Chapter CXXVI

Oh ye four Harbingers(1.) who sit at the prow of the Bark of Rā, and convey the fixed ordinances(2.) of the Inviolate One, ye who are judges of my distress(3.) and of my good fortune, and propitiate the gods with the flames from your mouths: ye who present to the gods their oblations and the sacrificial meals to the Glorified: ye who live through Maāt and are sated with Maāt: who have nothing wrong in you and execrate that which is disordered,(4.) do ye put an end to my ills and remove that which is disorderly in me through my being smitten to the earth.(5.)

Grant that I may penetrate into the Ammehit and enter into Restau; and that I may pass through the mysterious portals of Amenta.

Be there given to me the Shensu cakes and the Persen cakes [and all things] even as to the Glorified, who make their appearance on entering into Restau or on coming forth.(6.)

Enter thou, Osiris _N_: We put an end to thine ills, and we remove that which is disorderly in thee through thy being smitten to the earth. We put away from thee all the ills which thou hast. Enter thou into Restau and pass through the mysterious portals of Amenta. Enter thou in and come forth at thy pleasure, like the Glorified ones; and be thou invoked each day in the Mount of Glory.(7.)

NOTES.

In the older papyri the vignette of this chapter is unaccompanied by any text. The only exception as yet known is that of the papyrus _Ab_, of the XVIIIth dynasty. The text is also found in the tomb of Rameses VI, with the important addition of the answer made by the four _Harbingers_ to the prayer of the deceased. This addition is retained in all the later recensions. Other discrepancies between the two texts lead to the conclusion that even the older one has suffered from interpolation.

1. _Harbingers_ or _Saluters_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. See Chapter 5, Note 5, for an explanation of the name of those Apes who salute[135] the Daybreak. Here _four_ only are spoken of, and this was probably the original number, corresponding to the four portals of the Mount of Glory. The number _eight_ (the Chemunnu) is more easy to explain than _six_, which is the number stated in the text quoted from the tomb of Rameses VI.

2. _Fixed ordinances_, ⁂⁂; θέμιστες in the different acceptations of that word.

3. _Distress_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂. “Te semper anteit saeva _necessitas_,” Horace says to Fortuna. The determinative ⁂ and the Coptic ⲙⲣ̄ evidently point to the notion of _constraint_, but the few texts in which the word is found imply _want_, _need_ (_angustiæ_, ἀνάγκη),[136] rather than captivity. Amenemhat at Benihassan (tomb 2) boasts that in his days and under his government no one was seen “in distress (⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂), or starving.” And Horus at Edfu (Naville, _Mythe d’Horus_, pl. XXII) is said to protect the _needy_ or _distressed_ (⁂⁂⁂) against the powerful. This is an honour already claimed by Antuf on his tablet (Louvre, C. 26 line 17), who mentions the _maȧru_ as being an object of interest to him, like the orphan and the widow.

4. _Disordered_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, is the absence of ⁂⁂, strict _order_, and always spoken of as in opposition to it. One is κόσμος and the other is οὐ κατὰ κόσμον, and may be predicated of whatever is contrary to rule, faulty, defective, out of line, deformed, or disfigured, not only in a moral but in a purely physical sense.

⁂⁂, _ill_, does not mean _wickedness_ or _sin_, but simply physical evil, mischief, pain or sorrow. There are many texts to prove this, but perhaps the most interesting is the great text at Dendera (Mariette, _Denderah_, IV, pl. 73, or Dümichen, _Rec._, III, pl. 96), where Osiris is invoked at Apu (Panopolis) as the fiery Bull, hiding (or scarcely seen) on the day of the New Moon ..., but at length rising into full strength,[137] and seeing the Golden Horus fixed upon the throne of the universe. ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ (continues the text), “Joy cometh round after[138] pain,” or sorrow; most certainly, not after _sin_.

The meaning of ⁂, which governs the noun, has been explained (Chapter 40, Note 6) as _stopping_, _bringing to an end_; not _destroying_, and still less _forgiving_.

5. _Through my being_ [or _because I am_] _smitten to the earth_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.

⁂⁂ in this position, without a suffix or nominal subject, is not an auxiliary verb, but a particle of correlation, used when a cause, motive, or circumstance is asserted or implied in connection with a preceding statement.

