CHAPTER LI

.

_Chapter whereby one goeth not headlong in the Netherworld._

I execrate, I execrate, I do not eat it.

That which I execrate is dirt. I eat it not, that I may appease my Genius.

Let me not fall into it; let me not approach it with my hands, let me not tread upon it with my sandals.

NOTE.

The Chapters numbered 51 and 52 are not found in the most ancient papyri, but the substance of them and their formulas are met with on the ancient coffins[65] and in the Pyramid texts. See, for instance, Unas 189, Teta 68, with M. Maspero’s note on the latter text. I do not, however, believe, as M. Maspero does, that these texts convey the idea “so frequent[!] among half-civilised peoples, of another life in which the deceased will have nothing to eat and drink but excremental matter.” That the ⁂⁂⁂ which I translate ‘dirt’ and ⁂⁂ ‘lye’ are of this nature is quite certain, but they are objects of abhorrence to the Sun-god, like the dead rat and the putrid cat in