Chapter CXXV

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The words _made on the Birth-day of Osiris_ are only found in the later texts, but the old papyrus _Lc_, which has another title, has the words ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. The important word ⁂⁂⁂ which is here carelessly omitted is supplied by the rubric. For the Birth-day of Osiris, was the first of the five supplementary days, added to the year of 360 days. On this day the chapter was to be recited and the usual oblations offered (see Note 11). So we must understand ⁂, ‘which is to be made or done.’

2. _Arms of steel_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂.

3. _Cradle_ or _Nest_, ⁂⁂; the ‘Nest of Reeds’ ⁂⁂ so often represented in pictures of the later periods.

4. _The Armed god_, ⁂⁂ _Septu_, called ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. (_Unas_ 282) and ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ _septu ābu_, ‘armed with horns,’ that is, rays of light. In pictures he is represented as a hawk armed with bow and arrows, and there is one picture in which he is in the form of Bes, destroyer of the _Menti_.

5. _Sejant gods_ ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. I am compelled for want of a better word to use the heraldic term which most nearly expresses the posture of gods sitting on the ground with their knees raised up against their breasts. The posture is a very common one in Egyptian pictures. The second Sallier Papyrus represents an unfortunate artisan as sitting, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ “with his two knees at the pit of his stomach.” The ⁂⁂⁂⁂ is the limb between the knee and the pelvis.

6. _This divine Sword_ ⁂⁂⁂. Unseen fate brings down the old and the young alike to the Grave ever ready to receive them. Seb, the φυσίζοος αἶα, is here, as elsewhere, spoken of in reference to his κατοχή of the dead in the Tuat, as in _Unas_ 210.

7. _Whose face is in his own lap_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. _Cf._ Note 5.

8. _The Amsu staff._ The name of it is phonetically written ⁂⁂⁂⁂ in the later texts. It is the emblem both of Osiris and of Horus, and is constantly represented along with bows, arrows, and other weapons, in the oldest coffins, as belonging to the celestial armoury of the deceased person.

9. _Who issueth his decrees. See_ Maspero, _Bibl. Egyptol._ II., p. 3 (note) and 39.

10. _Green._ The Egyptian ⁂⁂ is probably nearer in meaning to the Greek χλωρός, ‘pale green, yellowish-green.’

11. The Rubric ends here in _Pb_. _Lc._ adds, _“They shall offer bread, beer, and all good things_ on the Birth-day of Osiris. _And if these rites are performed for him, his soul will rise up and live for ever; he will not ever die a second time in the divine Nether world._”

The later texts add the information that the text was discovered in the great hall of the palace in the time of king Septa, and that it was found in a pit or chamber in the rock, ⁂⁂⁂. It was made by Horus for his father Osiris Unneferu. Septa is the fifth royal name on the great tablet of Abydos.

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