Chapter 17, is uncertain, but the meaning is plain enough. There are

many pictures showing a divinity (the sun or moon-god) hidden within or
behind a tree.

38. _That the Balance may be set upon its stand within the bower of
amaranth._

_Cf._ the passage (Rochemonteix, _Edfou_, p. 191) where mention is made
of the divine powers which animate the Princes who are in the train of
Osiris and who lift the Balance upon the stand before them
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.

_Amaranth_ (see Note 3 of Chapter 26) is only one of the readings of
this doubtful text.

39. _Disasters_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ bad luck, misfortune.
See my note on this word, _T.S.B.A._, II, p. 313.

40. _Grasshoppers_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. The similar word סלעם, which
only occurs in Lev. xi, 22, does not appear to be Semitic. It is a
sufficiently familiar word in Egyptian to serve as a term in comparison,
‘as plentiful as grasshoppers.’

41. The text here is quite uncertain. The Turin _Todtenbuch_ has “the
fourth hour of the Night and the eighth hour of the Day,” which does not
agree with any early reading. _Cd._ has “the fourth hour of the Night
and of the Day.” Several papyri have the “second hour of the Night and
the third ⁂⁂⁂ of the Day.” It was in this passage, as written
in B.M. 9904, that, in the year 1860, I found the phonetic value of the
Egyptian number 3: a discovery first ascribed by Brugsch[134] to
Goodwin, and afterwards by others to Brugsch himself.

42. _The hearts of the gods are appeased_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.
_Cf._ ⲛⲁⲓ, ἱλάσκεσθαι, and ⲛⲁⲏⲧ, ἐλεήμων, οἰκτίρμων. This explains Pap.
Prisse XVII, 6 ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.

43. _Let him come._ ⁂⁂⁂ is a tolerably certain reading, but it
is not possible to say what should be the word preceding this. The
scribes have written ‘there he cometh,’ ‘we grant that he come,’ ‘I
grant,’ ‘let him be brought in,’ and the like.

44. _He who groweth under the Grass_,
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.

45. _A thigh_, ⁂⁂⁂, also written ⁂⁂.

46. _See the greetings_: φωνῇ γαρ ὁρῶ, τὸ φατιζόμενον, _Oedip. Col._
138.

47. _The Leaf_, ⁂⁂⁂.

48. _Pointer_ [or _Plummet_] _of Truth_,
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.

49. _The Scale Pan_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, ⁂⁂⁂.

50. _The Dragon Brood_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂.

51. _The Truncheon of Hathor_, ⁂⁂⁂ does not appear to be a very
familiar word to the scribes, who write it in the most diverse ways
possible; one of them even understanding it as the ‘opening of heaven’
⁂⁂. All that we can say is that the word is shown by its
determinative to be of _wood_, and by its etymology (_cf._ ⁂⁂,
⁂) to serve for _striking_, _blinding_, or _slaying_. Some of the
texts name Hathor, and others Nephthys. The sign ⁂ occurs in both
names, and the scribes have read the rest of the name as best they
could.

52. _He who knoweth the heart and exploreth the person_,
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. This is so exactly the
equivalent of “Searching the heart and trying the reins” of Jeremiah
(xvii, 10), that we might have expected to find something like it in the
Coptic version of the Bible. But there we have nothing but a close
adherence to the sense of the Septuagint, and even to such a word as
δοκιμάζειν.

53. _Who provideth for._ ⁂⁂⁂ is the equivalent of the Greek
φρονεῖν in the inscription of Tanis, and of μέριμνα in the Demotic text
of the verses of Moschion. The Coptic form is ⲙⲉⲩⲓ, ⲙⲉⲉⲩⲉ, which stands
for φρονεῖν in Phil. iv, 10, “Your _care_ of me, wherein ye also were
_careful_.”

Thoth is thus represented as the divine Providence, which takes care of
the universe. The same view is found in a text at Edfu.

54. _The Eye_ of Horus; see latter part of Note 2, of this chapter.

-----

Footnote 111:

Apparently suggested by the scene in the tomb of Hor-em-heb (see
_Denkm._, III, 78), in the time of Amenophis III. (Plate XXXII, fig.
15.)

Footnote 112:

The picture of the Babe lifted up into the upper world by two
divinities speaks for itself. Of the birth of the Sun as the Winged
Scarab at the beginning of the first hour of the day, M. Maspero, in
his description of the text, says: “Il est salué à ton apparition par
les huit ... ‘les esprits d’Orient, dieux du ciel, des terres, des
pays étrangers, de la montagne d’horizon orientale qui est On.’”

Footnote 113:

This is the principle by which to judge the cases of the
_Facing-backward_ god ⁂⁂⁂⁂ serpentine, or crocodile
⁂⁂⁂, and of Uammeta ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, against
both of whom a passage of the ‘Book of Hades’ (Bonomi, _Sarc._, pl. II
A) has been quoted. The book, of course, is of inferior authority to
the ‘Book of the Dead,’ but in any case it must be remembered that
these names, as appellatives, are _common_ nouns (_Uammeta_ is in the
_plural_ number in the passage in question), and may simply mean
_Serpents_. Sutu is called by the first of these names at Edfu
(_Zeitschr._, 1871, p. 108). But even at Dendera (Lanzone, _Diz._, pl.
173, 1) this ‘god of serpent face’ is ‘disastrous to the Sebau,’ the
enemies of Osiris and Rā, and is therefore not one of them. His soul
is invoked like those of all the great gods in the royal tombs.

