Part 6

On the farther wall of the ravine is a high and vaulted building, the home of Night and Darkness. Two birds cling on either side, and round about it glides a two-headed serpent. He lifts his savage heads, and his poison is ever ready to strike the rash intruder who should dare to try to pass. Faithful is his watch, for in the home of Night and Darkness lives Khepera, the great Soul of the universe, he whose emblem is the beetle, the god of resurrection. In the form of a scarab he watches the coming of Ra, and he flies upon the Boat and awaits there the time when he shall bring Life back to the god. And now through the thick darkness along the narrow passage falls a gleam of light; the Morning Star stands by the gate to lead the Boat onwards; for in the darkest of the night is a promise of the coming day.

Slowly goes the Boat of Ra, passing through the Duat, through regions of thick darkness, of terror and dismay, to the place where the abominable Apep lies in wait for the coming of Ra. Thus passes the fifth hour of the night, and the sixth hour is at hand. Then the goddess of the fifth hour makes way for the goddess of the sixth hour, and she calls aloud the name of the Guardian of the gate. Flung wide are the portals, and the Boat of Ra passes through.

"Abyss of waters" is the name of the sixth country of the Duat, and Osiris has dominion over it, Osiris, the great god, Lord of the city of Daddu, the living King, Creator of men, of cattle, and of the green things which grow upon the earth, Osiris, to whom all men bow in praise and adoration.

The river rises out of the sand again, and the Boat floats upon its waters, and those who are in it rejoice, for the hours of the night are passing away. On the banks of the river are the great shapes of the gods, mysterious and wonderful; nine sceptres of sovereignty stand there also, and a monstrous lion looms through the darkness, faintly seen in the light which comes from the Boat of Ra. Three shrines stand beside the river, and a serpent whose breath is flame guards each one. Mystic and strange are the forms within the shrines, and to man it is not given to know the meaning of them; in one is a human head, in another the wing of a bird, in the third the hind part of a lion. Here also lives the great coiled serpent with five heads, and within his coils lies Khepera, god of resurrection. On his head he places the scarab, beneath his feet is the sign of flesh; thus does he send Life into the dead, and thus will he re-vivify Ra. For this is the farthest point of the Duat, and beyond the gate lies the way to the sunrise.

Slowly goes the Boat of Ra, passing through the Duat, through regions of thick darkness, of horror and dismay, where the abominable Apep lies in wait for the coming of Ra. Thus passes the sixth hour of the night, and the seventh hour is at hand. Then the goddess of the sixth hour makes way for the goddess of the seventh hour, and she calls aloud the name of the Guardian of the gate. Flung wide are the portals, and the Boat of Ra passes through.

"Secret cavern" is the name of the seventh country of the Duat. Full of danger and peril is it, for the abominable Apep dwells in this land. As a great and monstrous serpent does he appear and with wide-open mouth he swallows the waters of the river, that the Boat may be wrecked and that Ra may perish. Then would the earth belong to the powers of darkness, and evil and wickedness would overcome the gods.

But in the prow of the Boat stands Isis, the great enchantress, whose magic none can withstand; Isis, the greatest of the goddesses, she who can raise the dead, and to whom all mankind pay love and reverence. With arms outstretched, she recites the Words of Power; calling aloud across the dark river. Over the body of Ra, the serpent Mehen casts his protecting coils, for now is the time of danger.

On a sandbank in the midst of the river lies the abominable Apep. Four hundred and fifty cubits long is the sandbank; the coils of Apep cover it so that naught can be seen but the river around him. Loud does he hiss and roar, and the Duat is filled with the thunder of his voice, yet Isis flinches not, nor does she cease her incantations and the magical movements of her hands. Her spells prevail and the abominable Apep lies helpless on the sand. Then Selk and Her-desuf leap from the Boat of Ra and bind him with cords, and with sharp knives they pierce his flesh, hoping to destroy him. But Apep is immortal, and every night will he await and attack the Boat of Ra. Yet Selk and Her-desuf hold him fast while the Boat continues on its way, past the great sandbanks, where he writhes and twists and struggles to get free, but the cords are strong and the knives are sharp and his efforts are in vain.

Onward goes the Boat to the burial-places of the gods. These stand beside the river; high mounds of sand are they, over each mound is a building, and at each end the head of a man watches the passing of Ra.

Softly goes the Boat of Ra, passing through the Duat, moving through the darkness to the sunrise and the day. Thus passes the seventh hour of the night, and the eighth hour is at hand. Then the goddess of the seventh hour makes way for the goddess of the eighth hour, and she calls aloud the name of the Guardian of the gate. Flung wide are the portals, and the Boat of Ra passes through.

