Chapter 10 (part 14)

see also Maspero, Hymne au Nil, publié et traduit d'après les deux textes A Musée Britannique , Paris, 1868. 4to. 2 Pyramid of Unas, l. 219; Pyramid of Teta, ll. 60, 286; Pyramid of Pepi I., ll. 444, 593, etc. 3. Pyramid of Pepi I., l. 593. 4. Recueil de Travaux , t. iii., p. 905 (l. 219 f.). 5. Ibid. , t. vii., p. 150 (ll. 261-63). 6 Ibid. , t. v., p. 10 (ll. 59 ff.). 7. ###. Ibid. , t. viii., p. 91 (l. 593). 8. Ibid. , t. vii., p. 167 (l. 444). 9. Ibid. , t. vii., p. 150 (l. 261).] {p. cxxv} body separately, and they placed them in four jars, each of which was devoted to the protection of one of the children of Horus, i.e. , to the care of one of the gods of the four cardinal points. The god of the north protected the small visceræ, the god of the east the heart and lungs, the god of the south the stomach and large intestines, and the god of the west the liver and gall-bladder. With these four gods four goddesses were associated, viz., Nephthys, Neith, Isis, and Selk or Serq. Connected with the god Horus are a number of mythological beings called Heru shesu [1] (or shemsu , as some read it), who appear already in the pyramid of Unas in connection with Horus and Set in the ceremony of purifying and "opening the mouth"; and in the pyramid of Pepi I. it is they who wash the king and who recite for him the "Chapter of those who come forth," and the "[Chapter of] those who ascend."[2] In the judgment scene in the Book of the Dead, grouped round the pan of the balance which contains the heart of the deceased (see Plate III.), are three beings in human form, who bear the names Shai , Renenet , and Meskhenet . Shai is the personification of destiny, and Renenet fortune; these names are usually found coupled. Shai and Renenet are said to be in the hands of Thoth, the divine intelligence of the gods; and Rameses II. boasts that he himself is "lord of Shai and creator of Renenet."[3] Shai was originally the deity who "decreed" what should happen to a man, and Renenet, as may be seen from the pyramid texts,[4] was the goddess of plenty, good fortune, and the like; subsequently no distinction was made between these deities and the abstract ideas which they represented. In the papyrus of Ani, Shai stands by himself near the pillar of the Balance, and Renenet is accompanied by Meskhenet , who appears to be the personification of all the conceptions underlying Shai and Renenet and something else besides. In the story of the children of Ra, as related in the Westcar papyrus, we find the goddess Meskhenet mentioned with Isis, Nephthys, Heqet, and the god Khnemu as assisting at the birth of children. [1. Recueil de Travaux , t. iii., p. 182 (l. 17). 2. ###, etc. Ibid. , t. vii., p. 170 (l. 463). 3. See Maspero, Romans et Poésies du Papyrus Harris , No.