Chapter is accompanied by eighteen plates which illus-

trate the paleeography of the various Recensions of the Book of the Dead from the Vth Dynasty to the Roman Period.
VOLs 1. A
Chap. — I1.— Osiris and the Resurrection.
9 I11.—The Judgment of the Dead.
5 TV.—The Elysian Fields or Heaven, With extracts from the Pyramid Texts.
3 V.—The Magic of the Book of the Dead.
PA V1I.—tThe Object and Contents of the Book of the Dead.
. ViIl.—The Book of the Dead of Nesi-Khonsu, about B.C. 1000 (English translation).
» VItl—The Book of Breathings (English translation).
v TX.—The Papyrus of Takhert-puru-abt (English translation).
2, ENGLIsH TRANSLATION OF THE Book or THE DEAD (pp. 1—354). The volume also contains three scenes from the famous Papyrus of Ani representing the Judgment Scene, the Funeral Procession, and the Elysian Fields, which have been reproduced in full colours by Mr. W. Griggs, the eminent photo-lithographer. :
BOOKS ON EGYPT AND CHALDAEA
By A. EH. WALLIS BUDGH, M.A., Lrrr.D., D.Ltr.
Keeper of the Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities in the British Museum
AND
Ia, We KING? MAS
Assistant in the Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities in the British Museum
Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d. net each.
Vol. I—Egyptian Religion: Egyptian Ideas of a Future Life. By E. A. Watiis Buper.
x; Il.—Egyptian Magic. By E. A. Watiis Bupes.
III.— Egyptian Language: Easy Lessons in Egyptian
Hieroglyphics. By HE. A. Watuis Bupae.
IV.—Babylonian Religion: Babylonian Religion and
Mythology. By L. W. Kine. V.—Assyrian Language; Easy Lessons in the Cunei- form Inscriptions. By L. W. Kina.
Vols. VI—VIII.—The Book of the Dead; An English Translation of the Theban Recension, with supplementary Chapters, Hymns, ete., and 420 Vignettes which do not appear in the larger edition published in 1897, By EK. A. Wats Buper,
”
”?
The above volumes are now ready, and will be followed by:—
Vol. I[X.—Mesopotamian Magic; A Study of Babylonian Sorcery and Witchcraft. By L. W. Kine.
X.—The Rosetta Stone. By E. A. Watts Bupau.
”
LONDON a KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., Lrp. PATERNOSTER Hovusr, CHARING Cross Roap
1901
Books on Egypt and Chaldaea
Vout. VI. OF THE SERIES
eC hee Ore Like DEAD
ENGLISH TRANSLATION IN THREE VOLUMES Wierne 1
CHAPTERS [.—LXIV.
PUBLISHERS|INO@E
~~
In the year 1894 Dr. Wallis Budge prepared for Messrs. Kegan Paul, Trench, Tribner & Co. an elementary work on the Kgyptian language, entitled “ First Steps in Egyptian,” and two years later the companion volume, “An Egyptian Reading Book,” with transliterations of all the texts printed in it, and a full vocabulary. The success of these works proved that they had helped to satisfy a want long felt by students of the Egyptian language, and as a similar want existed among students of the languages written im the cuneiform character, Mr. L. W. King, of the British Museum, prepared on the same lines as the two books mentioned above, an elementary work on the Assyrian and Babylonian languages (“First Steps in Assyrian”), which appeared in 1898. These works, however, dealt mainly with the philological branch of Egyptology and Assyriology, and it was impossible in the space allowed to explain much that needed explanation in the other branches of these subjects—that is to say, matters relating to the arche- ology, history, religion, etc., of the Egyptians, Assyrians, and Babylonians. In answer to the numerous requests which have been made, a series of short, popular handbooks on the most important branches of Egyptology and Assyriology have been prepared, and it is hoped that these will serve as introductions to the larger works on these subjects. The present is the sixth volume of the series, and the succeeding volumes will be published at short intervals, and at moderate prices.
Books on Lgypt and Chaldaca
THE
mOOK OE Thine ir A)
AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE CHAPTERS, HYMNS, ETC. OF THE THEBAN RECENSION, WITH INTRODUCTION, NOTES, ETC.
BY Peek WALLIS “BUDGE, -M.A., Lirt.D:,. D.Lrr.
KEEPER OF THE EGYPTIAN AND ASSYRIAN ANT
CHICAGO : ‘bake OPEN COURT: PUBLISHING CO. Lp.
LONDON Property of
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CBSK
1901 Please return to
Graduate Theological Union Library
—2 LONDON? PRINTED BY GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, ST. JOHN’S HOUSE, CLERKENWELL,
Pie E, PeAGE:
Tue translations of the Egyptian hymns and religious texts printed in this and the two following volumes form a representative collection of the various composi- tions which the Egyptians inscribed upon the walls of tombs and sarcophagi, coffins and funeral stelae, papyri and amulets, etc., in order to ensure the well-being of their dead in the world beyond the grave. They have been translated from papyri and other documents which were found chiefly at Thebes, and, taken together, they are generally known as the Theban Recension of the Book of the Dead, that is to say, the Recension of the great national funeral work which was copied by the scribes for themselves and for Hgyptian kings and queens, princes and nobles, gentle and simple, rich and poor, from about B.c. 1600 to B.c. 900. These transla- tions first appeared in the third volume of my work on the Book of the Dead, which was published under the title of ‘The Chapters of Coming Forth by Day,” at the end of the year 1897, where they seemed to be a necessary accompaniment to the edition of the hieroglyphic texts of the Theban Recension and the VOL. I. a
sere a?
u PREFACE
hieroglyphic vocabulary thereto. The demand for that bulky and comparatively expensive work proved that it filled a want, but soon after its appearance frequent requests were made that the English translation might be issued in a smaller and handier form. In answer to these requests, Messrs. Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner, and Co. decided to publish the complete English translation of the Book of the Dead in their series of books on Egypt and Chaldaea, together with such introductory matter, index, etc., as are necessary to make this edition of use to the general reader.
