PART III.—_Said upon approaching to 216–220│

the gods who are in the Tuat._ │ ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────── CXXVI. . . . . . . . . . . 244,│ XL. 245│ ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────── CXXVII. _The Book for invoking the gods of 249│ No Vignettes. the Bounds, which the person │ reciteth when he approacheth them, │ that he may enter and see the │ Strong one in the Great Abode of │ the Tuat._ │ CXXVIII. _Invocation of Osiris_ 251,│ ” 252│ ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────── CXXIX (same as C). │ XL. CXXX. _A Book whereby the Soul is made to 256–259│ XL. live for ever, on the day of │ entering into the Bark of Rā, and │ to pass the Sheniu of the Tuat. │ Made on the Birthday of Osiris._ │ CXXXI. _Chapter whereby one proceedeth into 261│ XLI. Heaven by the side of Rā._ │ CXXXII. _Chapter whereby a person is enabled 263│ XLI. to go round, to visit his dwelling │ in the Netherworld._ │ CXXXIII. _Book whereby the deceased acquireth 264,│ XLI, XLII. might in the Netherworld, in 265│ presence of the great cycle of the │ gods._ │ CXXXIV. _Chapter whereby the deceased 267,│ XLI. acquireth might._ 268│ CXXXV. _Another chapter recited when the 269,│_No Vignettes._ Moon renews itself on the first day 270│ of the month._ │ CXXXVIA. _Chapter whereby one is conveyed in 270│ XLII. the Bark of Rā._ │ ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────── CXXXVIB. _Chapter whereby one is conveyed in 271,│ No Vignettes. the Great Bark of Rā to pass 272│ through the orbit of flame._ │ CXXXVIIA. _Chapter whereby a Light is kindled 275│ ” for a person._ │ ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────── CXXXVIIB. _Chapter whereby a Light is kindled 275│ XLII. for a person._ │ CXXXVIII. _Chapter whereby one is enabled to 277│ XLIII. enter into Abydos._ │ │ CXXXIX (same as CXXIII). │ │ CXL. _The book read on the last day of 280,│ XLIII, XLIV. Mechir, when the Eye is full on the 281│ last day of Mechir._ │ │ CXLI. to _The Book said by a man or his father 282–285│ XLIV, XLV, CXLIII. or his son in the festival of the │ XLVI. Amenta, and wherewith he acquires │ might with Rā, and with the gods │ when he is with them. Said on the │ day of the new Moon, when offerings │ are made of bread, beer, oxen, │ geese, and burnt incense to—_ │ CXLIV. _The Chapter of the Arrival._ 287–289│ XLVI, XLVII, │ XLIX, L. CXLV and _The knowing of the pylons of the 292–294│ XLIV, XLVIII, CXLVI. house of Osiris, in the Garden of │ LIII. Aarru._ │ CXLVII. 296–298│ XLIX, L. CXLVIII. _Giving sustenance to the deceased in 300–301│ XLVI, XLVII, the Netherworld, and delivering him │ LI. from all evil things._ │ CXLIX. 302–307│ LII. CL. 309│ LIII. CLI. 309│ LIV, LVI. CLIA. 313│_No Vignettes._ _bis_ │ CLIA. _Chapter of the mysterious head._ │ LIV. _ter_ │ CLII. _Chapter of building a house on 314│ LIV. earth._ │ CLIIIA. _Chapter of coming out of the net._ 315,│ LV. 316│ CLIIIB. _Chapter of escaping from the 320,│ LVI. catchers of fish._ 321│ CLIV. _Chapter of not letting the body 322,│ LVI. decay in the Netherworld._ 323│ CLV. _Chapter of the Tat of gold._ 325│ LVI, LVII. CLVI. _Chapter of the buckle of carnelian, 326│ LVI, LVII. which is put on the neck of the │ deceased._ │ CLVII. _Chapter of the vulture of gold, put 326,│ LVII. on the neck of the deceased._ 327│ CLVIII. _Chapter of the collar of gold, put 327│ LVII. on the neck of the deceased._ │ CLIX. _Chapter of the column of green 327,│ LVII. Felspar, put on the neck of the 328│ deceased._ │ CLX. _Giving the column of green Felspar._ 328│ LVII. CLXI. _Chapter of unfastening the opening 329,│ LV. in the sky. Thoth does it so that 330│ it may be finished when he opens │ (the sky) with Aten._ │ CLXII. _Chapter of causing a flame to arise 330,│ LVIII. under the head of the deceased._ 321│ CLXIII. _Chapters brought from another book, 333,│ LVIII. in addition to the “coming forth by 334│ day.” Chapter of not letting the │ body of a man decay in the │ Netherworld, of rescuing him from │ the devourers of souls who imprison │ men in the Tuat, and of not raising │ his sins on earth against him, but │ of saving his flesh and his bones │ from the worms and from every │ evil-doing god in the Netherworld, │ so that he may go in and out as he │ likes, and do everything he desires │ without restraint._ │ CLXIV. _Another Chapter._ 336,│ LVIII. 