Like all such particles, of which the function was originally only deictic, it is susceptible of very many shades of meaning, and it would be impossible in this place to do justice to a word so frequently occurring, especially in the hieratic papyri of a secular character. The following examples are only intended to illustrate its _grammatical_ use in our text.

The particle occurs three times before as many propositions at the beginning of Chapter 123; ‘I have balanced the divine Pair,’ ‘I have put a stop, _etc._,’ ‘I have ended their complaints;’ ⁂⁂ connects each of these statements with the preceding one, ‘I am Thoth.’ It is as if the speaker said, ‘_It is in consequence of_ my being Thoth, that I have balanced,’ _etc._

In Chapter 36, ‘I am the bearer of the divine words’ is followed by ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, ‘and _so it comes that_ I make the report.’

In Chapter 15, line 7, ‘I am one of those who honoured thee upon earth’ is followed by ⁂⁂⁂⁂ ... “let me _therefore_ attain to the Land of eternity.”

Aahmes, the son of Abana, says in his inscription (line 5) that he was young and unwedded, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ “_and so_ I continued to wear” a certain dress.

Amenemheb was, he tells us (_Zeitschr._, 1873, p. 3), high in the favour of the King, “_and so it comes that_ I followed my Lord ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.”

Una was sent by his sovereign on a certain mission, and the negro chieftains of certain districts furnished the wood for his purpose, “_and so it came to pass that_ he spent ⁂⁂⁂ a year in this wise.“

After _verba dicendi_ ⁂⁂ corresponds to our as _how_, _comme quoi_, or the _quod_ or _quia_ of late Latinity. It often needs no more translation than the Greek ὅτι in such a relation.

In the inscription of Pianchi (line 2) one came to tell his Majesty “_that_ (_comme quoi_) a prince [or magnate] had started up ⁂⁂⁂⁂” and seized upon a part of the kingdom.

⁂⁂⁂ most certainly does not mean ‘est, est,’ any more than it means ‘Dominus meus mortuus est.’

Nebuaiu (_Zeitschr._, 1876, p. 5) in the time of Thothmes III ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ “says, _as how_ ‘I have presided over many constructions.’”

The Naophoros of the Vatican in like manner ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ “says _that_ ‘I made a petition’” to Cambyses.

Long before this Chnumhotep of Benihassan begins his biography (line 14) ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ “his mouth, it says _as how_ ‘his Majesty appointed me’ to the dignity of _Erpā ḥā_.”

The absence of Verbal character becomes especially apparent in such combinations ⁂⁂⁂, ⁂⁂⁂⁂, ⁂⁂⁂.

6. The older texts finish here. What follows in the translation is taken from the later recensions. It is the reply made by the four Harbingers to the prayer addressed to them.

7. _Mount of Glory_ ⁂. This is the real meaning of the word, and there is no reason why we should continue to use the misleading term _horizon_.

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Footnote 135:

The Gothic _Hana_ (the Cock), German _Hahn_ and our _Hen_ signify the
_Singer_, and are words cognate to the Latin _can-ere_. The Latin
_Gallus_ is probably related to our _call_.

Footnote 136:

The Greek language would furnish an interesting parallel to the
Egyptian if it could be shown that δέω, _bind_, and δέω, _want_,
_need_, had the same root. But the latter was originally δέϝω.

Footnote 137:

Such is the real meaning of ⁂⁂⁂⁂, not only in
this place, but in the extremely ancient text found on many
sarcophagi and already in the Pyramid Texts (see Pepi I, 33),
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂,
“Thy mother Nut bringeth it to pass that thou risest into full
strength, without an adversary, in thy name of _the Strong one_.”

In this translation it is assumed that the second ⁂ is the
negative ⁂, as it was always understood in later times (see for
an instance _Zeitschr._, 1869, p. 51, and the beautiful text of
Bakenrenf, _Denkm._, III, 263).

The true meaning of ⁂⁂ is not simply ‘this god’ but ‘the
Strong one,’ ὁ Ισχύων. ⁂⁂ is the ‘Strong and Beautiful;’
⁂⁂ is אל שׁדי, ὁ Παντοκράτωρ.

Footnote 138:

That is, ‘succeedeth.’

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