The translation given in the present series is, how- ever, no mere reprint, for it has been carefully revised and compared with the original texts, and many brief explanatory notes have been added ; and, with the view of placing in the hands of the reader as complete an edition as possible, more than four hundred vignettes, taken from the best papyri, have been reproduced in the volumes of the present edition at the heads of the Chapters, the general contents of which the aneient Egyptian scribes and artists intended them to illustrate. The greater number of these have been specially drawn or traced for this purpose, and they faithfully represent the originals in form and outline; to reproduce the colours of the originals was out of the question, for the cost of coloured illustrations would have placed this book beyond the reach of the general public.
Many of the ideas and beliefs embodied in the texts here translated are coeval with Egyptian civilization,
PREFACE il
and the actual forms of some of the most interesting of these are identical with those which we now know to have existed in the Vth and VIth Dynasties, about B.c. 3500. On the other hand, many of them date from the pre- dynastic period, and, in the chapter on the History of the Book of the Dead, which forms part of the Intro- duction to the present edition, an attempt has been made to show how some of the religious views of the north-east African race, which formed the main indigenous substratum of the dynastic Hgyptians, found their way into the Book of the Dead and maintained their position there. The greater number of the translations here given belong to the group to which the Egyptians gave the name, “Chapters of Coming Forth by Day,” and the remainder are introductory hymns, supplementary extracts from ancient cognate works, rubrics, etc., which were intended to be used as words of power by the deceased in the underworld. The papyri and other originals which. have been selected as authorities _ are the best now known, and they have been chosen with the view of illustrating the development of the Theban Recension and the changes which took place in it during the various periods of its history. Since no papyrus contains all the Chapters and Vignettes of this Recension, and no two papyri agree either in respect of contents or arrangement of the Chapters, and the critical value of every text in a papyrus is not always the same, it follows that a complete edition of
lV PREFACE
‘all the known Chapters of the Theban Recension would be impossible unless recourse were had to several papyri. Since the year 1886, in which M. Naville’s Das Todtenbuch der Aegypter appeared, several extremely important papyri of the Book of the Dead have been discovered, and it is now possible to add considerably to the number of Chapters of the Theban Recension which he published. Thus the Papyrus of Ani supplies us with Introductions to Chapters XVIII. and CXXY., and hymns to Ra and Osiris, and texts referring to the Judgment Scene, and all of these are new; besides, we gain a complete, though short, version of Chapter CLXXV. And from the Papyrus of Nu, which is the oldest of the illuminated papyri known, we have obtained about twenty Chapters of the Theban Recension, which were unknown until 1897, and several which have, up to the present, been only known to exist in single manuscripts. Use has there- fore been made of several papyri, and as a result translations of about one hundred and sixty Chapters, not including different versions, Hymns, and Rubrics, are given in the present edition. ‘Translation of six- teen Chapters of the Saite Recension have also been added, both because they form good specimens of the religious compositions of the later period of Egyptian history, and illustrate some curious beliefs, and because, having adopted the numbering of the Chapters em- ployed by Lepsius, they were needed to make the numbering of the Chapters in this edition consecutive.
PREFACE Vv
The translation has been made as literal as possible, my aim being to let the reader judge the contents of the Theban Recension of the Book of the Dead for himself; the notes are short, and it was thought to be unnecessary to encumber the pages of a book which is intended for popular use with voluminous disquisitions and references. The reader who needs to consult other works on the subject will find a tolerably full Biblio- eraphy to the printed literature of the Book of the Dead in my Papyrus of Ani, London, 1895, pp. 371 ff.
It has been the fashion during the last few years among certain writers on Egyptology to decry the Book of the Dead, and to announce as a great discovery that the hieroglyphic and hieratic texts thereof are cor- rupt; but that several passages of the work are hope- lessly corrupt has been well known to Egyptolgists for the last fifty years, and they have never concealed the fact that they could not translate them. Moreover, the Egyptian scribes informed their readers by the frequent use of the words “ki tchet,” i.e., “otherwise said,” that they themselves did not know which variants represented the correct readings, and recent investiga- tions have proved that the scribes and sages of the XIXth Dynasty had as much difficulty as we have in read- ing certain hieratic signs which were written during the Early Empire, and were as undecided as we are about the true transcription of them. The text of every great national religious composition which is handed down first by oral tradition, and secondly by copies
vi PREFACE
which are multiplied by professional scribes and others, is bound to become corrupt in places; this result is due partly to carelessness of the copyists, and partly to their inability to understand the allusions and the obscure words which occur in them. But the history of the religious literatures of the world shows that when a series of compositions has once attained to the position of a recognized national religious work, the corruptions in the text thereof do not in any way affect the minds of their orthodox readers in the general credibility of the passages in which they occur. And the Book of the Dead forms no exception to this rule, for the work, which was very old even in the reign of Semti, a king of the First Dynasty, and was, moreover, so long at that time as to need abbreviation, was copied and re- copied, and added to by one generation after another for a period of nearly 5000 years; and the pious Egyptian, whether king or ploughman, queen or maid- servant, lived with the teaching of the Book of the Dead before his eyes, and he was buried according to its directions, and he based his hope of everlasting life and happiness upon the efficacy of its hymns and prayers, and words of power. By him its Chapters were not regarded as materials for grammatical exer- cises, but as all-powerful guides along the road which, passing through death and the grave, led into the realms of light and life, and into the presence of the divine being Osiris, the conqueror of death, who made men and women “to be born again.” ‘The more the Book of
PREFACE vii
the Dead is read and examined, the better chance there is of its difficult allusions being explained, and its dark passages made clear, and this much to be desired result can only be brought about by the study, and not by the condemnation, of its texts.