337│ CLXV. _Chapter of landing and not being 338,│ LVIII. obscured, so that the body may 339│ prosper in drinking water._ │ CLXVI. _Chapter of the Pillow._ 340│ LVIII. CLXVII. _Chapter of bringing an Eye._ 341│ LVIII. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────── CLXVIII. 341│ No Vignettes. CLXIX. _Chapter of raising the funereal 342–344│ ” Bed._ │ CLXX. _Chapter of arranging the funereal 345–347│ ” Bed._ │ CLXXI. _Chapter of wrapping up (the 347│ ” deceased) in a pure garment._ │ CLXXII. _Beginning of the Chapter of reciting 348–351│ ” the ceremonies made in the │ Netherworld._ │ ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────── CLXXIII. _The addresses of Horus to his father 352,│ LIX. when he goes in to see his father, 353│ and when he comes out of his great │ sanctuary to see him Rā Unneferu, │ the master of Ta-tser, and then │ they embrace one another; therefore │ he is glorious in the Netherworld._ │ CLXXIV. _Chapter of causing the Chu to come 354,│ LX. out of the great door in the sky._ 355│ CLXXV. _Chapter of not dying a second death 356,│ LX. in the Netherworld._ 357│ ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────── CLXXVI. _Chapter of not dying a second time 358│ No Vignettes. in the Netherworld._ │ CLXXVII. _Chapter of raising the Chu, of 359│ ” vivifying his soul in the │ Netherworld._ │ CLXXVIII. _Chapter of raising the body, of 360–363│ ” giving it eyes, of making it │ possess ears, of fixing its head, │ of putting it on its base._ │ CLXXIX. _Chapter of coming forth when going 363,│ ” out of yesterday and coming in the 364│ (present) day, being equipped by │ one’s own hands._ │ ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────── CLXXX. _Chapter of coming forth by day, of 365–367│ LX. giving praise to Rā in the Amenta, │ of paying homage to the inhabitants │ of the Tuat, of opening the way to │ the mighty soul in the Netherworld, │ of letting him walk, lengthen his │ strides, and go in and out in the │ Netherworld; and take the form of a │ living soul._ │ CLXXXI. _Chapter of arriving before the 368,│ LXI. Divine circle of Osiris and before 369│ the gods, the guides in the Tuat, │ before the guards of their halls, │ the heralds of their gates and the │ doorkeepers of their pylons in the │ Amenta, and of taking the form of a │ living soul and praising Osiris the │ lord of his circle of gods._ │ CLXXXII. _Book of vivifying Osiris, of giving 370–372│ LXI. air to him whose heart is │ motionless, through the action of │ Thoth, who repels the enemies of │ Osiris who comes there in his │ form ... as protector, saviour, │ defender in the Netherworld._ │ _It is said by Thoth himself, so that │ the morning light may shine on him │ (Osiris) every day._ │ CLXXXIII. _Adoration to Osiris, giving him 372–374│ LX. praise, bowing down before │ Unneferu, falling on one’s face │ before the lord of Ta-tsert, and │ exalting him who is on his sand._ │ CLXXXIV. _Chapter of being near Osiris._ 375│ LX. CLXXXV. _Giving praise to Osiris, falling on 375│ LX. the earth before the lord of │ eternity; propitiating the god with │ what he loves, speaking the truth, │ the lord of which is not known._ │ CLXXXVI. _Adoration to Hathor, the lady of the 376│ LX, LXII. West, falling down before Mehurit._ │

INTRODUCTION.

