(2) It has been thought well to publish with this translation the Vignettes from the great Papyrus La of Leyden, representing a , the Rising; and b , the Setting Sun. ( See plates

(12) Special attention has been given to this chapter by Mr. Goodwin ( Zeitschr. , 1873, p. 104), and by M. Lefébure ( Mélanges D’Arch. , 1874, p. 155), whose work is very much more valuable than that of his English colleague. But the most important study bearing on the relations between the older and the more recent recension is that of M. Naville, ‘Un ostrakon égyptien,’ in the first volume of the Annales du Musée Guimet

(23) This Chapter is taken from papyrus London 9900 Aa . It has no vignette, the translation here given is that which I published in 1873 ( Zeitschrift , 1873, pp. 25 and 81), with a few changes

(15) The chapters 108, 109, 112, 113, and 114 being so analogous to each other, in form, matter, style, and composition, and each being concerned with the divine Powers of some locality, it is interesting to know that one at least of these chapters is found on a monument of the Middle Empire. The others are probably not less ancient, and the text published by Dr. Golenischef ( Zeitschr. f. Aegypt. Spr. , 1874, p. 84) from the Sarcophagus at St. Petersburg already bears manifest signs of antiquity

(11) Copies of this chapter are found on the coffins of Mentuhotep and Sebak-āa at Berlin, and have been published by Lepsius in his Aelteste Texte , pl. 8, 21, 22, and 34. They are unfortunately in very mutilated condition, and my translation follows the text of the Theban papyri

(1) When Lepsius divided the Todtenbuch into 165 chapters, that portion of it which was numbered as Chapter 16, was in fact merely the Vignette of Chapter 15

(8) The text which has been followed in the translation of this chapter is that of the Royal Tombs of Rameses IV and Rameses VI, called by M. Naville Chapter 127 A . The lost Busca papyrus, of which Lepsius had a tracing, furnishes a different text, (127 B ), and the text of the Turin Todtenbuch has been enlarged by means of numerous interpolations. M. Naville has called attention to the close relationship between this chapter and the second part of the “Solar Litany.”

(68) The seventeenth chapter is one of the most remarkable in the whole collection, and it has been preserved from times previous to the XIIth dynasty. The very earliest monuments which have preserved it have handed it down accompanied with scholia and other commentaries interpolated into the text. Some of the monuments enable us to some extent to divide the original text from the additions, in consequence of the latter being written in red. But there is really only one text where the additions are suppressed, and which therefore offers the most ancient form, as far as we know it, of the chapter. This is the copy on the wall of the tomb of Horhotep. The sarcophagus itself of Horhotep contains a copy of the text along with the additions. The chapter must already at the time have been of the most venerable antiquity. Besides these two copies of the chapter we have those from the sarcophagi of Hora and Sit-Bastit (published, like those of Horhotep, by M. Maspero [24] ), two from the sarcophagi of Mentuhotep, and one from that of Sebek-āa (the three latter published by Lepsius in his Aelteste Texte ). The British Museum has Sir Gardner Wilkinson’s copy of the texts inscribed on the coffin of Queen Mentuhotep of the XIth dynasty, and also a fragment (6636 a) of the coffin of a prince named Hornefru. Here then we have an abundance of witnesses of the best period. They unfortunately do not agree. The progress of corruption had no doubt begun long before, and the variants are not simply differences of orthography but positively different readings. The differences however are chiefly in the scholia. Even when the explanations of the text are identical, the form differs. The latest recensions have retained the form ; the ancient added the feminine . What is that? But some of the ancient texts give the equivalent words , and Horhotep does without them altogether. These words were evidently additions not merely to the text but to the scholia

(2) The three versions which have been preserved of this text are very fragmentary. The most complete, papyrus 10478 of the British Museum, contains only the 7 to 12. As the interest of this text, the character of which is chiefly pictorial, lies in the vignettes, it has been thought unnecessary to give a translation of it

(11) The ancient text of this chapter has most unfortunately been lost. A few words only remain in the fragments of Papyrus Pm . M. Naville has also published what is found on an ostracon of the time of the XVIIIth dynasty. There is no doubt that the form of the text which has been handed down in the later papyri has suffered great alterations. And a comparison between the Turin and Cadet papyri shows in how untrustworthy a way this later form of the text has been transmitted

(12) The Leyden text is unfortunately very incomplete, both in the upper and lower parts of the columns. The two texts differ very materially in some of their readings, and will require considerable study before a satisfactory translation can be given

(6) The antiquity of the chapter is proved by its occurrence on the second coffin of Mentuhotep; but its condition there is such that no one can read it who is not already familiar with it from other sources. It begins, Aelteste Texte , p. 22, line 34, and goes on till the red letters at line 50. The text, in spite of its importance, is very inaccurate

(3) The text here translated is taken from a papyrus at Leyden