"Sarcophagus of the gods" is the name of the eighth country of the Duat, for here dwell the dead gods. Dead and buried are they, embalmed and bandaged as men embalm and bandage the dead upon earth. They cry aloud salutations to Ra as he passes, calling to him across the vast expanse, but so far away are they that the sound of their voices is as the roaring of savage bulls, as the cry of birds of prey, as the wail of mourners, as the murmur of bees. Before the Boat go nine Followers of the Gods; strange are their forms, mysterious and wonderful, like naught that is upon the earth. In front of them march the four souls of Tatanen in the likeness of rams, great and fierce, with horns wide-spreading and sharp-pointed. The first is crowned with high upstanding plumes, the second with the Red crown of the North Land, the third with the White crown of the South Land, the fourth with the glittering disk of the sun. Ancient is Tatanen, dweller in Memphis, where the abode of Ptah is on the south of the wall.

Softly goes the Boat of Ra, passing through the Duat, moving through the darkness to the sunrise and the day. Thus passes the eighth hour of the night, and the ninth hour is at hand. Then the goddess of the eighth hour makes way for the goddess of the ninth hour, and she calls aloud the name of the Guardian of the gate. Flung wide are the portals, and the Boat of Ra passes through.

"Procession of images" is the name of the ninth country of the Duat. Full and strong runs the river, and the Boat is borne forward upon the rushing stream. Twelve star-gods guard the Boat, with paddles in their hands, ready to help the Boat in case of need. Thick darkness broods not upon this land, for twelve great hooded snakes lie coiled upon the bank, and the breath of their mouths is a flame of fire, gleaming upon the dark water and upon those who dwell in the Duat. Three shallops float upon the sombre river; strange is the shape of these shallops, not like the boats of men; and the shadowy forms within them are in the likeness of a cow, of a ram, and of the soul of a man. From them the dwellers in this land receive the offerings which are made to them upon the earth. Then the star-gods break into singing; and the twelve goddesses and the weaving gods and the dwellers in this land chant the glory and honour of Ra, praising the Lord of the Boat, the Maker of earth and of heaven. With joy and singing they follow the appointed path.

Onward goes the Boat of Ra, passing through the Duat, travelling to the sunrise and the light of open day. Thus passes the ninth hour of the night, and the tenth hour is at hand. Then the goddess of the ninth hour makes way for the goddess of the tenth hour, and she calls aloud the name of the Guardian of the gate. Flung wide are the portals, and the Boat of Ra passes through.

"Abyss of waters, lofty of banks" is the name of the tenth country of the Duat, and the ruler is Ra. The dwellers in this land come to meet their king as he passes by upon the swelling river. Deep and full and strong runs the stream, and the Boat is borne forward upon the rushing current. Divine warriors armed with glittering weapons of war are a guard for their king; light is on their faces like the light of the sun. By the side of the river are four goddesses; upon the darkness they cast beams of light, making bright the way of Ra upon the gloomy river. Before the Boat of Ra moves the Star of Morning in the form of a double-headed serpent walking upon legs, and upon his heads are the crowns of the South Land and the North Land; between his coils is the great hawk of the sky; Leader of Heaven is his name, for the stars of heaven follow him, but men call him Hesper and Lucifer also. In a shallop on the stream is a snake, Life of the Earth is he called, and he watches in the Duat against the enemies of Ra.

The greatest of all the countries of the Duat is this, for in this realm of wonder and mystery Khepera joins himself to Ra, and Ra himself is created anew. Yet the dead body of Ra remains in the Boat; but his soul is united to the soul of Khepera.

Onward goes the Boat of Ra, passing through the Duat, travelling to the sunrise and the light of open day. Thus passes the tenth hour of the night and the eleventh hour is at hand. Then the goddess of the tenth hour makes way for the goddess of the eleventh hour, and she calls aloud the name of the Guardian of the gate. Flung wide are the portals, and the Boat of Ra passes through.

"Mouth of the cavern" is the name of the eleventh country of the Duat, and Ra is its ruler. Low has the river fallen and sluggishly it runs, and the Boat is drawn onwards by the gods; not with cords do they tow it, but with the body of the great serpent Mehen, the protector of Ra. On the prow of the Boat is a fiery star, but its light is not redder than the strange and lurid glow which fills this land; terrible and red is it and the sight of it is full of horror. This is the region feared by evil-doers, for their punishment awaits them here. Far and near are pits of fire; goddesses, whose breath is flame, guard the pits, holding in their hands gleaming swords of fire. With their knives do they torment the wicked and cast them into the pits of flame till they perish utterly. Horus stands by and beholds their torments, for these are the enemies of Osiris and of Ra, doers of evil upon the earth and blasphemers of the gods. No help can come to them, no escape is possible; doomed are they by their own actions to the sword and fire. And the smoke and flame of their torment rise up in the Duat.

