Egyptian Literature/The Book of the Dead/Of Preserving the Heart (2)
THE CHAPTER OF PRESERVING THE HEART
[From the Papyrus of Nu (British Museum No. 10,477, sheet 5).]
The Chapter of not letting the heart of the overseer of the palace, the chancellor-in-chief, Nu, triumphant, be carried away from him in the underworld. He saith:
“Hail, thou Lion-god! I am the Flower Bush (Unb). That which is an abomination unto me is the divine block. Let not this my heart (hāti) be carried away from me by the fighting gods in Annu. Hail, thou who dost wind bandages round Osiris and who hast seen Set! Hail, thou who returnest after smiting and destroying him before the mighty ones! This my heart (ab) [sitteth] and weepeth for itself before Osiris; it hath made supplication for me. I have given unto him and I have decreed unto him the thoughts of the heart in the House of the god Usekh-hra,[1] and I have brought to him sand (sic) at the entry to Khemennu (Hermopolis Magna). Let not this my heart (hāti) be carried away from me! I make thee to dwell(?) upon this throne, O thou who joinest together hearts (hātu) [in Sekhet-hetep (with) years] of strength against all things that are an abomination unto thee, and to carry off food from among the things which belong unto thee, and are in thy grasp by reason of thy twofold strength. And this my heart (hāti) is devoted to the decrees of the god Tem who leadeth me into the dens of Suti, but let not this my heart which hath done its desire before the sovereign princes who are in the underworld be given unto him. When they find the leg and the swathings they bury them.”
- ↑ I.e., the god of the “Large Face.”