Nov.7] PROCEEDINGS. [1893.Since then the papyrus of Nebseni has been published, and M.
Navillehas given all the variants foundin the few existing papyriof
the best period. I have notesof the readings of the papyri in the
British Museum, and also those of a cast (now in the British
Museum) taken from a block in serpentine, belonging to the
Museumof the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.
Withsuchlightas could be derived fromtheseextremelydiver
gent authorities I have done my best (takingas the basis of my
translationthe texts in the papyrus of Nebseniand the rubric in which
the discovery is ascribed to the time of king Septa) towards ex
hibitingthe chapter in as intelligible a form as seems to me possible.
Somepassagesas yet defy translationin consequence of the cor
ruptionof the text.
Someyearsbeforehis untimely deathM. de Rouge1 read his
translationof this chapter beforethe Academie des Sciences. It is
muchto be lamented that this has never beenpublished. I have,
in addition to the versions of other scholars, a copy of one by
Mr. Goodwin, with whomI read this and otherchaptersnearly
thirtyyearsago. But this kind of literature is not one of those in
whichhis marvellous sagacityshowedto advantage.
In reading this and almost everyother chapterof the Book of
tht Dead, it is absolutely necessaryto bear in mind that different
divine names do not necessarily imply different personalities.
A name expressesbut one attribute of a person or thing, and one
personhavingseveralattributes may have severalnames. It is not
impliedin this chapter thatthe Sun is the Nile or the Inundation,
but that the same invisibleforce whichis manifested in the solar
phenomenais that which produces the inundation ; He is the
Inundator. But he has many othernamesand titles.
In this chapter, as in others before it, the speaker at one time
talksin terms identifyinghim with somedivinity,and at another as
a simple mortalpetitioningsomefavour.
2V
1 1^^. or, at a later period
signifiesone whose forceis concealed or unseen. It is a theological
term,frequentat all periods of the Egyptian religion,and implies
that the deity is not to be confounded withits external manifestation.
The Sun that we see hides as truly as it reveals the Sun-god ; who,
as this chapter shows,has other manifestations.
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