CHAPTER LXXXIII.

_Chapter whereby one assumeth the form of the Bennu bird._


Let me wheel round in whirls, let me turn like the Turning One, let me
flourish like a flower and keep myself hidden like the Hider.(1.)

I am the Barley corn of every god.

I am the four Yesterdays of those seven Uræus deities who are born in
Amenta; Horus who giveth light by means of his own body; the god who is
against Sutu when Thoth is between them, as in that dispute of the
Prince of Sechem with the Spirits of Annu where the river is between
them.(2.)

I come forth by day and disclose myself at the head of the gods.

I am the god who chaseth all boastfulness.(3.)

NOTES.

1. There is here a play on the words _pa_, _ḫeper_, _ruṭ_ and _šet_. The
_Turning One_ is the god Chepera. The _Tortoise_ ⁂⁂⁂ derives
its name (the _hider_), from the habit of drawing its body within its
shell. On the flight of the Bennu see the first note of next chapter.

2. The Nile lies between the opposite shores of the Nomes of Letopolis
(Sechem) and Heliopolis (Annu).

3. The later recensions have “I am Chonsu who _putteth a stop_ to all
boastfulness.” But in the early copies _Chonsu_ is taken in its
primitive sense _the chaser_ and does not require the verb ⁂ to
govern ‘boastfulness.’

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