chapter in as intelligible a form as seems to me possible. Some passages

as yet defy translation in consequence of the corruption of the text.

Some years before his untimely death M. de Rougé read his translation of
this chapter before the Académie des Sciences. It is much to be lamented
that this has never been published. I have, in addition to the versions
of other scholars, a copy of one by Mr. Goodwin, with whom I read this
and other chapters nearly thirty years ago. But this kind of literature
is not one of those in which his marvellous sagacity showed to
advantage.

In reading this and almost every other chapter of the _Book of the
Dead_, it is absolutely necessary to bear in mind that different divine
names do not necessarily imply different personalities. A name expresses
but _one_ attribute of a person or thing, and one person having several
attributes may have several names. It is not implied in this chapter
that the Sun is the Nile or the Inundation, but that the same invisible
force which is manifested in the solar phenomena is that which produces
the inundation; He is the Inundator. But he has many other names and
titles. In this chapter, as in others before it, the speaker at one time
talks in terms identifying him with some divinity, and at another as a
simple mortal petitioning some favour.

1. ⁂⁂, ⁂⁂⁂⁂ or, at a later period ⁂⁂, signifies
_one whose force is concealed or unseen_. It is a theological term,
frequent at all periods of the Egyptian religion, and implies that the
deity is not to be confounded with its external manifestation. The Sun
that we see _hides_ as truly as it reveals the Sun-god; who, as this
chapter shows, has other manifestations.

2. _Those in the Tuat_ ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ called in the Pyramid Texts
⁂⁂⁂⁂, Pepi I, 185. The more recent texts read
⁂⁂⁂⁂ “the gods of the West.”

3. _Cf._ Pepi I, 174.

4. _Two divine Hawks upon your gables._ They are mentioned in the
Pyramid Texts[77] as ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, Teta, 183. They represent
the two divisions, North and South, of the kingdom of Horus. _Cf._
Rochemonteix, _Edfu_, p. 55 and many other such passages as that found
there.

5. _The Shrine which standeth in the centre of the Earth._ This Shrine
is also mentioned in the ‘Book of Hades.’ _Cf._ Bonomi, Sarc. 4c.

6. _He is I, and I am He._ _Cf._ the Pyramid Text—“Oh Râ.... Teta is
thou, and thou art Teta...., thou risest as Teta, and Teta riseth in
thee, etc.,” Teta, 337.

7. _Ptah floateth over his firmament._ The meaning of the verb is shown
in early texts by the determinative, as in the parallel passage of the
17th chapter.

8. _Oh gracious Power_, ⁂⁂⁂. The adjective is also written
⁂⁂⁂. The usual determinative ⁂ has its origin in the
hieratic form of ⁂, see Prisse Papyrus.

9. _Kam-urȧ_ ⁂⁂⁂⁂, “The great Extender,” a name applied to
Osiris, as the Nile. “Thy two sisters, Isis and Nephthys, come to thee,
and they convey to thee _Kamit urit_ [the great Extent] in thy name of
_Kam-urȧ_ [the great Extender].” Teta, 274.

10. _I bring to its fulness, etc._ The yearly inundation is the mature
result of the innate force belonging to the god; the ἐνέργημα of his
ἐνεργεία. This translation remains the same whether the reading be ⁂
or ⁂.

11. _Shoreless_, ⁂⁂⁂, ⁂ or ⁂, implies an enclosed space,
a basin or channel with fixed limits. The inundation has no determinate
banks. Its course is from south to north, hence the reference to the
deities of the South.

12. _Shoulder_ and _Haunch_. The usual sacrificial joints. This passage
was at an early date added to the paragraph which opens the chapter.

13. _The two goddesses of the West_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.
It is said of Râ at Edfu ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. “He setteth in the West.”
The deities in question are Isis and Nephthys, who are also the deities
of the East or Sunrise under the name of ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂;
Unas, 461.

In the passage of the Pyramid Texts just referred to it is stated that
these “divinities in _Ununait_ open their arms to the god as he stands
up erect on the eastern side of the firmament.”

_Ununait_ is the place of _rising_, _springing up_.

14. _The Tenait in Abydos._ This feast has already been mentioned in