Chapter for breathing air and command of water in the Nether world.

Let the Great One([1]) be opened to Osiris; let the two folding doors of Kabhu([2]) be thrown wide to Râ.

O thou great Coverer([3]) of Heaven, in thy name of Stretcher([4]) [of Heaven], grant that I may have the command of water, even as Sut hath command of force([5]) on the night of the Great Disaster: grant that I may prevail over those who preside at the Inundation, even as that venerable god prevaileth over them, whose name they know not. May I prevail over them.


My nostril is opened in Tattu, and I go to rest in Heliopolis, my dwelling, which the goddess Seshait([6]) built, and which Chnum raised on its foundation.

If the Sky is at the North I sit at the South; if the Sky is at the South I sit at the North; if the Sky is at the West I sit at the East; and if the Sky is at the East I sit at the West.

And drawing up my eyebrows([7]) I pierce through into every place that I desire.

Notes.

This chapter and the following are recensions and combinations of extremely ancient texts.

The first portion of the present chapter follows the ancient text of Horhotep. Even at that early period two recensions were in existence, and are copied one after the other. The translation here given is the nearest possible approach to the original text.