CHAPTER LXXIV.

_Chapter whereby the legs are set in motion upon earth._


Do what thou hast to do, O Sekaru (_twice_); as The god who is in his
own house, and as The god who standeth on his legs in the Netherworld.

I shine above the Leg(1.) as I come forth in Heaven, but I lie helpless
with corpselike face.

Oh I faint, I faint, as I advance; I faint, I faint before the teeth of
those whose mouth raveneth in the Netherworld.

NOTE.


1. _The Leg._ In this place, as in chapter 98 and other texts, a
constellation in the northern sky is meant, which many years ago I
identified with Cassiopeia.

This constellation, according to chapter 98, is in the Northern sky and
in the _Great Stream_ ⁂⁂⁂, by which I understand the “Milky
Way.” This position is also in accordance with the ancient text on the
Coffin of Amamu, pl. XXVI, line 22. The _Leg_ is as close to the Pole as
the Great Bear (called the _Thigh_ in Egyptian Astronomy) but in the
opposite direction, and in consequence of this position it never sets
below the horizon. Hence in the Pyramid Texts (Pepi I, 411 and Merenrā
589) it is called ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. And here,
according to these texts, as in the Book of the Dead (see chapter 86),
purification was obtained.

The god ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ (also named among the 42 judges) whose face
looks backwards, and who is said to be gate keeper of Osiris, must be a
star (_e.g._ γ Cepheus) in the immediate neighbourhood of the Polar Star
which represented Osiris. On the ancient coffins of Amamu and Sit-Bastit
there is a chapter[87] for assuming the form of a Vulture ⁂⁂⁂,
in which the speaker says “I am the Vulture god who is on the
⁂⁂⁂⁂.”

I suspect that in the formula
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ said of Osiris on the
stelæ of the twelfth dynasty, the constellation in heaven and not a
place at Abydos was meant.

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Footnote 86:

Brugsch, _Rec._, II, pl. 63. The whole tomb has now been published by