CHAPTER V.

_Chapter whereby work may not be imposed [upon a person(1.)] in the
Netherworld._


Here is _N_. He saith, I am he who raiseth the hand which is motionless,
and I come forth at the hour.(2.) I am the living Soul,(3.) and there go
before me the longings(4.) of those who bring salutation.(5.)

NOTES.

This chapter is found in several of the best MSS., but the text is
extremely corrupt, and must have become absolutely unintelligible. The
Turin text differs greatly from that of the older copies, and the
transposition of words clearly shows how little the transcribers
understood what they were writing. I follow chiefly the text of _Aa_,
the papyrus of Nebseni.

1. These words only occur in the later copies.

2. ⁂⁂⁂⁂ is the older reading, but ⁂⁂⁂ seems to be
the more correct.

3. The oldest text must have had simply the ideographic ⁂, _Ae_ gives
⁂⁂⁂ _Ba_, but _Pd_ has ⁂⁂⁂⁂ _Ḫnemu_. The ‘living
Soul’ is that of the Sun, whether he is called Râ or Osiris.

4. ‘Desires, wishes, loves,’ literally, ‘hearts.’

5. ⁂⁂⁂ signifies ‘salute,’ as in Chapter 12, 1, and 14, 1, and
⁂⁂⁂, ⁂⁂ (with various other forms) the ‘saluter,’ is the
name of the Ape who is seen in the vignettes of the papyri saluting the
rising of the sun. See M. Naville’s _Todtenbuch_, I, plates 21 and 22;
the Papyrus of Ani, plate 2; the _Todtenbuch_ of Lepsius, Chapters 16
and 126.

I do not know how far it is correct to illustrate this undoubted origin
of the Egyptian name for the Ape, as ‘the saluting one,’ by the
following extract of a letter to Cuvier from M. Duvaucelle, about the
Siamang apes in the neighbourhood of Bencoolen in Sumatra. “They
assemble in numerous troops ... and thus united, they salute the rising
and the setting sun with the most terrific cries, which may be heard at
the distance of many miles; and which, when near, stun, when they do not
frighten. This is the morning call of the mountain Malays, but to the
inhabitants of the town, who are unaccustomed to it, it is a most
insupportable annoyance.”

In this place of the Book of the Dead the sign ⁂ is a mere
determinative of the sound _aān_ with the notion of _salutation_, just
as the sign ⁂ is a determinative of the sound _ȧb_ with the notion of
_thirst_.

The ‘saluters’ of the rising sun are neither real apes nor men but the
“Spirits of the East” who, as we are told in an inscription of the tomb
of Rameses VI, “effect the rising of Râ by opening the door at each of
the four portals of the eastern horizon of heaven. They it is who light
him on both sides, and go forth in advance of him.... And when he arises
they turn into six cynocephali.”[10]

The Egyptian words in the later texts are ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ the alternative reading being
itself a proof that the difficulty of the text was already felt by some
Egyptian scribe.

But if the scribe had consulted the oldest texts accessible in his day,
he would probably have seen another way out. Our oldest MS., that of
Nebseni, reads, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂
_bes-kuȧ ȧbu ȧāā(n)u_, which signify literally, “antecedunt me corda
salutantium.” The word ⁂⁂⁂ _bes_ is a very common one in
pictures representing the introduction of a king or a god into a temple.
It is the technical term used in the Tablet of Canopus for the
inducting, by the king, of priests into their offices. The subject of
this verb is ⁂⁂⁂ _hearts_; an independent word, instead of
being the mere determinative of ⁂⁂⁂. The object of the verb is
the speaker—⁂⁂⁂—_kuȧ_, ‘me,’ as the papyrus _Pa_ reads, like
_Aa_. And it is easy to see how the later text, which is already found
in _Ax_, has been corrupted out of the older.

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Footnote 10:

Champollion, _Notices_, tom. II, p. 640.

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