenṭu_ into ⁂⁂⁂⁂ _ḫenȧ_,

and this being itself a disagreeable word, they prefixed to it a

negative ⁂ or ⁂⁂⁂.

1. _Messenger_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂, a word used here and elsewhere in

religious texts in the same sense as מַלְאָךְ an angel, ambassador of

God. The later texts have ⁂⁂⁂ ‘every god,’ by the change of

⁂ into ⁂.

2. _By violence_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. _Cf._

⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, Harris Papyrus, 500, _verso_.

3. _The Living_ ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ and saved, in opposition to

the Dead and damned. This plural form is a mere sign of a common noun.

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