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‹Better GutenbergThe Egyptian Book of the DeadChapter CLX — Giving the Column of Green Felspar · 159 of 185Contents›

The Egyptian Book of the Dead

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Chapter CLX Giving the Column of Green Felspar

I am the column of green Felspar, which cannot be crushed,(1) and which is raised by the hand of Thoth.

Injury is an abomination for it. If it is safe, I am safe; if it is not injured, I am not injured; if it receives no cut, I receive no cut.

Said by Thoth: arise, come in peace, lord of Heliopolis, lord who resides at Pu.

When Shu has arrived, he found the stone at Shenemu, as its name is neshem. He (the deceased) makes his abode in the enclosure of the great god; whilst Tmu resides in his dwelling;(2) his limbs will never be crushed.

Notes

For Chapter 160, we have a text from London, 9900 (Aa); it is not complete, but the gaps can very easily be filled up from the Papyrus Busca.

The vignette of Aa represents Thoth bringing the column, enclosed in a box or a casket.

1. I suppose the symbolical expressions of this Chapter mean that the neshem, of which the column is made, is a very hard stone, which is proof against any injury.

⁂ or ⁂⁂, which I translated “crush,” means probably “grind to powder,” and ⁂⁂, “to receive a cut,” means to be scratched or incised by a sculptor’s tool. The power of the amulet consists in making the body of the deceased as hard as neshem.

2. ⁂, a variant of ⁂ when it refers to Tmu (Nav., Todt., ch. XVII, l. 12).

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