CHAPTER LXXII.

_Chapter whereby one cometh forth by day and passeth through the Ammchit._(1.) Hail to you, ye Lords of Rule,(2.) devoid of Wrong, who are living for ever, and whose secular period is Eternity.(3.) I make my way towards you. Let me be glorified through my attributes; let me prevail through my Words of Power, and let me be rated according to my merit. Deliver me from the Crocodile(4.) of this Land of Rule. Let me have a mouth wherewith I may speak, and let my oblations be placed before you; because I know you, and I know your names: and I know the name of that great god to whose nostrils ye present delicacies: Tekmu is his name. And whether he maketh his way from the Eastern Horizon of Heaven, or alighteth at the Western Horizon of Heaven, let his departure be my departure, and his progress be my progress. Let me not be stopped at the Meskat; let not the Sebau have mastery over me; let me not be repulsed at your gates, let not your doors be closed against me; for I have bread(5.) in Pu and beer in Tepu. And let me join my two hands together(6) in the divine dwelling which my father Tmu hath given me, who hath established for me an abode above the earth wherein is wheat and barley of untold quantity, which the son of my own body offereth to me there as oblations upon my festivals. Grant me the funereal gifts, beef, fowl, bindings, incense, oil, and all things good and pure upon which a deity subsists, regularly and eternally, in all the forms I please. Let me come down or go up to Sechit-aarru and arrive in Sechit-hotep. I am the god in Lion form. _If this book is learnt upon earth, or executed in writing upon the coffin, he will come forth by day in all the forms he pleaseth, with entrance into his house without repulse. And there shall be given to him bread and beer and flesh-meat upon the table of Osiris. He will come forth to Sechit-aarru, and there shall be given to him wheat and barley there, for he will flourish as though he were upon earth, and he will do all that pleaseth him, like those gods who are there: undeviatingly, for times infinite._ NOTES. This chapter is often found not only in papyri but upon coffins, in accordance with the rubric at the end. The earliest copy is on the coffin of Queen Mentuhotep. A very fine copy is on the alabaster sarcophagus of Seti I, and our museums are rich in funereal monuments inscribed with this ancient text. A very similar text is found at the end of chapter 99. 1. _Ammehit_ is the name given in chapter 149 to the sixth abode in Amenta, but here and in other places it is simply one of the names of the Netherworld. In the inscriptions, for instance, of the tomb of Queen Tita,[86] “passing through the two folding doors of the Ammehit” is in parallelism with “going in and out of the divine Netherworld.” 2. _Lords of Rule._ This is the reading in most documents, but there are others which have an equal claim to authority. The invocation is sometimes made to the ⁂⁂ “those who are possessed of a _ka_,” that is the “spirits made perfect,” those who have already passed through the requisite trials, besides the gods who have never passed through the stage of mortality, all of whom are possessed of a _ka_. The invocation, according to another reading, which is that of chapter 99, is addressed to the ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ “those who are beautiful or perfect of _ka_.” Here the papyri add _lords of rule_, and the invocation, whatever the reading may be, is always addressed to those who have in their power the laws which regulate the universe. 3. _Whose secular period is Eternity._ ⁂⁂⁂ _ḥentȧ_ is the period of 120 years (see _Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch._, XIV, 264) which was their αἰών, _aevum_, corresponding in idea, not in actual time, to our century. The secular period of the gods is eternity. 4. _The Crocodile._ Are we to understand this of the crocodile-headed monster pictured in the representations of the Psychostasia? These pictures are not known to us from as early a date as the chapter itself, but they may have existed. Perhaps, however, this passage may have suggested them. 5. _Bread._ The Egyptian word ⁂ _ta_, like its homonym ⁂, implies something _pierced_ or _perforated_. The sacrificial cake חַלָּה in Leviticus viii, 26 has the same meaning and, like חַלִיל _a pipe_, is connected with חָלָל, _perforavit_, _confodit_, _aperuit_, _profanavit_. See _Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch._, 1893, p. 386. ⁂ _ta_, a door or gate, and some other homonyms evidently come under the same conception; cf. _porta_ and πείρω. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ PLATE XXI. BOOK OF THE DEAD. [Illustration: