CHAPTER XCV.
Chapter whereby is opened the place wherein Thoth resteth.
I am the Dread one([1]) in Storm, who guard the Great one([2]) against assault.
I smite like the Flint-god: I sprinkle like the Sprinkling-god.([3])
I am the protection([4]) of the Great one against assault and I give vigour to the sword which is in the hand of Thoth([5]) in the storm.
Notes.
The papyrus Ad gives this chapter the title of “assuming the form of the Smen-goose,” and Dr. Birch published the text of this papyrus in the Zeitschrift of 1869 (p. 25) as one of those additional chapters which “do not occur in the Ritual of Turin.” This is of course an error of oversight. This chapter is in the Turin Todtenbuch, and the papyrus Ad merely gives it under an erroneous title, which was evidently meant for another text.
[1.] The Dread one,
. Instead of this Ad has
, which I cannot regard otherwise than as a simple blunder of the scribe.
is a well known anaglyph in certain scenes, but there is no evidence of its being a variant of the name of Chnemu.
[2.] Two of the ancient papyri Ca and Ad read Horus, the others have the Great goddess, and so has Ad in the next line. The more recent texts have (not urit, ‘the great one,’ but) urerit, ‘the crown.’
[3.] The Sprinkling god
Aashu. This god is mentioned but once in the Book of the Dead, and his name is here interpreted conjecturally in consequence of the function assigned to him and of the not unlike word
ȧš ‘spit.’
[4.] Protection. I read
instead of
in the early papyri.
[5.] Thoth. The recent texts have Chepera, an evident error. The allusion is to the storm or distress from which Thoth rescues the Eye of Horus.