OF BRINGING A BOAT ALONG IN HEAVEN
[From the Papyrus of Nu (British Museum No. 10,477, sheet 9).]
The Chapter of bringing along a boat in heaven. The chancellor-in-chief, triumphant, saith:
“Hail to thee, O thou Thigh which dwellest in the northern heaven in the Great Lake, which art seen and which diest not. I have stood up over thee when thou didst rise like a god. I have seen thee, and I have not lain down in death; I have stood over thee, and I have risen like a god. I have cackled like a goose, and I have alighted like the hawk by the divine clouds and by the great dew. I have journeyed from the earth to heaven. The god Shu hath [made] me to stand up, the god of Light hath made me to be vigorous by the two sides of the ladder, and the stars which never rest set [me] on [my] way and bring [me] away from slaughter. I bring along with me the things which drive back calamities as I advance over the passage of the god Pen; thou comest, how great art thou, O god Pen! I have come from the Pool of Flame which is in the Sekhet-Sasa (i.e., the Field of Fire). Thou livest in the Pool of Flame in Sekhet-Sasa, and I live upon the staff of the holy [god]. Hail, thou god Kaa, who dost bring those things which are in the boats by the . . . I stand up in the boat and I guide myself [over] the water; I have stood up in the boat and the god hath guided me. I have stood up. I have spoken. [I am master of the] crops. I sail round about as I go forward, and the gates which are in Sekhem (Letopolis) are opened unto me, and fields are awarded unto me in the city of Unnu (Hermopolis), and laborers(?) are given unto me together with those of my own flesh and bone.”