In the Introduction to the present translation Chapters are added on the literary history of the Book of the Dead, on the doctrines of Osiris, and of the Judgment and Resurrection, and on the Object and Contents of the Book of the Dead. The limits, how- ever, of this work made it impossible to include within it the chapter on the Magic of the Book of the Dead which appeared in the edition of 1897, and the eighteen plates which illustrated the paleography of the various Recensions from about B.c. 3500 to A.p. 200, and the lengthy extracts from the Pyramid Texts which describe the abode and occupations of the beatified in the Elysian Fields. The renderings of the funeral texts written for Nesi-Khonsu, Kerasher, and Takhert-p-uru- abt, appended to the third volume will, it is hoped, enable the reader to make a comparison of the beliefs of the Egyptians in the early and later periods of their history.
E. A. Watuis Bupae.
Lonpon, June 1st, 1901.
CONTENTS OF VOLUME JI.
PAGE PREFACE . : : , - : - : ; : i INTRODUCTION :— 1. Toe History or THE Book or THE Drap xvil 2. OSIRIS, THE GOD OF JUDGMENT, THE RESURRECTION, ImMorTALITY, THE ELYsSIAN FIELDS, ETC. Iii 3. Tur Opsect AND CoNTENTS OF THE BooKk oF THE Drap . : Hymw To RA at risinc. From fie Papyrus of Ani. With vignette ; : : : 3 Hymn to RA at risina. From the Papyrus of Qenna if Hymw to RA at risine. From the Papyrus of Qenna 10 Hymn to RX at risinc. Fromthe Papyrus of Hu-nefer 12 Hymw ro RA av pristine. From the Papyrus of Nekht 15 Hymn to Osiris Un-NEFER. From the Papyrus of Ani. 18 TEXTS RELATING TO THE JUDGMENT. From the Papyrus of Ani. With vignettes : : : . 25—380 CHAP.
J.—HERE BEGIN THE CHAPTERS OF ComING ForRTH BY Day. From the Papyrus of Ani. With vig- nettes . : ; : é ‘ ‘ : 5 nate)
Iz.—OF MAKING THE SAHU TO ENTER INTO THE UNDER- WORLD ON THE DAY OF THE FUNERAL. From the Papyrus of Nekhtu-Amen. With vignette 47 II.—OF comMING FORTH BY DAY AND OF LIVING AFTER DEATH. From the Papyrus of ANtr 49 TIT.—ANorHER CHAPTER LIKE UNTO THE PRECEDING. eon the Papyrus of Nu ; : : : : = 00
xX CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.
CHAP. IV.—OF PASSING OVER THE CELESTIAL ROAD OF RE-
stavu. From the Papyrus of Nu : : V.—OF NOT LETTING THE DECEASED DO WORK IN THE UNDERWORLD. From the Papyrus of Nebseni. With vignette. C ; : : : ; VI.—OF MAKING THE SHABTI FIGURE TO DO WORK, From the Papyrus of Nebseni. With vignette. VII.—OF PASSING OVER THE ABOMINABLE BACK OF APEP. From the Papyrus of Nu. With vignette ‘ VITI.—Or passine THROUGH AMENTET. From the Papyrus of Ani. With vignette . : 5 : : LX.—OF CoMING FORTH BY DAY HAVING PASSED THROUGH rue Amaunet. From the Papyrus of Ani. With vignette. : : - - : : X.—OF COMING FORTH BY DAY AGAINST ENEMIES IN THE UNDERWORLD. From the Papyrus of Ani.
With vignette. 3 é c : ‘ : XJ.—OF COMING FORTH AGAINST ENEMIES IN THE UNDER- worLp. From the Papyrus of Nu. : : XII.—Or GOING INTO AND OF COMING FORTH FROM THE UNDERWORLD. From the Papyrus of Nu . :
XI1I.—Or ENTERING INTO AND OF COMING FORTH FROM THE UNDERWORLD. From the Papyrus of Nebseni . XIV.—OFr PUTTING AN END TO SHAME IN THE HEART OF THE Gop. From the Papyrus of Mes-em-neter. XV.—(1) A Hymn oF Praise To RA av Risine. From the Papyrus of Ani. With vignette . :
(2) Hymn anv Lirany to Osiris. From the
Papyrus of Ani. With vignette : : : (3) Hymn or Praise To Ra ar pristine. From the Papyrus of Ani, With vignettes - : (4) Hymy ro Ri ar serrine. From the Papyrus of Mut-hetep. With vignette . 5 :
(5) Hymn ro Ra av serrine. From the Papyrus of Nekhtu-Amen. With vignette . . f (6) Hymn ro RA ar sertinc. From a Papyrus at Dublin. : : : : ; : 4
PAGE
53
54
83
86
CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.
CHAP,
XVI.—[Vignettes of Chapter XV. ]
XVII.—THE PRAISES AND GLORIFYINGS OF COMING OUT FROM AND OF GOING INTO THE GLORIOUS UNDERWORLD. From the Papyri of Nebseni and Ani. With vignettes . ‘
XVITI.—Inrropuction. From the Papyrus of ae With vignettes. . : [Appanems TO GODS OF eet eos the Papyrus of Ani. With vignettes.
XIX.—Or THE CHAPLET oF Victory. From the Papyrus of Auf-ankh . : s : :
XX.—[Without title], From the Papyrus of Nebseni : ‘ r ‘ - . :
XXIJI.—OF GIVING A MOUTH TO THE DECEASED. From the Papyrus of Nu. With vignette
XXII.—OF GIVING A MOUTH TO THE DECEASED. From the Papyrus of Nu. With vignette .
