CHAPTER XXVIII.

_Chapter whereby the Heart of a person is not taken from him in the
Netherworld._


O Lion-god!

I am Unbu(1.), and what I abominate is the block of execution.

Let not this Whole Heart of mine be torn from me by the divine
Champions(2.) in Heliopolis!

O thou who clothest(3.) Osiris and hast seen Sutu:

O thou who turnest back after having smitten him, and hast accomplished
the overthrow:

This Whole Heart of mine remaineth weeping over itself in presence of
Osiris.

Its strength proceedeth from him, it hath obtained it by prayer from
him.

I have had granted to it and awarded to it the glow of heart at the hour
of the god of the Broad Face, and have offered the sacrificial cakes in
Hermopolis.

Let not this Whole Heart of mine be torn from me.(4.) It is I who
entrust to you its place, and vehemently stir your Whole Hearts towards
it in Sechit-hotepit and the years of triumph over all that it abhors
and taking all provisions at thine appointed time from thine hand after
thee.

And this Whole Heart of mine is laid upon the tablets(5.) of Tmu, who
guideth me to the caverns of Sutu and who giveth me back my Whole Heart
which hath accomplished its desire in presence of the divine Circle
which is in the Netherworld.

The sacrificial joint and the funereal raiment, let those who find them
bury them.(6.)

NOTES.

1. _Unbu_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂ is one of the names of the solar god, the
offspring (_Todt._, 42, 19) of Nu and Nut. As a common noun the word
_unbu_ means the Hawthorn or some other kind of flowering bush. This god
is called ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ ‘the golden Unbu’ in the Pyramid Texts
(Teta 39). We have no means of determining the exact sense of this word,
which as an appellative expresses an attribute possessed both by the Sun
and by the fruit, foliage, or other parts of the tree.

2. _Divine Champions._ ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ in the earlier papyri,
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ in the later; and sometimes both readings occur in
the same MS. Such determinatives as ⁂ certainly do not denote very
pugnacious qualities in the divine Champions.

3. _Clothest._ ⁂⁂ is a word of many meanings, and the context
generally determines which is the right one. In the present instance we
have no such help. Some of the more recent MSS. give ⁂, the
determinative of _clothing_.

4. M. Pierret here breaks off his translation of the chapter, with the
note: “La fin de ce chapitre est absolument inintelligible; les
variantes des manuscrits hiératiques ne l’éclaircissent pas.”

Like many other portions of the book this chapter is hopelessly corrupt,
and the scribes did not understand it better than we do. They have
probably mixed up different recensions without regard to grammatical
sense. The deceased addresses gods in the plural ⁂, but immediately
afterwards we have the singular suffix ⁂.

5. _Tablets_ or _records_. ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ See _Zeitschr._,
1867, 50. The word already occurs in the Pyramid Texts, Pepi I, 364, in
the sense of _memory_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, ‘his
memory for man and his love for the gods.’

But there is another word, ⁂⁂⁂⁂ (_Denkm._, III, 65 _a_),
which signifies a _stand_ upon which objects are placed.

6. The last words of the chapter were extremely puzzling to the scribes
of the later periods, who altered them in ever so many ways. The older
MSS. read ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.
And this is borrowed from an ancient text, which may be found on the
sarcophagus of Horhotep, line 338. The variants ⁂⁂, ⁂⁂, of
the papyri, and ⁂⁂ of the sarcophagus show that it is the
sacrificial joint which is meant, and not a verb as the scribes of a
later period thought. For this verb they had to discover an object and
accordingly we find ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ ‘I trod _their
caverns_.’ ⁂⁂⁂⁂ was in like manner converted into a verb.
See the introductory note to chapter 29.

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