Chapter 4 (part 6)

xiv} remote period. To quote the words of Chabas, the chapter was regarded as being "very ancient, very mysterious, and very difficult to understand" already fourteen centuries before our era.[1] Antiquity of Chapter LXIV. The rubric on the coffin of Queen Menthu-hetep, which ascribes the chapter to Hesep-ti, states that "this chapter was found in the foundations beneath the hennu boat by the foreman of the builders in the time of the king of the North and South, Hesep-ti, triumphant";[2] the Nebseni papyrus says that this chapter was found in the city of Khemennu (Hermopolis) on a block of ironstone (?) written in letters of lapis-lazuli, under the feet of the god";[3] and the Turin papyrus (XXVIth dynasty or later) adds that the name of the finder was Heru-ta-ta-f, the son of Khufu or Cheops,[4] the second king of the IVth dynasty, about B.C. 3733, who was at the time making a tour of inspection of the temples. Birch[5] and Naville[6] consider the chapter one of [1. Chabas, Voyage d'un Égyptien , p. 46. According to M. Naville (Einleitung, p. 138), who follows Chabas's opinion, this chapter is an abridgement of the whole Book of the Dead; and it had, even though it contained not all the religious doctrine of the Egyptians, a value which was equivalent to the whole. 2. See Goodwin, Aeg. Zeitschrift , 1866, p. 55, and compare the reading from the Cairo papyrus of Mes-em-neter given by Naville ( Todtenbuch , ii-, p. 139) 3 Naville, Todtenbuch , Bd. I., B1. 76, L 52. 4 Lepsius, Todtenbuch , Bl. 25, 1. 31. 6 "The most remarkable chapter is the 64th . . . . . It is one of the oldest of all, and is attributed, as already stated, to the epoch of king Gaga-Makheru or Menkheres . . . . . This chapter enjoyed a high reputation till a late period, for it is found on a stone presented to General Perofski by the late Emperor Nicholas, which must have come from the tomb of Petemenophis,[*] in the El-Assasif[+] and was made during the XXVIth dynasty Some more recent compiler of the Hermetic books has evidently paraphrased it for the Ritual of Turin." Bunsen, Egypt's Place in Universal History , London, 1867, p. 1142. The block of stone to which Dr. Birch refers is described by Golénischeff, Inventaire de la Ermitage Impérial, Collection Égyptienne , No. 1101, pp. 169, 170. M. Maspero thinks it was meant to be a "prétendu fac-similé" of the original slab, which, according to the rubric, was found in the temple of Thoth, Revue de l'Histoire des Religions , t. XV., p. 299, and Études de Mythologie , t i., p. 368. 6 Todtenbuch (Einleitung), p. 139. Mr. Renouf also holds this opinion, Trans. See. Bibl. Arch., 1803, p. 6. * I.e.