On the far side of the river are the stars; Shedu is there in the fashion of a snake; scarlet and crimson is he, and the stars which form his body are ten in number. There also a shape is seen, mysterious and wonderful; like a winged snake with legs does he appear, and between the wings is the shadowy likeness of a man. Men call him Atmu, dweller in Heliopolis; ancient is Atmu, more ancient than Ra himself; and he sends the sweet breezes of the North Wind upon the land of Egypt. On either side of him the Eyes of Horus show dimly in the faint and lurid light. And now springs up the breeze of morning; gentle is it and slight, but with it comes the promise of the day.

Onward goes the Boat of Ra, passing through the Duat, travelling to the sunrise and the light of open day. Thus passes the eleventh hour, and the twelfth hour and the dawn are at hand. Then the goddess of the eleventh hour makes way for the goddess of the twelfth hour, and she calls aloud the name of the Guardian of the gate. Flung wide are the portals, and the Boat of Ra passes through.

"Darkness has fallen, and births shine forth" is the name of the twelfth country of the Duat. On the prow of the Boat is the great scarab of Khepera, ready to make the transformations of Ra ere he reaches the end of the Duat. Not like other lands is this twelfth region of the Duat, for it is enclosed in the body of a vast and monstrous serpent. "Life of the Gods" is his name, and through this great and huge frame travels the Boat of Millions of Years. Twelve of the worshippers of Ra seize the towing-ropes and drag the Boat onward, and here in the body of the serpent is Ra transformed into Khepera and is alive again, for now the journey through the Duat is near the end. Standing by the mouth of the serpent are twelve goddesses; to these the Worshippers of Ra yield the towing-ropes, and they draw the Boat to the eastern horizon of heaven. And now the dead corpse of Ra is cast out of the Boat, as the husk is cast away when the grain is winnowed out, for the soul and the life of Ra are in the scarab of Khepera, and the transformations of Ra are completed. With shouting and singing, with joy and with gladness, the Boat of Ra passes out of the Duat.

Glorious is the Manzet Boat, speeding to the sunrise! Wide, swing wide the portals, and usher in the day. Between the sycomores of turquoise comes the Boat of Ra, and the mountain of Bakhu is flushed with light. The serpent, guardian of the Great Green Waters, beholds Ra in glory in the eastern horizon of heaven, and the rays glitter on his scales.

Glorious is the Manzet Boat, borne upon the river, flashing in the splendour and the light of open day. In the foam at the prow of the Boat sports the Abtu-fish, darting through the gleaming spray, and the Ant-fish is seen in the whirlpool of turquoise. From the earth rises up the sound of rejoicing, for all created things praise Ra at his rising.

Hail to thee, Ra, at thy rising; the night and the darkness are past. At the dawn of the day thou shinest, the heavens are filled with thy light. King of the Gods art thou, all glory and triumph are thine. The Gods come as dogs to thy feet, rejoicing to greet thee at dawn. Hail to thee Ra, at thy rising; at thy coming all men are glad. In joy dost thou come in the morning, with glory thou rulest the world. The stars of the heavens adore thee, the Gods of the earth exalt thee, Lord of the Heavens art thou. Hail to thee, Ra, at thy rising! None can express thy glory, Lord of all Wisdom and Truth. The souls of the East attend thee, the souls of the West are thy servants, the North and the South adore thee. Worshipped art thou, our Ruler, by those whom thou hast created, Thou risest in heaven's horizon, thou causest mankind to rejoice. Hail to thee, Ra, at thy rising; at thy rising in beauty, O Ra.

NOTES

I. THE PRINCESS AND THE DEMON

Published: Prisse d'Avennes, _Monuments Egyptiens_, pl. xxiv.

Translated: Wiedemann, _Religion of the Ancient Egyptians_, p. 275.

This tale is sculptured on a sandstone tablet found by Champollion in the temple of Khonsu at Thebes, and now in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris.

There are twenty-eight horizontal lines of inscription, and above them is a scene of two boats of Khonsu borne on the shoulders of priests, with the king offering incense before them.

When first translated, the tale was supposed to be a record of fact, but now it is generally considered a folk-tale, redounding to the credit and glory of Khonsu, and therefore made use of by the priests of that god. The king mentioned in it cannot be identified with any of the historical monarchs of Egypt, although his personal name, Rameses, is sufficiently common among the rulers of the xxth dynasty.

II. THE KING'S DREAM

Published: Lepsius, _Denkmäler_, iii, 68.

Translated: Breasted, _Ancient Records_, ii, 810-815.

The inscription is sculptured on a round-topped stela of red granite, fourteen feet high, set up in the little temple which lies between the paws of the Great Sphinx.