XXIII.—Or openING THE MOUTH OF THE DECEASED. From the Papyrus of Ani, With vignettes
XXIV.—OF BRINGING CHARMS TO THE DECEASED. From the Papyrus of Ani. With vignette .
XXV.—OF MAKING A MAN TO POSSESS MEMORY IN THE UNDERWORLD. From ,the Papyrus of Nu. With vignette . * : : :
XXVI.—-OF GIVING A HEART TO THE DECEASED IN THE UNDERWORLD. From the Papyrus of Ani. With vignette . : : ; ‘
XXVII.—OFr Not LETTING THE HEART OF THE DECEASED BE TAKEN FROM HIM IN THE UNDERWORLD. From the Papyrus of Ani. With vignette.
XXVIII.—Or Not LETTING THE HEART OF THE DECEASED BE TAKEN EROM HIM IN THE UNDERWORLD. From the Papyrus of Nu. With vignette .
XXIXA. —OF NOT LETTING THE HEART OF THE DE- CEASED BE TAKEN FROM HIM IN THE UNDER- wortp. Erom the Papyrus of Ani, With vignette : . : : ;
PAGE
88
130
131
132
134
136
139
141
143
Xil CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.
CHAP, XXIXB.—OF NOT ALLOWING THE HEART OF THE DE-
CEASED TO BE TAKEN FROM HIM IN THE UNDERWORLD. From the Papyrus of
Amen-hetep. With vignette . : : XXIXc.—A HEART OF CARNELIAN. From the Papyrus of Ani. With vignette. : :
XXX.—OF NOT LETTING THE HEART OF THE -DE- CEASED BE DRIVEN AWAY FROM HIM IN THE UNDERWORLD. From the Papyrus of Auf-ankh. With vignette . : : XXXaA.—-OF NOT LETTING THE HEART OF THE DE- CEASED BE DRIVEN AWAY FROM HIM IN THE UNDERWORLD. From the Papyrus of Nu. With vignette . : : : XXXB.—OF NOT LETTING THE HEART OF THE DE- CEASED BE DRIVEN AWAY FROM HIM IN THE UNDERWORLD. From the Papyrus of Ani. With vignette . ¢ : c : XXXI.—OF BEATING BACK THE CROCODILE THAT COMETH TO CARRY OFF THE CHARM. From
the Papyrus of Nu. With vignette . XXXII.—Or BEATING BACK THE CROCODILE THAT COMETH TO CARRY OFF THE CHARM. From
the Papyrus of Auf-ankh. . . . XXXIII.—Or reputstna sERPENTS. From the Papyrus of Nu. With vignette. : : :
XXXIV.—OF NOT LETTING THE DECEASED BE BITTEN BY SNAKES. From the Papyrus of Nu.
With vignette . c : ; : ;
XXX V.—OF NOT LETTING THE DECEASED BE DEVOURED BY SERPENTS. From the Papyrus of Nu.
With vignette . : : é : : XXXVI.—OFr privine away ApsHailTt. From the Papyrus of Nu. With vignette : : XXXVII.—Or prRIVING BACK THE MERTI GODDESSES. From the Papyrus of Nu. With vig-
nette . , - ~ : A , A
PAGE
144
145
146
147
149
CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.
XXXVIUa—Or LIVING BY AIR IN THE UNDERWORLD. From the Papyrus of Nebseni. With vignette , 3 : :
XXXVIIIp.—OF LIVING BY AIR IN THE UNDERWORLD. From the Papyrus of Nu. With vig- nette 5 A 3 4 ;
XXXIX.—OF DRIVING BACK THE SERPENT REREK. From the Papyrus of Mes-em-neter. With vignette : : : XL.—OF DRIVING BACK THE EATER OF THE Ass. From the Papyri of Ra and Nu. With vignette . . : 5 : : XLI.—OFr DRIVING AWAY: THE SLAUGHTERINGS WHICH ARE PERFORMED IN THE UNDER- WoRLD. From the Papyrus of Nebseni. With vignette. : : . XLII.—OFr DRIVING BACK THE SLAUGHTERINGS WHICH ARE PERFORMEDIN SUTEN-HENEN. From the Papyrus of Nu. With vignette XLIIL.—Or nor Lerrine THE HEAD OF THE DECEASED BE CUT OFF IN THE UNDERWORLD. From the Papyrus of Ani. With vignette XLIV.—OF NOT DYING A SECOND TIME IN THE UNDERWORLD. From the Papyrus of Ani. With vignette : : XLV.—OF NOT SUFFERING CORRUPTION IN THE UNDERWORLD. From the Papyrus of Ani. With vignette : : XLVI.—Or Nor PERISHING AND OF BECOMING ALIVE INTHE UNDERWORLD. From the Papyrus of Ani. With vignette . : : XLVII.-—Or not ALLOWING THE SEAT AND THRONE TO BE TAKEN AWAY IN THE UNDERWORLD. From the Papyri of Nu and Nebseni. With vignette. : : : XLVIII.—[See Chapter X.] XLIX.—[See Chapter XI.]
Xill
PAGE
164
167
170
173
184
XIV CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.
CHAP. PAGE L.A.—OF NOT ENTERING IN UNTO THE BLOCK OF THE
cop. From the Papyrus of Nebseni. With
vignette . - : : : : : . 190 L.8.—OF NOT ENTERING IN UNTO THE BLOCK OF THE
Gop. From the Papyrus of Nu. With
vignette . LI.—OFr Not MARCHING TO BE OVERTHROWN IN THE
UNDERWORLD. From the Papyrus of Nu.
With vignette . : : - : : = ee LIJ.—Or Nor EATING FILTH IN THE UNDERWORLD. From the Papyrus of Nu. With vignette . 193
LIII.—OF not EATING FILTH AND OF NOT DRINKING FOUL WATER IN THE UNDERWORLD. From _ the
Papyrus of Nu. : é ‘ ; , . 195
LIV.—OF GIVING AIR TO THE DECEASED IN THE
UNDERWORLD. From the Papyrus of Nu.
