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THE BOOK OF THE DEAD PREFACE.

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with the gods, do thou that which did Osiris in the great house in Annu.<br />

sesep-nek sah-k an t'er ret-k em pet an<br />

Thou hast received thy sah, not shall be fettered thy foot in heaven, not<br />

xesef-k em ta<br />

shalt thou be turned back upon earth.[3]<br />

2. anet' hra-k Teta em hru-k pen aha tha xeft Ra<br />

Hail to thee, Teta, on this thy day [when] thou art standing before Ra [as]<br />

[1. Brugsch, Liber Metempsychosis, p. 22.<br />

2. Compare Coptic ###, "magister."<br />

3. Recueil de Travaux, t. v., p. 36 (1. 271). From line 143 of the same text it would seem that a man had more than one<br />

sahu, for the words "all thy sahu," occur. This may, however, be only a plural of majesty.]<br />

{p. lxi}<br />

per-f em aabt t'eba-tha em sah-k pen am baiu<br />

he cometh from the cast, [when] thou art endued with this thy sah among the souls.[1]<br />

3. ahau pa neheh t'er-f pa t'etta em sah-f<br />

[His] duration of life is eternity, his limit of life is everlastingness in his sah.[2]<br />

4. nuk sah em ba-f<br />

I am a sah with his soul.[3]<br />

In the late edition of the Book of the Dead published by Lepsius the deceased is said to " look upon his<br />

body and to rest upon his sahu,"[4] and souls are said "to enter into their sahu";[5] and a passage extant<br />

both in this and the older Theban edition makes the deceased to receive the sahu of the god Osiris.[6] But<br />

that Egyptian writers at times confused the khat with the sahu is clear from a passage in the Book of<br />

Respirations, where it is said, "Hail Osiris, thy name endureth, thy body is stablished, thy sahu<br />

germinateth";[7] in other texts the word "germinate" is applied only to the natural body.<br />

The ab or heart.<br />

In close connection with the natural and spiritual bodies stood the heart, or rather that part of it which<br />

was the seat of the power of life and the fountain of good and evil thoughts. And in addition to the<br />

natural and spiritual bodies, man also bad an abstract individuality or personality endowed with all his<br />

characteristic attributes. This abstract personality had an absolutely independent existence. It could move<br />

freely from place to place, separating itself from, or uniting itself to,<br />

[1. Recueil de Travaux, t. v., p. 59 (l. 384).<br />

2. Ibid., t. iv., p. 61 (1. 521).<br />

3. Book of the Dead, Chapter I.XXVIII., 1. 14.<br />

file:///I|/mythology/egypt/1/1.html (48 of 189) [01/25/2004 3:29:58 PM]

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