CHAPTER CXIII.

_Chapter whereby one knoweth the Powers of Nechen._(1.)


I know the Mystery of Nechen: Horus, and that which his mother did(2.)
for him, when she herself uttered the cry: “Let Sebak, the Lord of the
Marshes, be brought to us.”

He cast the net for them and he found them, and his mother made them
fast in their places.

Sebak, the Lord of the Marshes, said: “I sought and I found the traces
of them under my fingers on the strand. I netted them in a powerful net,
as the net proved to be.”

And Râ said: “Verily, those are fishes in the hands of Sebak. and he
hath found the two arms of Horus for him, which had become fishes.”(3.)

And Râ said: “A mystery, a mystery, in the Net.”

And the hands of Horus were brought to him, and displayed before his
face, on the feast of the fifteenth day of the month; when the fishes
were produced.

Then Râ said: “I grant Nechen to Horus, in the place of his two arms;
that his two hands be displayed before his face in Nechen; and I grant
to him whatsoever is therein comprised on the feast of the fifteenth day
of the month.”

And Horus said: “Be it granted to me that Tuamāutef and Kebhsenuf be
taken with me, and that they be guards of my body in dutiful
service.(4.) Let them be this under the god of Nechen.”

And Râ said: Be that granted to thee, there and in Sati, and let that be
done for them which is done for those who are in Nechen; yea, they are
asking to be with thee.

And Horus said: Be they with thee, so that they be with me to listen to
Sutu invoking the Powers of Nechen: “Be it granted to me that I may make
my entry among the Powers of Nechen.”

I know the Powers of Nechen: they are Horus, Tuamāutef, and Kebhsenuf.

NOTES.

1. _Nechen_, the chief hieroglyphic variants of which are ⁂, ⁂,
⁂ and ⁂⁂, was situated in the third nome (⁂ _Ten_) of
Upper Egypt, and was called by the Greeks Hieracōnpolis, ‘city of the
Hawks,’ from the hawk-headed divinities mentioned in this chapter as
Powers of Nechen, and of which numberless pictures are found on the
monuments.

2. Between these words and those which the three old papyri[96] _Aa_,
_Ae_, and _Ib_, which unfortunately do not agree together on all points,
have a few passages here which do not appear in the later papyri. They
read, “Horus and what his mother did, tossing in distressful agitation
(⁂⁂⁂⁂, ⲕⲓⲙ, σαλεύεσθαι) over the water.” The mother then
addresses persons who are not named, in words of which the sense is not
clear; and Rā speaks words of which the only certain ones are “the son
of Isis.” Then follows the usual text.

3. This legend of Nechen is connected with that of the dismemberment of
Horus (τὸ περὶ τὸν Ὥρου διαμελισμὸν), of which we have but very scanty
information.[97] It must have been like a repetition of what had
happened to his father Osiris. The limbs of Horus had been thrown into
the water, and when Sebak threw his net, at the prayer of Isis, he
brought up two fishes, into which the arms of Horus had been turned.

Reminiscences of this story are preserved in the names of several
localities. ⁂, “Two Fish,” is the name of the _Mer_ of the second
Northern Nome, and of the _pehu_ of the seventeenth Southern Nome; just
as ⁂, “Two Eyes,” is the name of the _pehu_ of the eleventh Northern
Nome. The latter name may perhaps have reference to Osiris, but the same
stories were probably told of both divinities.

4. _On dutiful service_ ⁂⁂⁂, a word omitted in the Turin and
other texts. Brugsch (_Rev. Egypt_, I, 22) has discussed the sense of
this word, and quoted numerous passages in illustration of it.

It is of course ridiculous to identify the word with the Hebrew אדן the
meaning of which is radically different.

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PLATE XXXI.

BOOK OF THE DEAD.

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