With vignette . , : : : ;
LV.—OF GIVING AIR IN THE UNDERWORLD. From the
Papyrus of Nu. With vignette. E . 198 LVI.—OF SNUFFING THE AIR AMONG THE WATERS IN THE UNDERWORLD. From the Papyrus of Nu.
With vignette . . ; ; : : . 199 LVII.—OF sNUFFING THE AIR, AND OF HAVING MASTERY OVER THE WATERS IN THE UNDERWORLD.
From the Papyrus of Nu. With vignette . 200 LVIII.—OF BREATHING THE AIR AND OF HAVING DOMINION OVER THE WATER IN THE UNDER- wortp. From the Papyrus of Ani. With
vignette . : : ‘ é : : . 202 LIX.—OF SNUFFING THE AIR AND OF HAVING DOMINION OVER THE WATER IN THE UNDERWORLD. From
197
the Papyrus of Ani. With vignette . . 204 LX.—Ayorner Cuarrer. From the Papyrus of Auf- ankh. With vignette . : : : . 205
LXI.—OF NoT LETTING THE SOUL OF A MAN BE TAKEN FROM HIM IN THE UNDERWORLD. From the Papyrus of Ani. With vignette . . . 206
CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.
CHAP, LXII.—Or DRINKING WATER IN THE _ UNDERWORLD.
From the Papyrus of Nebseni. With
vignette F : : ; :
LXIITA.—OF DRINKING WATER AND OF NOT BEING BURNT.
From the Papyrus of Nu. With vignette .
LXIIIs.—Or nor BEING SCALDED WITH WATER. From the Papyrus of Nu. With vignette
LXIV.—(1) OF coming FoRTH BY DAY IN THE UNDER-
world. From the Papyrus of Nebseni.
With vignette : : : :
LXIV.—(2) OF KNowine THE “CHAPTERS OF COMING
ForTH BY DAY” IN A SINGLE CHAPTER.
From the Papyrus of Nu. With vignette .
PAGE
210
218
INTRODUCTION
THE HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.
THE early history of the great collection of religious texts which has now become well known throughout the world by the names “Das Todtenbuch,” ‘“ Das Aegyptische Todtenbuch,” “Le Livre des Morts,” “Rituel Funéraire,” “Il Libro dei funerali degli antichi Kgiziani,’ and “The Book of the Dead,” is shrouded in the mists of remote antiquity, and up to the present no evidence has been forthcoming which will enable us to formulate it in an accurate manner. The very title “Book of the Dead” is unsatisfactory, for it does not in any way descfibe the contents of the mass of religious texts, hymns, litanies, etc., which are now best known by that name, and it is no rendering whatever of their ancient Egyptian title Rrvu NU
> 10 G2 : PERT EM HRU ! wech a eel Se (reese, “Chapters of diciae Forth by Day.” The name
“Book of the Dead” is, however, more satisfactory
than that of “Ritual of the Dead,’ or “ Funeral
Ritual,” for only a very small section of it can be
rightly described as of a ritual character, whilst the VOL. I. b
XVill INTRODUCTION
whole collection of compositions does certainly refer to the dead and to what happens to the dead in the world beyond the grave.
Of the home and origin also of the Book of the Dead but little can be said. Now that so many of the pre-dynastic graves of Keypt have been excavated, and their contents have been so fully described and discussed, we find no evidence forthcoming that would justify us in assuming that the aboriginal inhabitants of the country possessed any collection of religious texts which might be regarded as the original work from which, by interpolations and additions, the Re- censions of the Book of the Dead now known could have descended, or even that they made use of any collection of religious texts at the burial of the dead. That there are references in the various Recensions to the funeral customs of the aborigines of Egypt is fairly certain, and it is evident from the uniform manner in which the dead were laid in their graves in the earliest pre-dynastic times that the aborigines possessed tolerably well defined general ideas about the future life, but we cannot regard them as the authors even of the earliest Recension of the Book of the Dead, because that work presupposes the existence of ideas which the aboriginals did not possess, and refers to an elaborate system of sepulture which they never practised. Whether we regard the aborigines of Egypt as of Libyan origin or not it is certain that they employed a system of sepulture which, in its earliest forms, was
INTRODUCTION X1X
quite different from that in use among their latest pre- dynastic and their earliest dynastic descendants. If the known facts be examined it is difficult not to arrive at the conclusion that many of the beliefs found in the Book of the Dead were either voluntarily borrowed from some nation without, or were introduced into Egypt by some conquering immigrants who made their way into the country from Asia, either by way of the Red Sea or across the Arabian peninsula; that they were brought into Egypt by new-comers seems most probable, Who those new-comers were or where they came from cannot be definitely said at present, but there are good grounds for thinking that they first adopted certain of the general customs which they found in use among the dwellers on the Nile, and then modified them, either to suit the religious texts with which they were acquainted, or their own individual views which they evolved after they had arrived in Egypt. The excavation of pre-dynastic cemeteries in Egypt has revealed the fact that its aboriginal or pre- dynastic inhabitants disposed of their dead by burial and by burning; the bodies which were buried were either dismembered or cut up into a considerable number of pieces, or buried whole. Bodies buried whole were laid on their left sides with their heads to the south, and were sometimes laid in the skins of gazelles and sometimes in grass mats; no attempt was made to mummify them in the strict sense of the term, This seems to be the oldest method of burial in
XX INTRODUCTION
the Nile Valley. The dismembering or cutting up of the body into a number of pieces was due probably both to a wish to economize space, and to prevent the spirit of the deceased from returning to his old village ; in such eases the head is separated from the body, and the limbs are laid close together. Chronologically, the disposal of the dead by burning comes next; usually the bodies were only partially burnt, and afterwards the skull and the bones were thrown into a compara- tively shallow pit, care being, however, taken to keep those of the hands and feet together. Speaking generally, these two classes of burials are well defined, and the cemeteries in which each class is found are usually quite separate and distinct, lying ordinarily some distance apart. Whether we are to distinguish two distinct peoples in those who buried the bodies of their dead whole, and in those who burnt them first and buried their remains, it is almost too early to decide, but there is abundant evidence to show that both of these classes of the inhabitants of Egypt had many funeral customs incommon. They both used covered pits for tombs, both buried their dead in the valleys, both oriented the dead in the same direction, and both made funeral offerings to the dead. The offerings prove beyond all doubt that both those who buried and those who burnt their dead held definite views about the future life, and these can hardly have existed in their minds without some perception, however dim, of a divine power being there also. It is idle to speculate on the nature of
INTRODUCTION XX1
such a perception with our present limited knowledge, but it must not be forgotten that the widespread custom of burying the dead with the head to the south, and the presence of funeral offerings, indicate the existence of religious convictions which are not of a low order, and are not common among savage or semi- barbarous tribes.
