CHAPTER VI.

_Chapter whereby the funereal Statuettes may be made to do work for a
person in the Netherworld._


O Statuette(1.) there! Should I be called and appointed to do any of the
labours that are done in the Netherworld by a person according to his
abilities, lo! all obstacles have been beaten down for thee; be thou
counted for me at every moment, for planting the fields, for watering
the soil, for conveying the sands of east and west.

Here am I, whithersoever thou callest me.

NOTE.

1. This chapter is inscribed on the funereal statuettes, of which
enormous quantities are found; sometimes by hundreds in the
neighbourhood of a single mummy. Much information on the subject, both
archæological and philological, will be found in Mariette’s _Catalogue
Général des Monuments d’Abydos_, p. 25 and following, and in M. Loret’s
articles “Les Statuettes funéraires du Musée de Boulaq,” published in
the _Recueil de Travaux_, tomes IV and V.

In the earlier texts ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂,
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂; in the later
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. The latter word being read _ušebti_, has very
naturally been considered as derived from ⁂⁂⁂⁂, in Coptic
ⲟⲩⲱϣⲃ, ‘to answer.’ For the statuette is addressed at the beginning of
the chapter, and it replies at the end. But there is no reason for
supposing that the earlier form had the same meaning.

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