Chapter is not quite clear, but it is probable that it

ce
does not mean ‘discovery ” only, and that the perform- ance of some literary work on the text, such as revision or editing, is intended. The mention of king Semti in the rubric to the shorter version of the Chapter is of interest, especially when we consider the re-
IN presentations which are found upon the ebony - >) tablet of the royal chancellor Hemaka;! this =| tablet appears to have been dedicated to the honour of Semti, for his Horus name Ten iets the | appears upon it side by side with that of of Semti. his royal chancellor Hemaka. ‘To the right of the name is a scene in which we see the god Osiris, wearing the white crown, and seated in a shrine set
1 See Petrie, The Royal Tombs of the First Dynasty, plate xv., No. 16.
INTRODUCTION XXXV
upon the top of a short flight of steps; before him is a figure of king Semti, who is dancing away out of the presence of the god, and he wears the crowns of the South and North on his head, and holds in one hand the object &, and in the other a staff or paddle. That the god in the shrine is Osiris is beyond doubt, for he occupies the position at the top of the staircase which in later days gained for Osiris the title of “the “ood at the top of the staircase;”! on sarcophagi and elsewhere pictures are sometimes given of the god sitting on the top of the staircase.” Other examples are known of kings dancing before their god with a view of pleasing him, e.g., Usertsen danced before the god Amsn or Min, and Seti I. danced before Sekhet, and the reference in the text of Pepi I.* to the king dancing before the god, i.e., Osiris, like the reference to the pigmy, proves that the custom was common in Hgypt in early dynastic times; that the custom was not confined to Kgypt is certain from the passage in the Bible (2 Samuel vi.-14, ff.), where we are told that David danced before the ark of the Lord. Below the dancing scene on the tablet are a number of hiero- glyphics, the meaning of which is very doubtful, but in the left hand corner is one which must represent the boat of Hennu, and as we are told that the earliest
1 Compare ‘‘ May I, Osiris the scribe Ani, triumphant, have a portion with him who is on the top of the staircase,” Book of the Dead, xxii. 6, 7.
2 See Bonomi, The Sarcophagus of Oimeneptah, plate 5,
3 See Recueil de Travaua, vii. 162, 163.
XXXVv1 INTRODUCTION
form of the LXIVth Chapter was found in the founda- tions of the shrine of Hennu, it seems as if king Semti was in some way specially attached to the service of this god, or to the performance of ceremonies in which the boat of Hennu was a prominent feature ; it must also be noted that the figure of Osiris seated in his shrine on the top of a short staircase is the oldest representation of the god which we have. From the fact that the chancellor Hemaka depicts the dancing scene on the tablet, and also the boat of Hennu, we may assume that the king’s connexion both with the god and with the boat was of such a special nature that the loyal servant, regarding it as one of the most important features of the king’s life, determined to keep it in remembrance. There remains another point to notice about the LXIVth Chapter. The version of it to which the name of Semti is attached is entitled, “The Chapter of Knowing the Chapters of Coming Forth [by Day] in a single Chapter.” Now, we have said above that the Egyptians called the Chapters of the Book of the Dead the “ Chapters of Coming Forth by Day,” and judging from the title it would seem that as early as Semti’s time these Chapters had become so numerous that it was all-important to compose, or edit one of the Chapters which then existed, in such a way that it should contain all the knowledge necessary to the dead for their salvation; if this view be correct, and there is no reason to doubt it, we have here an extraordinary proof of the antiquity of certain parts of
INTRODUCTION XXXVI
the Book of the Dead. The contents of the LXIVth Chapter are of a remarkable nature, and there is no doubt that in all periods of Egyptian history it was believed to contain the essence of the Book of the Dead, and to be equal in value to all its other Chapters, and to have a protective power over the dead which was not less than that of all the other Chapters taken together. That some important event in the history of the Book of the Dead happened during the reign of Semti is certain, and that this event had a connexion with the doctrine and worship of Osiris is certain from the representation of the god and of the boat of Hennu, which are given on the contemporaneous tablet of Semti’s chancellor Hemaka.
Of the history of the Book of the Dead during the IInd, I1Ird, and [Vth Dynasties we know nothing, and no copy of any part of the Recension of it then in use has come down to us. During the reign of Men-kau- Ra (Mycerinus), a king of the [Vth Dynasty, it is said that Chapters XXXs., LXIV., and CXLVIII. were “found” by Heru-ta-ta-f, the son of Khufu, a man to whom in later ages the possession of great learning was ascribed, and it is very probable that, like King Semti, he revised or edited the Chapters to which his name is attached in rubrics ; for the numerous funeral inscrip- tions of the period prove that at that time a Recension of the Book of the Dead was in general use.
