58 
food, and this divine nutriment was accordingly given to the 
deceased by the goddess Nutpe,* * * § who fed him with heavenly 
food, and refreshed him by a liquor expressly called the “ water 
of life.” After having thus restored his energies, the deity 
Thoth, or the divine light, places a mystical book in the hands 
of the deceased, with instructions to guide him on his further 
progress through Hades. The chapters of the Ritual, which are 
supposed to embody the contents of this book, are doubtless 
the oldest, but they are also, unfortunately, the most obscure 
in the whole liturgy. f Gate after gate in the Kerneter has to 
be passed by the deceased, who causes each of them to open to 
admit him by repeating the awful names which are contained 
in the book of life or light. Again and again is the character 
of Iiorus assumed for protection : — 
“The Osirian is the elder Iiorus, the rising sun,J 
I have passed the gate to see my father Osiris, 
I have made my way through the darkness to see my father 
Osiris, I am his beloved, 
I have come to see my father Osiris, 
I stab the heart of Set, 
I do the things of my father Osiris, 
I have opened every door in heaven and earth, 
1 am his Beloved Son,§ 
I have gone over to those bound and tied in the place of 
death.” || 
And then commence a curious and completely inexplicable 
series of metempsychoses, in which the soul is changed into the 
form of a hawk, emblematic of Horus lla % an angel, or “ a divine 
messenger,”** * * §§ a lotus, “ the birthplace of Horus, ”tt “ the pure 
lily which comes out of the fields of the Sun,” into a sacred 
Heron, JJ whose residence is on the boughs of the tree of life, 
into a crane, §§ into a human-headed bird, (| || a swallow,' in 
* A myth which is found also in the Assyrian legend of the descent of 
Ishtar into Hades. See Records of the Past, vol. i. p. 14. See also 
Sharpe, Bible Texts, p. 3. 
t Caps. lxiv. to lxxv., “ The Manifestation to Light.” 
X Cap. lxix., “ A Chapter of Coming Forth as the Day.” 
§ Cap. lxxiii., “ The Chapter of Passing through the West as the Sun, 
and of Passing the Gateway.” 
1| Cap. lxxv., “The Chapter of Going to Annu (Heliopolis), and of Taking 
a Seat there.” U Cap. lxxvii. ** Caps. Ixxix., lxxx. 
++ Cap. lxxxi. It was for this reason that the deity Horus was so con- 
stantly represented on the Alexandrian gems as sitting upon a lotus, a plant 
which was also in itself symbolical of the rising sun. The Hinduism of the 
idea is very remarkable. || Cap. lxxxiii. 
§§ Or a species of Nycticorax. Cap. lxxxiv. ' |||| Cap. lxxxv. 
if IT Cap. lxxxvi. 
