chapter 28
, where the two lungs are actually drawn as in the hieratic papyrus (Pl. 2) published by Sir Charles Nicholson. In others (as Leyden, T. 16) even the larynx is visible. (See Plate X.)
The Italian word _corata_ is immortalised through its occurrence in a memorable passage in Dante (_Inf._, XXVIII), but for want of a better English term than the butcher’s technical word _pluck_[44] I use the expression _whole heart_.
2. _But_, ⁂⁂⁂. This is the most frequent reading both in the earliest and in the latest papyri. But some texts have simply ⁂, which is certainly a mistake, and others omit the conjunction before the verb. The sense is not much affected by this omission. ⁂⁂⁂ signifies _if not_, _unless_, _until_, _but_, _but surely_. _Cf._ the Semitic אִם־לֹא, ܐܷܠܴ, إلَّا
3. _The mead of amaranthine flowers._ ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ _ḳaiu_ is the name of a plant which frequently occurs in the medical prescriptions. It is also mentioned among the aromatic plants (⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂) required in the sacred laboratory of Dendera. One of the kinds is named _ḳaiu_ of the Oasis ⁂⁂⁂. It is identified with the Coptic ⲕⲓⲟⲱⲩ, _amaranthus_. In several copies of this chapter the name of the plant is followed by the geographical determinative ⁂, which is really implied in the context. Was this mythological ‘mead of amaranth’ suggested by the Oasis and its vegetation?
4. This sentence is a repetition (in other words) of the preceding one. On the title _Erpā_, see _Trans. Soc. Bibl. Arch._, XII, 359. My chief difficulty about understanding it as compounded of ⁂ and ⁂, and signifying _keeper of the Pāt_, that is _of the deceased_ (human beings), is that Seb is essentially the _Erpā of the gods_. _Erpā_ is one of those titles which cannot be translated without perverting the sense of the original.
5. This passage is a very frequent formula not only in the Book of the Dead, as the papyri give it, but in other texts of the same nature; see, _e.g._, _Aelteste Texte_, 34, 14. The next passage included in [] is an addition to the original text. It occurs however in some excellent MSS.
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Footnote 41:
⁂ _ȧb_, ‘heart.’
Footnote 42:
⁂ _ḥatu_, ‘whole heart.’
Footnote 43:
This variant already occurs on the coffin of Amamu.
Footnote 44:
In late Latin _corallum_, whence the Romanic forms _corajhe_, _corata_, _coratella_, _corée_, _couraille_. In _Garin le Loherens_ we find “la coraille del cuers.”
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