When, in the year 1892, Sir Peter Le Page Renouf began the publication of his translation of the Book of the Dead, his intention was that the work, once completed, should be preceded by an elaborate Introduction, giving, besides all the information concerning the form and the history of the book, his views as to its sense and its religious value.

As with the unfinished part of the translation,[1] so here, we are left without any notes or any clue whatever as to the form which this introduction was to have taken, and we are obliged to resort to the fifth of the Hibbert lectures, given by Renouf in 1879, in order to know his views about the book.[2]

Before speaking of its contents, we have to state briefly under what form the book has come down to us. It is hardly necessary to repeat that it is no book at all in the ordinary sense of the word. It is neither a unity nor a whole, it is a collection which has grown by degrees, at various epochs. Undoubtedly part of it goes back as far as the Old Empire; the texts of the Middle Empire show already that there were various editions, and we are forced to admit that its origin is not much later than the beginning of Egyptian civilization, as we see that some of the rubrics attribute certain chapters to a king of the 1st dynasty. In the course of centuries the original text was modified and enlarged, new chapters were added, revisions were made, without casting these detached fragments into a whole. The various parts of the book were always independent, like the Hebrew Psalms; the acceptance of a chapter does not necessarily imply the acceptance of the next chapter, and it seems as if the relatives of the deceased chose in the collection which was at their disposal what they liked best, and the number of chapters which corresponded to the price they wished to pay for a papyrus.

This description applies chiefly to the texts of the Book of the Dead of the period prior to the XXVIth dynasty. Under the Saïte kings it seems that a complete revision of the text was made; a definite order was adopted, which was not rigidly binding on the writers, but to which they generally adhered; various chapters were added, especially the last ones, 162-165, which are never found in the older copies. It seems also that something like what we should call an authorized version was adopted; and this was done by men to whom the book was hardly intelligible. A great many glosses were introduced, which were copied afterwards in all the hieroglyphic and hieratic texts. Although we do not find the strict accuracy of Hebrew manuscripts, the number of variants in the Saïte, Ptolemaïc or Roman texts is considerably smaller than in the manuscripts of the Theban period, and a collation of the hundreds of papyri of late epoch which fill our museums would lead to no great result.

However, it is from a text generally considered as Saïtic, but which I believe to be of the Ptolemaïc epoch, that the Book of the Dead has been first made known in all its extent. In 1842 Lepsius published the long papyrus in the Turin Museum, a document which he called “the largest piece of Egyptian literature which has been preserved.”

Before him Champollion had seen it, and had noticed that a great number of repetitions of the same text existed in various museums. He made use of it in his grammar, quoted here and there a sentence taken from it, but he did not make a special study of the document. Lepsius understood at once the importance of the book, which was the _vade-mecum_ of the deceased, and seeing how much more extensive the Turin Papyrus was than the short copies which had been published before, he traced the whole document and published it two years afterwards.

Lepsius gave to this work the name of _Todtenbuch_, “Book of the Dead,” in opposition to the name of “Ritual” adopted by Champollion, which is certainly incorrect. It is no Ritual; a few chapters with a ritualistic character have been introduced into it; for instance, the chapter connected with the ceremony of “opening the mouth of the deceased,” which is occasionally met with, or Chapter 171, “chapter of wrapping up (the deceased) in a pure garment;” but these are rare exceptions. On the whole the Book of the Dead differs widely from a Ritual. It is not the priest who speaks, there are no minute prescriptions as to how a ceremony is to be performed; all the prayers and hymns are put in the deceased’s mouth, it is he whose speech is supposed to be heard in the other world.

_Todtenbuch_, Book of the Dead, is not a translation of the Egyptian title, which is: book of ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ _pert m hru_. As Renouf says, “Three simple words, perfectly unambiguous when taken singly, but by no means easy of explanation when taken together without a context;” and in fact at the present day no final translation has been given of these three words. Renouf translates, “coming forth by day,” as will be seen in the numerous examples which occur in this volume; but several objections may be raised against this interpretation, to which we should prefer, “coming out of the day,” the day being the period of a man’s life, having its morning and its evening.

