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"Hail to thee, Ra, lord of Law, whose shrine is hidden, master of the gods, the god Cheperà in his boat; by the sending forth of (his) word the gods spring into existence. Hail god Atmu, maker of mortals. However many are their forms he causes them to live, he makes different the colour of one man from another. He hears the prayer of him that is oppressed, he is kind of heart to him that calls unto him, he delivers him that is afraid from him that is strong of heart, he judges between the mighty and the weak.

"The lord of intelligence, knowledge (?) is the utterance of his mouth. The Nile cometh by his will, the greatly beloved lord of the palm tree comes to make mortals live. Making advance every work, acting in the sky, he makes to come into existence the sweet things of the daylight; the gods rejoice in his beauties, and their hearts live when they see him. O Rā, adored in the Åpts, mighty one of risings in the shrine; O Åni,* lord of the festival of the new moon, who makest the six days festival and the festival of the last quarter of the moon; O prince, life, health, and strength! lord of all the gods, whose appearances are in the horizon, president of the ancestors of Auker;† his name is hidden from his children in his name 'Åmen.'

"Hail to thee, O thou who art in peace, lord of dilation of heart (ie., joy), crowned form, lord of the ureret crown, exalted of the plumes, beautiful of tiara, exalted of the white crown, the gods love to look upon thee; the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt is established upon thy brow. Beloved art thou in passing through the two lands.

and devours thee daily, according to that which Rā decreed should be done to thee. Thou art thrown down into the flame of fire which feeds upon thee; thou art condemned to the fire of the eye of Horus which devours thee, thy soul, thy body, thy intelligence and thy shade.”British Museum Papyrus, 10188, col. xxiv.

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Thou sendest forth rays in rising from thy two beautiful eyes. The pat (ancestors, i.e., the dead) are in raptures of delight when thou shinest, the cattle become languid when thou shinest in full strength; thou art loved when thou art in the sky of the south, thou art esteemed pleasant in the sky of the north. Thy beauties seize and carry away all hearts, the love of thee makes the arms drop; thy beautiful creation makes the hands tremble, and (all) hearts to melt at the sight of thee.

"O Form, ONE, creator of all things, O ONE, ONLY, maker of existences! Men came forth from his two eyes, the gods sprang into existence at the utterance of his mouth. He maketh the green herb to make cattle live, and the staff of life for the (use of) man. He maketh the fishes to live in the rivers, the winged fowl in the sky; he giveth the breath of life to (the germ) in the egg, he maketh birds of all kinds to live, and likewise the reptiles that creep and fly; he causeth the rats to live in their holes, and the birds that are on every green twig. Hail to thee, O maker of all these things, thou ONLY ONE.

"Is he of many forms in his might! He watches all people who sleep, he seeks the good for his brute creation. O Åmen, establisher of all things, Åtmu and Harmachis,* all people adore thee, saying, 'Praise to thee because of thy resting among us; homage to thee because thou hast created us.' All creatures say 'Hail to thee,' and all lands praise thee; from the height of the sky, to the breadth of the earth, and to the depths of the sea art thou praised. The gods bow down before thy majesty to exalt the Will of their creator; they rejoice when they meet their begetter, and say to thee, Come in peace, O father of the fathers of all the gods, who hast spread out the sky and hast founded the earth, maker of things which are,

These three names are the names of the Sun-god at mid-day, evening, and morning respectively.

creator of things which president of the gods. thou hast made us, thou hast made (us) and given us birth, and we give praises to thee by reason of thy resting with us.

