even I. I have come, I have become glorious (or a Khu), I have been reckoned up, I am strong, I have come and I avenge mine own self. I have sat in the birth-chamber of Osiris, and I was born with him, and I renew my youth along with him. I have laid hold upon the Thigh which was by Osiris, and I have opened the mouth of the gods therewith, I sit upon the place where he sitteth, and I write down the number [of the things] which make strong (?) the heart, thousands of loaves of bread, thousands of vases of beer, which are upon the altars of his father Osiris, [numbers of] jackals, wolves, oxen, red fowl, geese and ducks. Horus hath done away with the sacrifices of Thoth. I fill the office of priest in the regions above, and I write down there [the things] which make strong the heart. I make offerings (or offerings are made to me) at the altars of the Prince of Tattu, and I have my being through the oblations [made to] him. I snuff the wind of the East by his head, and I lay hold upon the breezes of the West thereby. . . . I go round about heaven in the four quarters thereof, I stretch out my hand and grasp the breezes of the south [which] are upon its hair. Grant unto me air among the venerable beings and among those who eat bread.”
if this chapter be known by [the deceased] he shall come forth by day, he shall rise up to walk upon the earth among the living, and he shall never fail and come to an end, never, never, never.
BEATING BACK THE CROCODILE
[From Lepsius, “Todtenbuch,” Bll. 16 and 17.]
The Chapter of beating back the Crocodile that cometh to carry away the magical words from the Khu in the underworld. Osiris Auf-ānkh, triumphant, saith:
“The Mighty One fell down upon the place where he is, or (as others say), upon his belly, but the company of the gods caught him and set him up again. [My] soul cometh and it speaketh with its father, and the Mighty One delivereth it from these eight[1] crocodiles. I know them by their names and [what] they live upon, and I am he who hath delivered his father from them.”
- ↑ The Theban texts mention four crocodiles only.
