chapter 146, we see that the ⁂⁂⁂ is a door, a gate, which has

to be passed in order to reach the ⁂⁂⁂⁂. Behind each
⁂⁂⁂ a ⁂⁂⁂⁂ is represented as a shrine close to
which is its god. And also in the book called ⁂⁂⁂, _the book
of what is in the Tuat_, we see that Rā has to go through the
⁂⁂⁂ and make a long navigation before he reaches the gods of
the Tuat.

144 and 147 are two different versions of the same chapter, and no old
papyrus has them both. It is the same with chapters 145 and 146.
Evidently before the Saitic period, for these chapters, as for the 15th,
there was no received text, and the writers had the choice between
various versions which the compilers of the Turin text collected
together. There are seven ⁂⁂⁂, and the deceased who
approaches them has to know three names; first, the ⁂⁂⁂⁂
⁂⁂⁂ whom Renouf calls _the porter_, evidently from his being
styled in chapter 147 ⁂⁂⁂⁂. But if we consider that in
some of the old papyri the name of the man is that of the gate itself,
⁂⁂⁂⁂ has to be translated _he who belongs to_, the
occupant, the inhabitant, a sense which does not disagree with the word
⁂⁂⁂⁂ since, according to Oriental customs, the master of
a house is generally met with at the door, at the entrance.

The _doorkeeper_, the _watcher_ (Budge), or the _warder_ (Renouf), is
the second person, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ _he who guards the
gate_. The third person ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, as the text says
reports to Osiris every day the things of the world, and I suppose also,
who is coming towards the gate. Renouf calls this person _the teller_. I
shall use the word _herald_, which I adopted previously.

In the six old texts which I collated, we find only the reciting of the
three names. The Papyrus of Nu in the British Museum alone contains the
allocution to the gates of the Turin text. It is therefore from the
Papyrus of Nu that this chapter has been translated. (Budge, _The Book
of the Dead_.)

1. The title is taken from Papyrus _Ax_. The Turin text calls this
chapter “_the chapter of knowing the occupants of the seven gates_.”

2. A flame, judging from the determinative ⁂.

3. ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ as we read in chapter 147.

4. ⁂⁂⁂ _N._ ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ lit. “receives the
saying.” I suppose it means receives the right or the privilege to say
the words which follow: “I am one of them.”

5. ⁂⁂⁂⁂ a word which has various meanings. Renouf
translates: “protection, safeguard, powers, attributes.” I believe in
many cases it corresponds to what we call “the nature,” and that it is
used as a periphrase instead of an abstract adjective, which does not
exist in Egyptian. The real sense of such an expression
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂
seems to be ‘such as he is, such am I, and such is Rā.’

6. I read with the Turin text ⁂⁂⁂⁂. The papyrus _Pb_,
which reproduces this sentence in an addition to 136A writes
⁂⁂⁂.

7. ⁂⁂⁂. ‘The god of the lock, or the curling god,’ another
name for ⁂⁂⁂ Apepi, an evil power which must be driven away.