CHAPTER CXVII.

_Chapter whereby one taketh the blissful path at Restau._(1.)


O paths which are high above me at Restau: I am the Girdled(2.) and the
Mighty one, coming forth triumphantly.(3.)

I am come: I am come that I may firmly secure my suit in Abydos,(4.) and
that the path may be open to me at Restau.

Let my suit be made pleasant for me by Osiris.

I am he who produceth the water which balanceth his throne, and who
maketh his way from the Great Valley.(5.)

Let the path be made for me; for behold I am _N_ the triumphant.(6.)

[Osiris is made triumphant over his adversaries, and the Osiris _N_ is
made triumphant over his adversaries, and is as one of you, his
patron(7.) is the Lord of Eternity: he walketh even as ye walk, he
standeth as ye stand, he speaketh as ye speak, before the great god, the
Lord of Amenta.]

NOTES.

1. This chapter and the following have reference to Restau, one of the
Gates between the Netherworld and Heaven.

It is not mentioned in the most ancient recension of chapter 17 (from
which my translation was taken), but in all the papyri of the eighteenth
and later dynasties it is stated that Restau was a gate south of
An-aaref and north of the “Domain (⁂⁂⁂) of Osiris.”

The papyrus of Ani has this picture of it,

[Illustration]

but the most interesting representations of it are in the Dublin papyrus
(_D. a_), where the Sun god is seen passing between the folding doors,
and in the papyrus of Hunefer (_A. g_), where the doors are also open
and the god is sitting between them. (_See_ Plates VI, 11 and VIIb.)

The name _Restau_ ⁂⁂⁂ (the feminine form ⁂⁂⁂ is
more frequent in later texts) signifies _Gate of the passages_. These
are the passages guarded by the faithful attendants of Osiris, but armed
with “hurtful fingers” against the adversaries of Rā, against whose
onslaught the deceased prays Rā for protection in chapter 17.

A mystical interpretation will be found in chapter 119 and note.

2. _Girdled_, or _stoled_, ⁂⁂. On the importance attached to
this ritual investiture, the following references may (among many
others) be useful: _Unas_ 66, _Teta_ 149, _Pepi_ I, 395, _Merenrā_ 190,
_Todt._ 125 (rubric), 145, 25. The deceased prays (Chapter 82, 4) that
he may be girt by the goddess Tait. A passage in _Todt._ 78, 26 (Turin
text) would be of greater interest were it not an emendation of those
who no longer understood the ancient text.

3. _Coming forth triumphantly._ This is the reading of the oldest
authority (Nebseni), but the reading which has prevailed, not only here,
but in Chapter 147, is “coming forth from the Crown,” ⁂⁂⁂.

4. _That I may firmly secure my suit at Abydos._ The scholion on Chapter
17, referred to in note 1, states that the “place of Maāt is at Abydos.”
It is, of course, the mystical, not the geographical, Abydos which is
meant, and the _suit_ ⁂⁂ (_res_) which has to be settled is the
final judgment of the deceased.

5. The throne of Osiris in pictures of the Psychostasia (_see_ Vignettes
to Chapter 125) rests upon water, out of which there springs a lotus
flower; and upon this flower stand the four children of Horus. In a
passage of chapter 147, which is an adaptation of the present chapter,
the deceased says ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ _La_, “I am he
whose stream is secret.” And a Pyramid Text (_Merenrā_, 188, 193) after
mention of the Great Valley ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ and of the investiture
(⁂) proceeds, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, “thy
water, thy fresh current, is a great inundation proceeding from thee.”
Here the deceased is identified with the Nile and its inundation, as in