Samizdat

“[This scene representeth] what Horus doeth for his father Osiris. The enemies c (sic) who are in this scene have their calamities ordered for them by Horus, who saith unto them:—

“Let there be fetters on your arms, O enemies of my father, let your arms be tied up towards your heads, O ye who have no [power], ye shall be fettered [with your arms] behind you, O ye who are hostile to Ra. Ye shall be backed in pieces, ye shall nevermore have your being, your souls shall be destroyed, and none [of you] shall live because of what ye have done to my father Osiris; ye have put [his] mysteries behind your backs, and ye have dragged out the statue [of the god] from the secret place.

“The word of my father Osiris is maat against you, and my word is maat against you, O ye who have desecrated (literally, laid bare) the hidden things which concern the rest (or, resting-place) of the Great One who begot me in the Tuat. O ye shall cease to exist, ye shall come to an end.”‘

“Horus saith:–‘[O] my serpent KHET, thou Mighty Fire, from whose mouth cometh forth this flame which is in my Eye, whose undulations are guarded by [my] children, open thy mouth, distend thy jaws, and belch forth thy fires against the enemies of my father, burn thou up their bodies, consume their souls by the fire which issueth from thy mouth, and by the flames which are in thy body.

“My divine children are against them, they destroy [their] spirits, and those who have come forth from me are against them, and they shall never more exist. The fire which is in this serpent shall come forth, and shall blaze against these enemies whensoever Horus decreeth that it shall do so.’

Whosoever knoweth how to use words of power [against] this serpent shall be as one who doth not enter upon his fiery path.”

The end of this text on the sarcophagus of Seti I. is defective, but from the tomb of Rameses VI. we see that it should end thus:—

“Offerings shall be made to these gods who are upon this great serpent. Their food is of bread, their drink is of tesher beer, and the waters of their libations are cool.”

—E.A. Wallis Budge, The Short Form of the Book of Am-Tuat, The Summary of the Book of What Is In the Underworld, from The Book of Gates, 1905, pp. 219-236.