It has been said above that the people who buried their dead whole made no attempt to mummify the bodies in the strict sense of the term, still, as Dr. Fouquet found traces of bitumen in some of the skeletons to which he devoted an exhaustive examina- tion, and as many bodies have been found wrapped in skins of animals, and grass mats, and even rough cloths, we may rightly assume that they would have taken far more elaborate precautions to preserve their dead had they possessed the necessary knowledge. These early inhabitants of Kgypt embalmed their dead either because they wished to keep their material bodies with them upon earth, or because they believed that the future welfare of the departed depended in some way upon the preservation of the bodies which they had left behind them upon earth. Whatever the motive, it is quite certain that it must have been a very powerful one, for the custom of preserving the dead by one means or another lasted in Egypt without a break from the earliest pre-dynastic times almost down to the conquest of the country by the Arabs, about A.D. 640.
XX11 INTRODUCTION
Meanwhile, however, we may note that the graves of those who were buried whole, and of those who were burnt, or dismembered, contain no inscriptions, and it is evident that the habit of writing religious texts upon the objects laid in the tombs, a habit which became universal in the times of the historical Egyptians, was not yet in existence. Still, it is impossible to think that people who, clearly, believed in a future life, and who tried to preserve the bodies of their dead from religious motives, would bury their beloved friends and relatives without uttering some pious wish for their welfare in the world beyond the grave, or causing the priest of the community to recite some magical charm or formula, or repeat certain incantations, which had been composed for such occasions, on their behalf. It is more than probable that, if prayers or formulae were recited at the time of burial, the recital was accompanied by the performance of certain ceremonies, which must have partaken of a magical character ; both prayers and ceremonies must have been traditional, and were, no doubt, primarily designed to protect the dead from the attacks of wild animals, damp-rot, dry- rot, and decay. Now although we may not regard a collection of such funeral prayers, however large, as the earliest Recension of the Book of the Dead, there is little doubt that many of the formulae found in the Heliopolitan Recension of the Book of the Dead, which was in use during the [Vth and Vth Dynasties, date from a very early pre-dynastic period, and that they are
INTRODUCTION XX1il
as old as, or older, than the civilization of the historic Egyptians and their immediate predecessors. ‘Such formule are directed against snakes and scorpions, and other noxious reptiles, and the forms in which they were written by the scribes about B.c. 3500, and the mistakes which occur in them, prove that the copyists were dealing with texts that were at that remote time so old as to be unintelligible in many passages, and that they copied many of them without understanding them. In any case such formulae date from a period when the banks of the Nile were overrun by wild beasts, and when they formed the home of creatures of all kinds which were hostile to man, and which the early dwellers on the Nile sought to cajole or frighten away from their dead; indeed, there is little doubt that before the forests which lined the river banks were cut down for fuel Egypt must have resembled in many respects certain sections of the Nile Valley much further south, and that river monsters of all kinds, and amphibious beasts which are only now to be found on the upper reaches of the Blue Nile and near the Great Lakes, lived happily in the neighbourhood of Memphis, and even farther to the north.
Towards the close of the period when the bodies of the dead were burnt, or dismembered, the objects found in the graves vary in character considerably from those which occur in the graves wherein the bodies are buried whole, and whereas in the older graves weapons of flint occur in abundance, and stone jars and vases
XXIV INTRODUCTION
are rare, in the later flint weapons are the exceptions, the hard stone vases become more numerous, and objects in metal are found in comparative abundance. To what cause these changes are due cannot exactly be said, but the presence of bronze and other metal objects most probably indicates the appearance of some foreign influence in the Valley of the Nile, and that that influence proceeded from immigrants is tolerably certain. Whether these immigrants belonged remotely to a Semitic stock, or whether they were descendants of a people akin to the nation which is now by common - consent called Sumerian, are questions impossible to answer at present; for, while the presence in the earliest hieroglyphic inscriptions of grammatical usages, and verbal forms, and idioms, and pronouns which are certainly identical with many of those in use in all the Semitic dialects indicates Semitic influence, or kinship with Semitic peoples to a considerable degree, the religious beliefs of the pre-dynastic and early dynastic Egyptians have few parallels with those of the Semitic peoples of antiquity known to us. But, whether the immigrants were of Semitic origin or not, they seem to have come originally from the Hast, and, whether by force of arms or otherwise, they certainly effected a permanent settlement in the Nile Valley; a people armed with metal weapons conquered those who relied upon weapons of flint and stone, and having made themselves masters of the country these men ruled it according to their own ideas and methods, as far as its
INTRODUCTION XXV
climate and natural conditions permitted. Conquest was followed by intermarriage, which was an absolute necessity if the immigrants came from the Hast and wished their descendants to abide in the land, and thus it comes to pass that the historic Egyptians are the descendants of an indigenous north-east African people, and of immigrants from the Kast, who having settled in Egypt were gradually absorbed into the native popu- lations. It is easy to see that the debt which the . indigenous peoples of Hgypt owed to the new-comers from the East is very considerable, for they learned from them the art of working in metals (although they continued to make use of flint weapons, i.e., knives, axe-heads, spear-heads, arrow-heads, scrapers, etc., without a break down to the time of the dynastic Egyptians), and the art of writing. M. de Morgan declares that the knowledge of [working in] bronze is of Asiatic origin, and he thinks that the art of brick- making was introduced into Egypt from Mesopotamia, where it was, as we learn from the ruins of early Sumerian cities, extensively practised, with many other things which he duly specifies.
