CHAPTER CXXVII.

_The Book_(1.) _for invoking the gods of the Bounds,_(2.) _which the
person reciteth when he approacheth them, that he may enter and see
the Strong one_(3.) _in the Great Abode of the Tuat._


Hail, ye gods of the Bounds, who are in Amenta.

Hail, ye Doorkeepers of the Tuat, who guard this Strong one, and who
bring the reports before Osiris; ye who protect them who worship you,
and who annihilate the adversaries of Rā: who give light and put away
your darkness: ye who see and extol your Great one, who live even as he
liveth, and invoke him who is in his Solar disk.

Guide me, and let the gates of Heaven, Earth, and the Tuat be opened to
me.

I am the Soul of Osiris and rest in him.

Let me pass through the Gateways, and let them raise acclamation when
they see me.

Let me enter as I will, and come forth at my pleasure, and make my way
without there being found any defect or any evil attaching to me.

NOTES.

The text which has been followed in the translation of this chapter is
that of the Royal Tombs of Rameses IV and Rameses VI, called by M.
Naville Chapter 127 A. The lost Busca papyrus, of which Lepsius had a
tracing, furnishes a different text, (127 B), and the text of the Turin
_Todtenbuch_ has been enlarged by means of numerous interpolations. M.
Naville has called attention to the close relationship between this
chapter and the second part of the “Solar Litany.”

1. _Book_ ⁂⁂, properly a _Roll_; a title given to several of the
chapters (125, 127, 129, 130, 140, 141, 142 and 148 in the Turin
_Todtenbuch_), instead of the usual ⁂. Too much importance should
not be attached to the difference of terms. This chapter is called
⁂ by the Busca papyrus; and Chapter 125, which is called ⁂
in the earliest texts containing it whenever a title is given, is called
⁂⁂ ever since the time of Rameses IV.

2. _Bounds_, ⁂⁂⁂, in the dual form, though ⁂⁂⁂
is not unfrequent, here and in other places. The English word is not a
translation of the Egyptian one, which has to be explained before any
equivalent for it can be proposed. And the explanation of it has to be
sought in the ‘Solar Litany,’ first completely published by M. Naville.

There we find the Sun-god Rā invoked as a Power _pouring itself forth_
or _overflowing_ ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂[139] in 75 _forms_ and the
_forms_ in 75 ⁂⁂⁂. Each of these divine _forms_ (⁂⁂⁂)
has its own ⁂⁂⁂ as a dwelling-place, to which however it is
not confined.

The seventy-five Forms in question (each of which is a god) are, as the
text itself shows, simply so many names of the Solar god or solar
phenomena. Each of them is addressed as ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, ‘Rā,
supreme of power,’ after which some attribute of the deity is mentioned,
and the name of the deity is connected with this attribute.

In Greece, Apollo was called ἑκηβόλος, καταιβάσιος, ἀποτροπαῖος,
νεομήνιος, and by ever so many other names expressive of the attributes
with which he was credited. These names correspond to what Egyptian
mythology called the ⁂⁂⁂ of a god, and each of the names has
but a limited application. The god is not always thought of as
‘Far-darting’; under the conception of ‘Neomenios,’ he _dwells_ in what
Egyptian mythology called another ⁂⁂, which is the local
habitation, or, as mathematicians would say, the _locus_ of the concept.