59 
which latter form he makes this most remarkable declaration : 
“ O, great one, I have dissipated my sins, I have destroyed 
my failings, for I have god rid of the sins which detained 
me upon earth.”* * * § Lastly, the deceased, or his soul, assumes 
the form of a serpent, “ the serpent of long years in the 
extremities of the earth (who is) laid out and born, decays 
and becomes young daily” ; * and a crocodile, f no longer the 
eater of filth and the opposer of souls, “ but the crocodile who 
dwells in victories, whose soul comes from men, the great fish of 
Ilorus.” The deceased then traverses the dwellings of Thoth, J 
who again assists him and gives him his final instructions ere he 
crosses over the eternal waters which separate the purgatory 
from the Elysium, § and across which he has to be ferried 
amidst horrible beings which encircle his way, and leap about, 
crawl over, and try to upset the vessel. Dangers of the most 
subtle and insidious kind await him ; then a false boatman, 
the emissary of Typhon, endeavours to seduce him into a 
wrong boat. Aided by the eye of Horus and the book of Thoth, 
the deceased detects the treachery, and he and the false guide 
reproach each other in true Homeric, or rather, barbaric 
fashion. || At last the real bark of the souls arrives, and, joyful 
at the sight, the Osirian exclaims, 
“ I go to pass from earth to heaven, 
To go along to the ever-tranquil gods, 
When they go to cut the Apophis.”^[ 
Ere however the Osirian can enter the boat of Pthah, it is 
necessary to ascertain if he is really capable of making the 
voyage, if his knowledge of the secret mysteries of heaven is 
such as will suffice for his safe conduct, if his faith is equal 
to his knowledge, and his courage to them both. To test this, 
therefore, the divine boatman puts a series of most singular 
interrogations to him, to all of which the deceased replies in the 
character of “ Horus, who goes to avenge his father Osiris, and 
to fight the Apophis.” Satisfied with the result of his investiga- 
tions, the spiritual pilot prepares to weigh anchor, and directs 
the deceased to enter the boat himself : “ Go thou to the place, 
* Cap. lxxxvii. t Cap. lxxxviii. 
+ Hence Thoth was called Nahem, “ the Saviour,” a title which, still 
more singular to remark, was never applied to Horus, or indeed to any other 
deity than Thoth, and then only in rare instances. — See Mariette Bey, 
Description du Musee clu Boulaq, No. 136, p. 116, 1874. 
§ See for a Jewish allusion to a river in Hades, Psa. xviii. 4. 
|| Cap. xciii., “The Chapter of not Causing a Person to go to the East 
from the Hades.” 
IF Cap. xcviii., “ The Chapter of Leading the Boat from Hades.” 
