Section III
1 O Ament, O Ament, O good, O good, O strong, O strong, O powerful, O powerful, O protecting, O protecting, O mysterious, O mysterious (Ament), the royal Osiris knows thee, he knows thy form, he knows the name of thy companions. Ament, hide my corpse, good Ament, hide my body. O resting-place, let me rest in thee; O strong one, may the royal Osiris be strong with thy strength; O powerful one, may he be powerful with thy power! O Ament, open thy arms to him; O protectress, cover his body; O mysterious being, stretch out thy hand to him. Hail, holy Ament of Osiris with the mysterious names, the most holy of the gods, thou who art the most hidden of all mysteries. Hail! the royal Osiris worships thee; he addresses the great god who is within thee. Hail! he worships thee; open thy mysterious doors to him. Hail! he worships thee; (open to him) thy hidden spheres, for he has his dwelling in the heavens like Rā, and his throne is upon the earth like Seb; he is seated upon the throne of Seb, upon the seats of Horchuti; his spirit soars into the heavens, it rests there; his body descends to the earth in the midst of the gods. [pg 385] He walks with Rā, he follows Tum, he is like Chepra, he lives as thou livest in truth.
2 When this book is read he who reads it purifies himself at the hour when Rā sets, who rests in the Ament of the Ament, when Rā is in the midst of hidden things, completely.
The Book Of Respirations
Translated by P. J. De Horrack
The manuscript a translation of which here follows belongs to the Museum of the Louvre, in Paris, where it is registered under the No. 3284 (Devéria, Catalogue des MS. égypt., p. 132). It probably dates from the epoch of the Ptolemies. It is in hieratic writing and generally known by the name of “Book of Respirations” or “Book of the Breaths of Life,” according to Mr. Le Page Renouf's ingenious interpretation. This book seems to have been deposited exclusively with the mummies of the priests and priestesses of the god Ammon-Rā, if we may judge from the titles inserted into the manuscripts.
Dr. Brugsch, in 1851, first directed the attention of Egyptologists to this curious work, by publishing a transcription in hieroglyphics of a hieratic text in the Berlin Museum, with a Latin translation, under the title of “Shaï an Sinsin, sive liber Metempsychosis,” etc. He added to this a copy of a hieratic text of the same book found in Denon (“Voyage en Egypte,” pl. 136).
A full analysis of this literary composition has also been given by Dr. Samuel Birch, in his Introduction to the “Rhind Papyri,” London, 1863.
The Paris manuscript is as yet unpublished, but a copy of it will be produced ere long by the present translator. A few passages corrupted by the ancient scribe have been restored from copies of the same text, which are in the Egyptian Museum of the Louvre.