CHAPTER CXXVI.
Oh ye four Harbingers([1]) who sit at the prow of the Bark of Rā, and convey the fixed ordinances([2]) of the Inviolate One, ye who are judges of my distress([3]) and of my good fortune, and propitiate the gods with the flames from your mouths: ye who present to the gods their oblations and the sacrificial meals to the Glorified: ye who live through Maāt and are sated with Maāt: who have nothing wrong in you and execrate that which is disordered,([4]) do ye put an end to my ills and remove that which is disorderly in me through my being smitten to the earth.([5])
Grant that I may penetrate into the Ammehit and enter into Restau; and that I may pass through the mysterious portals of Amenta.
Be there given to me the Shensu cakes and the Persen cakes [and all things] even as to the Glorified, who make their appearance on entering into Restau or on coming forth.([6])
Enter thou, Osiris N: We put an end to thine ills, and we remove that which is disorderly in thee through thy being smitten to the earth. We put away from thee all the ills which thou hast. Enter thou into Restau and pass through the mysterious portals of Amenta. Enter thou in and come forth at thy pleasure, like the Glorified ones; and be thou invoked each day in the Mount of Glory.([7])
Notes.
In the older papyri the vignette of this chapter is unaccompanied by any text. The only exception as yet known is that of the papyrus Ab, of the XVIIIth dynasty. The text is also found in the tomb of Rameses VI, with the important addition of the answer made by the four Harbingers to the prayer of the deceased. This addition is retained in all the later recensions. Other discrepancies between the two texts lead to the conclusion that even the older one has suffered from interpolation.
[1.] Harbingers or Saluters,