CHAPTER XXIII.

_Chapter whereby the Mouth of a person is opened for him in the Netherworld._ _He saith_: Let my mouth be opened by Ptah, and let the muzzles which are upon my mouth be loosed by the god of my domain.(1.) Then let Thoth come, full and equipped with Words of Power,[35] and let him loose the muzzles of Sutu which are upon my mouth, and let Tmu lend a hand to fling them at the assailants. Let my mouth be given to me. Let my mouth be opened by Ptah with that instrument of steel(2.) wherewith he openeth the mouths of the gods. I am Sechit(3.) Uat’it who sitteth on the right side of Heaven: I am Sahit encircled by the Spirits of Heliopolis.[36] And all the Words of Power, and all the accusations which are uttered against me—the gods stand firm against them: the cycles of the gods unitedly. NOTES. 1. Osiris. On the sense of ⁂⁂⁂, literally ‘the god of the domain,’ see the articles of M. Naville and Professor Piehl, _Zeitschr._, 1880, 146; 1881, 24 and 64. I hold with Dr. Piehl that the domain meant in this formula is Abydos, and that the god is Osiris. 2. The word here translated ‘steel’ is ⁂⁂⁂, upon which see M. Devéria’s dissertation, “Le Fer et l’Aimant” in the _Mélanges d’Archéologie Egyptienne et Assyrienne_, tome I, p. 2. A description of the Ceremonies of the Opening of the Mouth as performed at the tomb will be found in the Introduction to this translation. 3. The name of this goddess is phonetically written ⁂⁂ _Sḫt_ in the Pyramid texts of Unas (l. 390), where the Murray Papyrus and other texts have the ordinary ⁂⁂. The reading Sechemet is indefensible. Cf. _Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch._, XII, p. 365. ----- Footnote 35: ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. Footnote 36: Tmu, Shu and Tefnut. ------------------------------------