Said on an eye of pure lapis-lazuli or mak stone, ornamented with gold; an offering is made before it of all things good and holy, when Rā puts it on (on his head) on the last day of Mechir; another one is made of jasper, which a man will put on any of his limbs he likes. When this chapter is read by one who is in the boat of Rā, he is towed like the gods, he is like one of them, and he prescribes what is done to him in the Netherworld.
When this chapter has been read to its end, this is the copy of the order of offerings made when the Eye is full: four burning altars for Rā, four for the Eye, and four for these gods; what there is on each of them is: five good pointed white loaves; five pointed fruit cakes, five baskets of pastry, one measure of incense, one of fruit and one of roast meat.
Notes.
The ancient papyri do not contain this chapter. The translation is made from the Turin Todtenbuch, supplemented and corrected from hieratic papyri in Paris. Its real meaning is difficult to understand. It seems that under symbolical expressions it refers to an astronomical phenomenon, the renewal of the sun after the winter solstice. According to the principle which I have adopted, to maintain my predecessor’s interpretations, I translated
“the Eye is full” (cf. Notes on ch. 125, p. [214]). But as it seems evident that here the two eyes of the sun are the two periods of his apparent course, the decrease and the growth, I should translate “the period is accomplished,” this period being that of the decrease after which the sun enters its ascending course, or according to Egyptian ideas begins again to grow. It is natural that the completing of the period should be hailed with joy by Rā, since it is the final victory over his enemies, which sets him free and allows him to rise again as at the beginning. The sign of his triumph is that he puts the