During the period of the Vth and VIth Dynasties a great development took place in the funeral ceremonies
XXXVIl1 INTRODUCTION
that were performed for Egyptian Kings, and Unas, Teta, Pepi I., and others covered the greater part of the chambers, corridors, ete., of their pyramid tombs with series of texts selected from the Book of the Dead in the earliest Recension of that work known to us.! We possess five selections of texts from this Recension, to which, on account of its containing the views held by the priests of the colleges of Annu, or Heliopolis, the name Heliopolitan has been given, but we have no reason for assuming that the Chapters supplied by the five selections constitute the entire work. It is im- possible at present to indicate exactly all the changes, modifications, and additions which the priests of Annu made in the work, but -scattered throughout their Recension there is abundant evidence to show that the Recension upon which they worked was based upon two, or perhaps three, earlier Recensions. In their Recension also will be found religious ideas and beliefs which belong to entirely different strata of civilization and religious thought, and it is clear that some of them came down from the North African section of their ancestors, who at the time when they formulated them must have stood but little higher on the ladder of civilization than the semi-barbarous tribes of Western Africa and the Sfidin.
Between the VIth and the XIth Dynasties we know
1 See Maspero, Les Inscriptions des Pyramides de Saqqarah, Paris, 1894; this work appeared in sections in Recueil de Travaua, tom. iil. ff.
INTRODUCTION XXXIX
nothing of the history of the Book of the Dead, and it is not until we come to some period in the XIth Dynasty that we find other selections from the work. But little is known of the events which happened in the interval between the VIth and the XIth Dynasties, and although in Upper Egypt tombs of considerable size and beauty were built, yet no striking development in funeral ceremonies took place, and we may assume in consequence that no new Recension of the Book of the Dead was made; if it was, we certainly have no record of it. Belonging to the XIth and XIIth Dynasties, however, we have a number of coffins and tombs which are inscribed with selections of texts from the so-called Heliopolitan Recension ; such texts differ in extent only and not in character or conteuts from those of the royal pyramids of Sakkara of the Vth and VIth Dynasties. Coffins at this period were made to represent the main funeral chamber or hall of a tomb of an older period, and are covered inside with lengthy texts traced in hieratic characters in black ink upon the wood, while the outside is plain except for a few short inscriptions, which record the name and titles of the deceased, and short prayers. Above the perpendicular lines of text on all four sides inside the coffin are painted pictures of the objects which it was customary in those days to present as funeral offerings, and above these is a horizontal line of hieroglyphics which contains the name of the deceased and usually a prayer that funeral offermgs may be made to him for
xl INTRODUCTION
‘ever. The texts in such coffins are rarely identical, and they have no fixed order, and it seems as if in- dividual fancy either of the deceased or of the funeral scribe dictated the selection. As no pyramids were inscribed with extracts from the Book of the Dead at this period it is clear that economy prescribed the custom of burying the dead in inscribed wooden coffins, which were far cheaper than stone pyramids.
Between the XIIth and XVIIIth Dynasties there comes another break in the history of the Book of the Dead, and with the beginning of the XVIIIth Dynasty that work enters a new phase of its existence; from pyramids the transition was to coffins, and now the transition is from coffins to papyri. And here again economy probably played an important part. Inscribed pyramids, and sarcophagi, and coffins would, necessarily, be only made for royal personages and for great and wealthy folk, but a roll of papyrus was, in comparison with these, an inexpensive thing, especially if the services of an ordinary scribe were employed in tran- scribing it, or if a man wrote his own copy of the Book of the Dead. The greater number of the papyri in- scribed with selections of texts from the Book of the Dead have been found in the tombs of Thebes, where they were copied chiefly for the priests and their wives and families, the majority of whom were attached to the service of “Amen-Ra, the king of the gods, the lord of the thrones of the world,” the seat of whose worship was at Thebes; and for this reason the Re-
INTRODUCTION xli
cension of the Book of the Dead which we find in common use from the XVIIIth to the XXIInd Dynasty is genérally called the Theban Recension. The texts which the priests of Amen copied were, of course, those of Annu, or Heliopolis, and during the earlier centuries of the existence of the great brotherhood of the priests of Amen they did little more than adopt the religious views and doctrines of the sages of that place. As time went on, however, and the brotherhood obtained greater power, they slowly but surely made their god Amen to usurp the attribute of the oldest gods of Egypt, and at length, as we may see from Chapter