CHAPTER XXXVIIIA.

[From the Papyrus of Nebseni (Brit. Mus. No. 9900, sheet 12). ]
Vignette : The deceased holding a sail, symbolic of air.
Text: (1) Tar CHAPTER OF LIVING BY AIR IN THE UNDERWORLD. The scribe Nebseni, the lord to whom veneration is paid, saith :—
“Tam the god Tem], who cometh forth out of (2) ‘Nu into the watery abyss. I have received [my habi- “tation of Amentet, and have given commands] with “my words to the [Khus] whose abiding places are ‘hidden (3), to the Khus and to the double Lion-god. I ‘have made journeys round about and I have sung “hymns of joy in the boat of Khepera. I have eaten “therein, I have gained power (4) therein, and I live “therein through the breezes [which are there]. I am “the guide in the boat of Ra, and he openeth out for ‘‘me a path; he maketh a passage for me through the “gates (5) of the god Seb, I have seized and carried
Chap. xxxviii.a. 8] OF LIVING BY AIR 165
“away those who live in the embrace of the god Ur ““(i.e., Mighty One) ; I am the guide of those who live “in their shrines, the two brother-gods Horus and Set ; “and I bring the (6) noble ones with me. I enter in “and I come forth, and my throat is not slit; I go into “the boat of Maat, and I pass in among (7) those who “live in the Afet boat, and who are in the following of “Ra, and are nigh unto him in his horizon. I live “after my death day by day, and I am strong even as “is the double Lion-god. (8) I live, and I am delivered “after my death, I, the scribe Nebseni, the lord of “piety, who fill the earth and come forth like the lily ‘of mother-of-emerald, of the god Hetep of the two “Jands.”