exist, prince, life, health, strength! We adore thy will, inasmuch as

"Hail to thee, maker of all things, lord of Law, father of the gods, maker of men, creator of animals, lord of grain, making to live the cattle of the hills! Hail Åmen, bull, beautiful of face, beloved in the Apts, mighty of risings in the shrine, doubly crowned in Heliopolis, thou judge of Horus and Set in the great hall.* President of the great cycle of the gods, ONLY ONE,† without his second, at the head of the Apts, Åni at the head of the cycle of his gods, living in Law every day, the double horizoned Horus of the East! He has created the mountain (or earth), the silver, the gold, and genuine lapis lazuli at his Will . . . . Incense and fresh anti‡ are prepared for thy nostrils, O beautiful face, coming from the land of the Māt'au, Àmen-Rā, lord of the thrones of the two lands, at the head of the Apts, Åni at the head of his shrine. King, ONE among the gods, myriad are his names, how many are they is not known; shining in the eastern horizon and setting in the western horizon, overthrowing his enemies by his birth at dawn every day. Thoth exalts his two eyes, and makes him to set in his splendours; the gods rejoice in his beauties which those who are in his . ... exalt. Lord of the sekti § boat, and of the aṭet || boat, which travel over the sky for thee in peace. Thy sailors rejoice when they see Nåk overthrown, his limbs stabbed with the knife, the fire devouring him, his foul soul beaten out of his foul body, and his feet carried away. The gods rejoice, Rā is satisfied,

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+ Compare "The Lord our God is ONE," Deut. vi. 4.

A perfume brought into Egypt from the East.

§ The boat in which Rã sailed to his place of setting in the West. The boat in which Rā sailed from his place of rising in the East.

Heliopolis is glad, the enemies of Atmu are overthrown, and the heart of Nebt-ānch* is happy because the enemies of her lord are overthrown. The gods of Cher-āba are rejoicing, those who dwell in the shrines are making obeisance when they see him mighty in his strength (?) Form (?) of the gods of law, lord of the Apts in thy name of 'maker of Law.' Lord of t'efau food, bull . . . . . . in thy name of 'Åmen bull of his mother.' Maker of mortals, making . . . . . become, maker of all things that are in thy name of Atmu Cheperȧ. Mighty Law making the body festal, beautiful of face, making festal the breast. Form of attributes (?), lofty of diadem, the two uræi fly by his forehead. The hearts of the pātu go forth to him, and unborn generations turn to him; by his coming he maketh festal the two lands. Hail to thee, Amen-Rā, lord of the thrones of the two lands! his town loves his shining.”†

ISIS,, Auset, the mother of Horus and wife of Osiris,, Ausar was the daughter of Nut, or the sky; she married her brother Osiris. Her sister Nephthys and

her brother Set likewise married one another. This last couple conspired against Isis and Osiris, and Set having induced his brother Osiris to enter a box, closed the lid down and threw it into the Nile; the box was carried down by the river and finally cast up on the sea shore. Set having found the box once more, cut the body of Osiris into fourteen pieces, which he cast over the length and breadth of the land. As soon as

* I.e., "the lady of life," a name of Isis.

ISIS.

+ See Records of the Past, Vol. II., pp. 127-136, and Grébaut, Hymne à Ammon Ră.

Isis heard what had happened, she went about seeking for the pieces, and built a temple over each one; she found all save one. Osiris, however, had become king of the netherworld, and vengeance was taken by his son Horus upon his brother Set. Osiris is usually represented in the form of a mummy, holding in his hands dominion,' 'life,'

'rule,' and 'power.' He is called 'the lord of Abydos,' 'lord of the holy land, lord of eternity and prince of everlasting,' 'the president of the gods,' 'the head of the corridor of the tomb,' 'bull of the west,' 'judge of the dead,' etc., etc.

The writers of Egyptian mythological texts always assume their readers to possess a knowledge of the history of the murder of Osiris by Set, and of the wanderings and troubles of his disconsolate wife Isis. The following extracts from Plutarch's work on the subject will supply certain information not given in the Egyptian texts.

"Osiris, being now become king of Egypt, applied himself towards civilizing his countrymen by turning them from their former indigent and barbarous course of life; he moreover taught them how to cultivate and improve the fruits of the earth; he gave them a body of laws to regulate their conduct by, and instructed. them in that reverence and worship which they were to pay to the gods; with the same good disposition he afterwards travelled over the rest of the world, inducing the people everywhere to submit to his discipline; not indeed compelling them by force of arms, but persuading them to yield to the strength of his reasons, which were conveyed to them in the most agreeable manner, in hymns and songs accompanied with instruments of music; from

OSIRIS.

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