CHAPTER L.
Chapter whereby one cometh not to the divine Block of Execution.
The four([1]) fastenings of the hinder part of my head are fastened.
He who is in heaven it was who made firm the fastening for him who was fainting upon his two haunches on that day when the fleece was shorn.
The fastenings of the hinder part of my head were fastened by Sutu and the company of gods in his first triumph. Let there be no disaster. Preserve me safe from him who slew my father.
I am seized of the ‘Two Earths.’
The fastenings of the hinder part of my head were fastened by Nu, on the first time of my beholding the Law in virtue of which the gods and their symbols([2]) come into existence.
I am the Heedful one, and become the executioner for you, ye great gods([3]).
Notes.
The antiquity of the chapter is proved by its occurrence on the second coffin of Mentuhotep; but its condition there is such that no one can read it who is not already familiar with it from other sources. It begins, Aelteste Texte, p. 22, line 34, and goes on till the red letters at line 50. The text, in spite of its importance, is very inaccurate.
[1.] The four fastenings. The number four is only found in the oldest copies. The later copies have a different text. It is impossible to say what kind of fastening is meant.
might be a ligament or a vertebra—though more probably the latter. But it might be a combination of several pieces.
is the occiput, and this suggests the hypothesis of cervical vertebrae. But the number of these is not four but seven. Of these three are peculiar; the Atlas which supports the head, the Axis upon which the head turns, and the Vertebra prominens with its long spinal process. But see the Vignette of chapter 42 from Pd where four vertebrae are figured.
[2.] Symbols, or symbolical representations,
or
.
[3.] The Heedful one
, perhaps
, Unas 584, Pepi I, 199 and 667.