With the art of writing the new-comers in Egypt un- doubtedly brought certain religious beliefs, and funeral customs, and literature, and gradually the system of burial which was universal in Egypt up to the time of their arrival in the country became completely changed.
1 Ethnographie Préhis'orique, p. 21 ff.
XXVI1 INTRODUCTION
The covered pits and troughs which served for graves, and which were dug almost anywhere on the banks of the river, were replaced by crude brick buildings contain- ing one or more chambers; graves were no longer dug in the valley but in the hill sides; dead bodies were neither burnt nor dismembered, and the head was not separated from the body; bandages systematically wound round the body took the place of skins of animals and grass mats and rough cloth wrappings ; and dead bodies were laid on their backs in coffins, instead of being bent up and laid on their side on the ground. The change in the character of the offerings and other objects found in the graves at this period was no less marked, for pottery made on a wheel took the place of that made by hand, and maces and more formidable weapons appeared, together with a large number of various kinds of amulets of a new class. It is, unfortunately, impossible to assign a date to this period of change, and it cannot be said how long it lasted, but it is certain that at this time both the indigenous peoples and the new-comers modified their burial customs, and that the foundations of the sepul- chral customs and of the system of mummification which were universal among the historical Egyptians were then laid. The indigenous peoples readily saw the advantage of brick-built tombs and of the other improvements which were introduced by the new- comers, and gradually adopted them, especially as they tended to the preservation of the natural body, and
INTRODUCTION XXVil
were beneficial for the welfare of the soul; but the changes introduced by the new-comers were of a radical character, and the adoption of them by the indigenous peoples of Egypt indicates a complete change in what may be described as the fundamentals of their belief. In fact they abandoned not only the custom of dis- membering and burning the body, but the half savage views and beliefs which led them to do such things also, and little by little they put in their place the doctrine of the resurrection of man, which was in turn based upon the belief that the god-man and king
'
Osiris had suffered death and mutilation, and had been -
embalmed, and that his sisters Isis and Nephthys had provided him with a series of amulets which protected him from all harm in the world beyond the grave, and had recited a series of magical formulae which gave him everlasting life; in other words, they embraced the most important of all the beliefs which are found in the Book of the Dead. The period of this change is, in the writer’s opinion, the period of the introduction into Kgypt of many of the religious and funeral com- positions which are now known by the name of “ Book of the Dead.” Whether the primitive form of the doctrine of Osiris included the view that his body was hacked to pieces after death and his head severed from it is not known, but it is quite certain that many influential people in Egypt objected to the decapitation of the dead, and their objection found expression in the
XLIlIrd Chapter of the Book of the Dead, which,
XXV1l1 INTRODUCTION
according to its title, provides expressly that “the head of a man shall not be cut off in the under- world.” ‘The text of this remarkable Chapter is of great interest; and reads, ““I am the Great One, the “son of the Great One; I am Fire, the son of “Fire, to whom was given his head after it had been “cut off. The head of Osiris was not taken away from “him, let not the head of (here follows the name of the “deceased, who is also called Osiris) be taken away “from him. I have knit myself together; I have “made myself whole and complete; I have renewed “my youth; Iam Osiris, the lord of eternity.” The title of this Chapter is definite enough, but the text seems to indicate that for a man to be certain of possession of his head in the next world it was necessary to have it first removed from his body after death, and then rejoined to it. The historic Egyptians seem to have abandoned any such belief, however, and there is no doubt that they viewed with dismay any mutilation of the body, although they preserved in their religious texts frequent allusions to the collecting of the members of the body, and the gathering together of the bones. The LXIIIrd Chapter, which existed in two versions in the XVIIIth Dynasty, also seems to allude to certain funeral practices of the pre-dynastic Egyptians, for one version was written to protect a man from being burnt in the underworld, and the other to prevent him from being scalded or boiled. In historic times the Kgyptians neither burned nor sealded
INTRODUCTION XX1X
nor boiled their dead, but we have seen above that the pre-dynastic Egyptians partly burned their dead, and it is probable that they often removed the flesh from the bones of the dead by boiling as well as by scraping them. There are numerous passages in the various Chapters of the Book of the Dead which seem to con- tain allusions to pre-dynastic funeral customs, and many of the Chapters refer to natural conditions of the country which can only have obtained during the period that preceded the advent of the immigrants from the Hast. It is clear that those who introduced the Book of the Dead into Egypt claimed to be able to protect the dead body from calamities of every kind, either by means of magical names, or words, or cere- monies, and that the indigenous peoples of the country accepted their professions and adopted many of their funeral customs, together with the beliefs which had produced them. They never succeeded wholly in inducing them to give up many of their crude notions and fantastic beliefs and imageries, and more and more we see in all ages the ideas and notions of the semi- barbarous, North African, element in the Book of the Dead contending for recognition with the superior and highly moral and spiritual beliefs which it owed to the presence of the Asiatic element in Egypt. The Chapters of the Book of the Dead are a mirror in which are reflected most of the beliefs of the various races which went to build up the Egyptian of history, and to this fact is due the difficulty of framing a connected
XXX INTRODUCTION
and logical account of what the Egyptians believed at any given period in their history. But there is reason for hoping that, as the texts become more studied, and more information and facts concerning the pre-dynastic peoples of Egypt become available, it will be possible to sift such beliefs and to classify them according to their source,