The book is divided into fragments called ⁂, to each of which Lepsius has given a number, following the order of the great Turin Papyrus, and which he calls chapters. Although his numbering is not quite correct, it has been adhered to in all the subsequent editions.

In his lecture[3] on the Book of the Dead, Renouf insists on the difficulty of translating it: “Nothing can exceed the simplicity and the brevity of the sentences; and yet the difficulties which a translator has to overcome are very great. In the first place, the text is extremely corrupt. The unsatisfactory condition of the text is owing to different causes. The reasons which writers on Hebrew, Greek or Latin palæography have enumerated for the purpose of accounting for mistakes in manuscripts, apply with much greater force to the funereal manuscripts of the Egyptians; for as these were not intended to be seen by any mortal eye, but to remain for ever undisturbed in the tomb, the unconscientious scribe had no such check upon his carelessness as if his work were liable to be subjected to the constant inspection of the living. But the most conscientious scribe might easily commit numerous errors. Many of them are to be traced to a confusion between signs which resemble each other in the cursive, or as it is called, the hieratic character, but not in hieroglyphic writing.

“Besides the errors of copyists, there are different readings, the origin of which is to be traced to the period during which the chapters were handed down by word of mouth only. There are copies which bear evidence that a critical choice has been made between the different readings of a passage, but the common practice was to admit the inconsistent readings into the text itself....

“Some of the variants have unquestionably arisen from the difficulty of understanding the ancient texts. I have no doubt whatever that some of the chapters of the Book of the Dead were as obscure to Egyptians living under the eleventh dynasty as they are to ourselves.... The most accurate knowledge of the Egyptian vocabulary and grammar will however not suffice to pierce the obscurity arising from what M. de Rougé called symbols or allegories, which are in fact simple mythological allusions. The difficulty is not in literally translating the text, but in understanding the meaning which lies concealed beneath familiar words.”

These words of Renouf have still a very great force, although in the last twenty years some progress has been made towards a better understanding of the text. When Renouf gave the above description of the difficulties of the translation, the main source from which he could derive his information was what he called “the corrupt Turin text.” Since then a critical edition has been made.[4] It is based on texts of the XVIIIth and XIXth dynasties, written at a time when the intelligence of the book was not lost to the same extent as under the Saïtes or the Ptolemies, as may be ascertained from the considerable number of glosses introduced into the Turin text which are absent from the older versions. This edition has been compiled from various papyri, as the older ones are much shorter than the later ones; it is not a single document like Lepsius’s _Todtenbuch_; most of the chapters have been found in their old form; a few are missing, but a good number have been added to the list which have fallen out of the late versions. Generally it is from this critical text that Renouf made his translation. Occasionally he may choose an older version from a tomb, or perhaps a papyrus of the British Museum, but he hardly ever reverts to the Turin _Todtenbuch_ unless he has no other resource at his disposal.

Nevertheless the difficulties which Renouf enumerates are only partly removed. We are still very far from being able to give a final translation of the Book of the Dead, and I have no doubt that Renouf would repeat about his own work what he says of Dr. Birch’s translation, “Many parts of it, where most faithful to the original, must in consequence of that very fidelity be utterly unintelligible to an English reader.”

No doubt Renouf’s translation is a great step towards making the book more intelligible; still the reader may often stumble over sentences out of which it is hardly possible to make a reasonable sense, in spite of their grammatical correctness, and which at first sight will seem childish, not to say, with Renouf, “outrageous nonsense.” But we may say with certainty that they were not so to the old Egyptians. Under this extraordinary or even ridiculous garment may be hidden some very simple, or even elementary truths. Let us remember that we have not yet unravelled all the intricacies of the Egyptian mythology, which plays such an important part in the book. Moreover, we only begin now to understand how the Egyptians expressed abstract ideas. When we speak of passion, shame, remorse, hope, we have so thoroughly lost sight of the concrete element in these words, that we are apt to forget that originally they must have been metaphors, and that they must have expressed something striking the senses, and connected with the material world. An instance will illustrate the difficulty in this translation.