CHAPTER LXXXVI.
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Renouf, P. Le Page (Peter Le Page) and Naville, Edouard
Chapter whereby one assumeth the form of the Swallow.(1)
I am the Swallow; I am the Swallow.
I am the Scorpion-bird, daughter of Rā.
O ye gods, whose perfume is delicious: Flame which proceedest from the Horizon: O thou who art in the place whence I have brought the keeper of his fold—let me have thine arm that I may make my observation at the Tank of Flame, that I may advance as an envoy and come with the report of it.
Be it opened to me, in order that I may tell what I have seen.
Horus is in command of his bark. There hath been given to him the throne of his father, and Sutu that son of Nut is under the grappling hooks which he made for him.
I have ascertained what is in Sechem. I have touched with my two hands the Heart of Osiris.(2)
And that which I went in order to ascertain I am come to tell. Come let me enter and report my mission.
And I, entering and ascertaining who cometh forth through that gate of the Inviolate one, I purify myself at that great stream where my ills are made to cease, and that which is wrong in me is pardoned and the spots which were on my body upon earth are effaced.
O Keeper of the Portal, let the path be made for me, for I am as one of you. Let me come forth by day, and walk upon my own legs. Let me have the feet of the Glorified.
I know the mysterious paths and the gates of Aarru from whence I come. Here am I, and I come that I may overthrow mine adversaries upon earth, though my dead body be buried.
If this chapter be known he will re-enter after coming forth by day.
Notes.
1. The Swallow . The objection to this meaning is that the bird in question was eaten; and that doves or pigeons would be less meagre food than the Swallow, and therefore more probably intended in the Egyptian texts. But Swallows are still eaten at Rome, where like Clive Newcome we may be regaled not only with “wild swans and ducks” but with “robins, owls, and οἰωνοῖσι τε πᾶσι for dinner.” And Willughby, the naturalist, found a large quantity of swallows being sold for food at Valencia in Spain.
The flat head, the short legs, and the tail of the bird are characteristic not of the pigeon but of the swallow, and on many pictures (e.g., pl. xxi, vignette from Leyden papyrus) we are reminded of the song—
Ἦλθ’ ἦλθε χελιδὼν ...
ἐπὶ γαστέρα λευκὰ
ἐπὶ νῶτα μέλαινα.
It is not quite plain why the name of Scorpion should be given to the bird, but the name of the insect in itself implies nothing more than the characteristic whiteness of colour.
2.Touched with my two hands the Heart of Osiris.
is the origin of the Coptic ϭⲟϩ ‘touch.’ The word Heart has dropped out of the later texts (e.g., the Turin copy), but in the older papyri it is found in the form of or .
Additional Note.
In Chapter 86 has unquestionably the sense of ascertaining by inspection. The Abbot Papyrus in its account of the enquiry respecting the spoliation of the royal coffins gives ample evidence of this meaning. And the word there used for reporting the result of the inspection is, as is Ch. 86, semȧu, in Coptic ⲧⲁⲙⲉ.
But it is well to remember that has another use; which perhaps implies the existence of two homonymous roots. In a passage quoted in Note 21 to Ch. 64, it certainly signifies restore. And this may possibly be its meaning in the rubric of Ch. 64. The journey of Prince Hortâtâf may have had reference to the restoration, not simply inspection, of the temples. In this sense it is often written or sȧpu. The Coptic word for ἀποκαθιστάναι in Hosea xi, 11 and Acts i, 6 is ⲧⲫⲟ.