CHAPTER CXXXI.

_Chapter whereby one proceedeth into Heaven by the side of Rā._(1.)


Oh Rā(2.) who art shining this night: if there be any one among thy
followers, let him present himself living as a follower of Thoth, who
causeth Horus to come forth this night.

The heart of the Osiris is glad, because he is one at the head of them.

His adversaries are brought to a stop by the warriors(3.) of the Osiris
_N_, who is a follower of Rā, and hath taken his arms of steel.

He cometh to thee, his father Rā, he followeth Shu and calleth for the
Crown. He putteth on Hu(4.) and is arrayed with the Lock which is on the
path of Rā and is his glory.

And he arriveth at the Aged one, at the confines of the Mount of Glory,
and the crown awaiteth him.

The Osiris _N_ raiseth it up.

Thy Soul is with thee, and strong is thy Soul through the terror and the
might which belong to thee, Oh Osiris _N_, who utterest the decrees
which Rā hath spoken in Heaven.

Hail to thee, great god in the East of Heaven, who enterest into the
Bark of Rā in the form of the Divine Hawk and executest the decrees
which have been uttered; thou who strikest with thy sceptre from thy
Bark.

The Osiris _N_ entereth into thy Bark and saileth peacefully to the Fair
West; and Tmu saith to him: Art thou coming in?

Mehenit is millions upon millions in length from Amur to Ta-ur(5.) an
endless river wherein the gods move.

(6.) ... whose path is in the fire; and they travel in the fire who come
behind him.

NOTES.

1. None of the oldest papyri yet known contain this chapter. This of
itself is not an argument against its antiquity, and there is really no
reason for supposing it to be less ancient than the chapter which
precedes it. The latter portion of the text is, however, very corrupt
and we have unfortunately no means as yet of correcting it.

2. _O Rā._ The name of the god is sometimes omitted in MSS. The context,
however, requires its presence. It may nevertheless be asked: how can
the Sun-god be said to be shining in the night?

The question might as pertinently be asked: how can Horus (in the very
same line) be said to come forth in the night? The answer to both these
questions is that the Sun, whether as Rā or as Horus or Osiris, shines
in the night through the agency of Thoth, the Moon. For further
information see Notes to next chapter.

3. _Warriors_ ⁂⁂⁂. I take this group as = ⁂⁂ or
⁂⁂⁂. But a papyrus gives the variant ⁂⁂⁂⁂.

4. _He putteth on Hu._ This, is certainly obscure; but it is not the
less in conformity with the doctrine of the Pyramid texts. The
deceased (_Pepi_ I. 432, _Merira_ 618) is borne to a region where he
is fed from night till daybreak, and then seizes upon the god Hu,
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. And according to other texts (_Unas_,
446, _Teta_, 250) the deceased seizes (⁂) upon Hu, and after Sau
has been fastened to his feet enters the bark and seizes upon
(⁂) the Mount of Glory.

5. _Mehenit_ ⁂⁂⁂⁂, or in the masculine form ⁂⁂, is
the name of the mythological serpent which personifies the subterranean
path from West to East of the Sun’s nightly course. In the _Book of
Hades_ (_e.g._ on the Sarcophagus of Seti, _passim_) it is represented
as extending over the back, top and front of the shrine in which the
Sun-god is borne in his Bark. The many folds of the serpent are
symbolical of the turnings and windings of the river or canal (⁂)
over which the god is conveyed. This river is here described as infinite
in length. This is one of the instances from which it is clear
⁂⁂⁂, like the corresponding Coptic ⲟⲩⲉⲓ, has the meaning of
_length_. See _P.S.B.A._, XVII, 190.

The length ‘from West to East’ is described as ‘from _Amur_ to _Taur_’
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. _Amur_ is known from many texts to
signify the West (see _supra_, Chapter 64, note 13). The East is known
as _Ta-ur_ or _Ta-urit_. The royal Ritual at Abydos (Mariette, I. 37)
says ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. And as one
of the values of the sign ⁂ is _ta_ as in ⁂⁂ (Louvre, B. 14),
I feel sure that we should read _Ta-ur_ (or in the feminine _Ta-urit_)
rather than _Nif-ur_ or _Nif-urit_, even in such passages as those
quoted _supra_ in Chapter 128, notes 1 and 2, which have no necessary
references to earthly geography.

6. There is a corrupt passage here, which I have at present no means of
correcting by manuscript authority. M. Pierret thus renders it: “Le dieu
qui partage les paroles y fait son chemin de millions d’années, seigneur
sans égal, dont le chemin est dans le feu.”

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