This chapter, in the MSS. of which the Turin copy is the type, is repeated as Chapter 121, with the following rubric:—
“Said over an ear-ring of the flower Ânch-amu, put upon the right ear of the deceased person, with another ear-ring, put in fine linen, upon which is written the name of N, on the day of burial.”
[1.] The Bennu is a bird of the Heron kind. He is very commonly but, I think, erroneously identified with the Phoenix. The bird described by Herodotus, II, 73, was in outline and size “very like an eagle,” which no one could say of the Bennu. He appeared only once in five hundred years, whereas the Bennu appeared every day. The fable as told by the Greeks is utterly unsupported by any Egyptian authority known to us.
[2.] This passage is, unfortunately, both in the ancient and the recent forms, corrupt.
CHAPTER XIV.
Chapter for removing displeasure from the heart of the god against the deceased person.
Hail to thee, oh god who sendest forth([1]) the Moment, who presidest over all the Secret things([2]), and protectest the utterance of my words.
Here([3]) is a god displeased against me; let wrong be overwhelmed and let it fall upon the hands of the Lord of Law. Remove([4]) the impediments which are in me and the evil and the darkness([5]), oh Lord of Law, and let that god be reconciled to me, removing that which detaineth me from thee.
Oh, lord of offerings in Kenu([6]), let me offer to thee the propitiary offering by which thou livest, and let me live by it and be reconciled.