[1.] The later texts say “the eldest of the five gods.”
[2.] Who presenteth the tablets and guardeth the door of Osiris. See picture of Thoth in the Psychostasia.
[3.] Where Osiris renews his birth.
[4.] The Thigh. The iron instrument so called used in the ceremony of ‘Opening the mouth’ of the deceased.
[5.] Sound of heart implies that the conscience of the deceased has been recognized as blameless.
[6.] Oxen and birds of various kinds. These kinds are named in the text, but we have no corresponding European names.
[7.] I have come to an end. The first two words of this chapter are evidently copied from the end of the last, but instead of menḥu, ‘sacrificial slaughter,’ the notion of menȧ or meni ‘coming to an end,’ has been substituted. Later texts read “I do not come to an end.”
[8.] Its hair. All this paragraph sounds very strangely, and translators are tempted to understand that the hair, side-lock, and skin of the deceased are acted upon by the winds.[[82]] But the feminine suffix shows that the converse is the case. The speaker catches the air and distributes it, as we are afterwards told, to the faithful departed.
[82]. But we “catch Time by the forelock,” and so did the Greeks.