Footnote 114:

The ⁂ is not to be read _fi_ or _fy_. The sign ⁂ is merely
the ideogram of the number 2, like the letter ⲃ in Coptic. The belief
in an Egyptian dual with ⁂ as a final syllable is an illusion,
though a very pardonable one, of our grammarians.

Footnote 115:

Or _Vultures_. _See_ M. Gayet’s _Temple de Luxor_, Pl. xliii, fig.
127, where the Bird at each end of the picture holds ⁂ in its
claw. And note the tabernacles (a very frequent picture) where a
winged goddess bearing the ⁂ kneels on either side of the solar
scarab.

Footnote 116:

Or as it is said in other words (Teta, 172; Pepi I, 130; Pepi II, 107,
and Merenra, 152), “Seb hath brought to thy side thy two sisters, Isis
and Nephthys.”

Footnote 117:

A very conceivable, because a very frequent, one.

Footnote 118:

“His sons were kept in prison, till they grew
Of years to fill a bowstring or a throne.”

Footnote 119:

To quote only well known cases, we have ‘the massacre of the princes,’
involving the two uncles and seven cousins of the Emperor Constantius,
and those of our own King John and Richard III.

Footnote 120:

The legislation of Solon is said by Diogenes Laertius (who is however
contradicted by notorious evidence) to have excluded from the position
of guardian anyone who had the right of succession to the ward’s
estate. And this was also the law of England with reference to
guardians in socage. In France the next in succession had the charge
of the estate, but was excluded from the custody of the person of the
ward.

Footnote 121:

The true sense of the name has been missed by Birch, who reads it
Teti, and by Brugsch, who reads it “Chonti, der Anfängliche.” At
Beb-el-moluk it is written ⁂⁂⁂.

Footnote 122:

_D. Aegyptische Elle_, Taf. 1 and 2.

Footnote 123:

_Cf._ the forms ⁂`⁂⁂, ⁂⁂⁂ and
⁂⁂⁂⁂ (Naville, _Litanies_, pp. 55, 83, and the
corresponding texts) of one of the Solar names.

Footnote 124:

On the other hand in the standard ⁂ of Dendera, the Crocodile is
Sut, and the Feather upon his head is Osiris.

Footnote 125:

Her son Horus inherited these gifts. He is invoked (_Metternich
Stele_, line 106),
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.

Footnote 126:

Rechmarā filled this office shortly before this, in the time of
Thothmes III, and the inscriptions of his tomb give interesting
information of the duties discharged. His clerks are praised for the
virtue of discretion (18th Precept). Each heard the reports read by
others, but without troubling himself with what did not concern him.
See next note.

Footnote 127:

This office is often referred to by Greek writers as existing in the
Persian hierarchy. Pseudartabas, the ‘King’s Eye,’ is one of the
Dramatis Personæ in the _Acharnians_ of Aristophanes. Herodotus (1,
114) tells how Cyrus being chosen king by his playfellows, selected
his principal officers, and one among the boys to be the ‘King’s Eye.’
Aeschylus does not forget in his _Persae_ (line 976) to make the
Chorus bewail the loss of the King’s faithful Eye.

The most ancient personage who is known to me as the ‘King’s Eye’ in
Egypt is Antuf, whose tablet (of the 12th dynasty) is in the Louvre
(C. 26). His duties are detailed on this magnificent tablet, and they
are very similar to those of Rechmarā. He is described not only as the
King’s Eyes which see, but ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂
the “Tongue which speaks, of the lord of the Palace.”

Footnote 128:

⁂⁂ in cursive writing might be mistaken for ⁂⁂ or for
⁂⁂, and the scribe, to show his learning, might interpolate
the ⁂, but even this might be an error for ⁂.

Footnote 129:

The determinatives in ⁂⁂, ⁂⁂, express the sense of
_division_, διαμελισμός, and the insect (a scolopendron) in ⁂⁂
exhibits the very notion which has given rise to the Latin _insecta_
and the Greek ἔντομον

Footnote 130:

For more particular details, see P.S.B.A., viii, p. 245, and
following.

Footnote 131:

Ἀκούειν τι τοῦ λόγου, παρακούειν δε: _Ethic. Nich._, viii. 7.

Footnote 132:

There is no such god as _Min_ or _Minu_, except as an abbreviated (or
perhaps primitive) _orthographic_ form of _Amon_. ⁂⁂⁂ and
⁂⁂ bear to ⁂⁂⁂ exactly the same relationship
that ⁂⁂, ⁂⁂, ⁂⁂⁂, have to
⁂⁂⁂, ⁂⁂⁂ and ⁂⁂⁂⁂.

Neither _Amen_ nor the shorter form can be the phonetic equivalent of
⁂. The image of Horus with the Flail at Edfu is described (J. de
Rougé, pl. C. III) as ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, _Horus as
Amsu-Amen_, and I have elsewhere quoted from _Tempel insch._, I, 32,
the ⁂⁂⁂ _Amsu- Men_ [or _Amen_] as well as ⁂⁂
_Amsu Horus_.

Footnote 133:

The Luynes papyrus reads ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, which affords
good reason for thinking that in Chapter 115, as elsewhere, ⁂
was originally written without its phonetic value.

Footnote 134:

_Zeitschr._, No. 3.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

PLATE XL.

BOOK OF THE DEAD.

[Illustration: CHAPTER CXXVI. =Papyrus of Ani.=]

[Illustration: