365 
heaven, 370 cubits long and 140 broad.” In a cavern in one of 
the holy mountains is the great crocodile Sabak * (chap, cviii.), 
and at the head of the valley extends an enormous snake thirty 
cubits long and six in circumference. His head is of stone, t and 
is three cubits broad, and the name of the terrible supernatural 
is ff Eater of fire.” On coming near to this guardian genius, 
for such the serpent is, the Osirian in secret assumes the cha- 
racter of a similar reptile, and declares he is the serpent the 
son of Nu,” and presently he boasts that he has “ taken the 
viper of the sun as he was resting at evening,” and “ that the 
great snake has coiled round the heaven.” Further, “ that he 
is ordered to approach the sun, as the sun is setting from the 
land of life to his horizon ”; that “ he knows the passage of 
spirits, the arrest of the Apophis in it.” This seems to be, as 
nearly as may be guessed, the meaning of this chapter (cviii.), 
which is one of the most confused in the Ritual. 
32. In the next chapter (cix.) is a further description of 
the heavenly region, on the north of which is a lake called 
the Lake of Primordial Matter, J a chaos in fact; and on the 
south the lake of Sacred Principles, possibly spiritual essences. 
In chapter cx. the land of Amenti is further described as 
a magnified kingdom of Egypt, with its lakes, canals, palaces, 
fields, &c. There the walls are of iron, and the corn grows 
seven cubits high. There the sycamore-trees (trees of life) 
Fig. 75. The god Nilus or Hapimou encircled by the serpent of eternal years. 
Possibly the heavenly Nile is here represented. (Wilkinson.) 
are of copper, and there the spirits of the blest are dwelling, 
and the sun shines for ever. In this delightful climate for 
* After whom Sabakoph, the Ethiopian, mentioned in 2 Kings xvii, 4, 
under the name of So, was named. The name is there written 
t An idiom for extreme hardness, a peculiarity common to the frontal 
plates of certain species of vipers. 
t Incidentally, the great antiquity of the Ritual is proven by its continual 
reference to lakes. Seas or oceans, such as the peninsular Hellenes delighted 
in, do not occur in the mythology of the Egyptians, who, up to the time of 
Thothmoses, were not aware of the existence of the Atlantic, nor till that of 
Necho, thought otherwise than that the Mediterranean was a vast lake. 