The temple was excavated by Captain Caviglia in 1817. It forms the end of a processional way which leads downwards by paved causeways and flights of steps from the edge of the desert into the sanctuary (see Vyse, _Pyramids of Oizeh_, iii, 107). The tiny shrine is only ten feet long by five wide, and at its farthest end, with its back to the breast of the Sphinx, stands this stela.

The inscription, which is in horizontal lines, is surmounted by a scene, duplicated to right and left, of the king making a libation of water and burning incense before the figure of a Sphinx couchant upon a pylon or altar. The lower half of the stela is so mutilated that the inscription is either destroyed or illegible.

The inscription purports to be of the time of Thothmes IV, a king of the xviiith dynasty, about 1400 B.C.; erected by that monarch as a votive offering. But from the evidence of the language in which the inscription is couched it is obviously much later; Erman dates it to a period between the xxiiird and xxvith dynasties. It may, however, be a restoration of an earlier record, though of the early inscription nothing remains.

III. THE COMING OF THE GREAT QUEEN

Published: Naville, _Deir el Bahari_, ii, pls. xlvi-li (with translation).

Translated: Breasted, _Ancient Records_, ii, 187-220.

The inscription, with the scenes illustrating it, are sculptured on the walls of the temple of Deir el Bahari, on the north side of the retaining wall of the upper platform.

The great building, known in modern times as the temple of Deir el Bahari, was erected by Queen Hatshepsut of the xviiith dynasty, about 1500 B.C., for the double purpose of her own funerary cult, and of the worship of the goddess Hathor. The chief events of the Queen's reign are sculptured on the walls; the record of her divine descent naturally holds a prominent place. The inscriptions in the temple were wrecked and restored anciently, therefore much of the record is lost. Fortunately, however, Amenhotep III, a king of the same dynasty rather more than a century later than Hatshepsut, adorned his temple of Luxor with similar scenes and inscriptions, relating to his own divine descent, changing of course the names of the mother and child and making a few immaterial alterations in the inscriptions. By means of this later example the whole of the earlier record is made clear.

The white colonnades of Hatshepsut's temple, set against a background of dark cliffs, form one of the most striking scenes in the valley of the Nile. The temple was used at one time as a Coptic village; hence its modern name of Deir el Bahari, the Northern Convent.

It has recently been excavated and restored by Dr. Navillo for the Egypt Exploration Fund.

IV. THE BOOK OF THOTH

Published: Spiegelberg, _Demotische Papyrus_ (Cairo Catalogue).

Translated: Petrie, _Egyptian Tales_, ii, 89.

This story is written in demotic on a papyrus found at Thebes in the grave of a Coptic monk. It was among other papyri, written in hieratic and in Coptic, in a wooden chest, and is now in the Cairo Museum. Demotic is the script in which the latest form of the Egyptian language was written; the earliest example remaining is of the reign of Shabaka of the xxvth dynasty, about 715 B.C.; it continued in use till Roman times, when it was superseded by the Greek alphabet.

The papyrus is of the Ptolemaic period, but the exact date is uncertain, as the colophon at the end is partly illegible. The year 15 only is visible, which, however, is not sufficient guide to the reign of the king under whom it was written.

The legend given in this book is part only of a much longer tale; it is in fact a story within a story, told by the _ka_ of Ahura to the high priest of Memphis, when he ventured into the tomb of Nefer-ka-ptah in search of the Book of Thoth.

The Book of Thoth is said to contain only two pages; it must therefore have been a roll of papyrus written on both sides.

V. OSIRIS

Original: Plutarch, _De Iside et Osiride_.

Translated: Mead, _Thrice-greatest Hermes_, i, 278.

The treatise on Isis and Osiris was written by Plutarch, himself an initiate into the Osiris-mysteries, to a fellow-initiate, a woman named Klea. It was written at Delphi in the second century A.D.

It is the only connected account remaining of the death of Osiris and the wanderings of Isis. Though of so late a date, it is found to be correct on the whole when checked by the inscriptions and sculpture of Pharaonic times.

The so-called Ritual of Denderah is our principal authority for the worship of Osiris in the chief temples of Egypt on the festivals of the month of Khoiakh. The Ritual is sculptured on the walls of the temple of Denderah, and gives in great detail the rites in use, and even the size and material of the symbolical images. The inscription dates to the Ptolemaic period, but the Ritual is considerably earlier.

"Mystery-plays" of the death of Osiris and of the repulse of Set by Horus appear to have been enacted on certain great occasions at the chief centres of worship. The principal part was that of Horus, which was acted by the Pharaoh himself in the capital, and by the chief local notabilities in provincial centres.

VI. THE SCORPIONS OF ISIS

Published: Golenischeff, _Metternichstele_ (with German translation).

Translated: Budge, _Legends of the Gods_, p. 157.