To assign a date to the period when the Book of the Dead was introduced into Egypt is impossible, but it is certain that it was well known in that country before ‘ the kings of the Ist Dynasty began to rule over the country. In the first instance the prayers and petitions, which in later days were grouped and classified into Chapters, were comparatively simple, and probably few in number, and their subject matter was in keeping with the conditions under which the dead were buried in the home of those who brought them into Egypt. At first also they were recited from memory, and not from written copies, and they were, no doubt, preserved by oral tradition for a very long time. Meanwhile the prayers, and petitions, and formulae increased in number and in length, and were in other particulars made applicable to the conditions under which men were buried in Egypt, and at length they were done into writing; but this only took place when the priests began to be in doubt about the meaning of their contents, and when they found that certain of them were becoming forgotten. It is scarcely likely that at that remote period any effective supervision of the
INTRODUCTION XXX1
accuracy of the written copies by a central authority was attempted, and though the copyists in their copies adhered in the main to the versions of the prayers, ete., which they had received, variations, additions, and mistakes, that were often due to the misreading of the characters, soon crept into them. Experience has shown that it is extremely difficult to preserve, even in these days of printing and stereotype, the text of a work in an accurate and genuine state, and when copies of a text have to be multiplied by hand the difficulty is increased a thousand-fold. For, besides the mistakes due to the carelessness and ignorance, and to the fatigue of the eye and the hand of the copyist, there remain to be considered the additions and interpo- lations which are always made by the scribe who wishes the text he is copying to represent his own views. It was such tendencies as these on the part of scribes and copyists which made it necessary for Talmudic sages to resort to the means of “casuistic exegesis” for the preservation not of the original text of the Hebrew Bible but even of that text which had become authoritative in their time; and it is a well known fact that, within a few years after the death of Muhammad the Prophet the notables of the Muhammadan world were alarmed at the variations which had already crept into the Suras of the Kur‘an, and that one of them warned! his master to “stop the
1 See Muir, The Life of Mahomet, pp. xx., xxi.
XXX1l1 INTRODUCTION
people, before they should differ regarding their Scrip- ture, as did the Jews and Christians!” In this case the variant readings of a national religious book, which was held to be of divine origin, were disposed of in a most effectual manner, for, as soon as the four authori- ties who had been appointed to make a final recension of the Arabic text began work, they collected copies of the Kur‘én from all parts of the Muhammadan dominions, and having decided what readings were to be retained, they burnt all the manuscripts containing those which they rejected. It seems almost a pity that some such drastic method was not employed in the formation of a textus receptus of the Book of the Dead.
The graves of the pre-dynastic dwellers in Egypt contain no religious inscriptions, and it is not until we come to the time of the dynastic Hgyptians that the tombs afford much evidence of the existence of the Book of the Dead ; it is, however, certain that parts of the Book of the Dead were in general use before the period of the rule of the kings of the Ist Dynasty. The numerous tombs of priestly officials, and the in- scriptions in them, testify that the men for whom they were made performed during their lifetime offices in connexion with the burial of the dead; such as the reading of texts and the performance of ceremonies, which we know from the rubrics of the recensions of the Book of the Dead of a later period were regarded by the Egyptians as essential for salvation; now if the official lived and read the texts and performed the
INTRODUCTION XXX111
ceremonies of the Book of the Dead, that work must gertainly have existed in one form or another, for priests were not appointed to read religious books which did not exist. The Egyptians themselves have not left behind any very definite statement as to their belief about the existence of the Book of the Dead in pre-dynastic times, but they had no hesitation in asserting that certain parts of it were as old as the Ist Dynasty, as we may see from the following facts. The oldest copy of the Book of the Dead now known to exist on papyrus is that which was written for Nu, the son of “the overseer of the house of the overseer of the seal, Amen-hetep, and of the lady of the house, Senseneb ;” this extremely valuable document cannot be of later date than the early part of the XVIIIth Dynasty.' Of the Sixty-fourth Chapter it gives two versions, one much longer than the other, and to each version is appended a rubric which assigns a date to the text which it follows; the rubric of the shorter version declares that the “Chapter was found in the “foundations of the shrine of Hennu by the chief “mason during the reign of his Majesty, the king of “the South and North, Semti” (or, Hesepti), and that of the longer version that it “was found in the city of “Khemennu (Hermopolis, the city of Thoth) upon a “block of iron of the south, which had been inlaid [with
! The complete text, edited by myeelf, is published in Facsimiles of the Papyri of Hunefer, Anhai, Kerdsher, and Netchemet, with
supplementary teat from the Papyrus of Nu. Published by order of the Trustees of the British Museum, London, fol. 1899.
VOL. I. CG
XXXIV INTRODUCTION
“ letters] of real lapis-lazuli, under the feet of the god (i.e. Thoth) during the reign of his Majesty, the king “of the South and North, Men-kau-Ra (i.e. Mycerinus), “by the royal son Heru-ta-ta-f.”. Here then we have two statements, one of which ascribes the “ finding” of the Chapter to the time of the Ist Dynasty, and the other to the [Vth Dynasty; and it is probable that both statements are correct, for it is clear that the longer version, which is ascribed to the [Vth Dynasty, is much longer than that which is ascribed to the Ist Dynasty, and it is evident that it is an amplified version of the shorter form of the Chapter. The meaning of the word “ found” in connexion with the