Chapter 43 (part 14)

They are exhibited in the First Egyptian Room, Case A, and the fragments of the coffin in Wall Case No. 1 (No. 6647) in the same room. 3. See Lepsius, Auswahl , Taf. 7. 4. Or suten bat ; see Sethe, Aeg. Zeitschrift , Bd. XXVIII., p. 125; and Bd. XXX, p. 113; Max Müller, Aeg. Zeitschrift , Bd. XXX., p. 56; Renouf, Proc. Son Bibl. Arch. , 1893, pp. 219, 220; and Lefébure, Aeg. Zeitschrift , Bd. XXXI., p. 114 ff. 5. It seems that we should read this god's name Keb (see Lefébure, Aeg. Zeitschrift , Bd. XXXI., p. 12 5); for the sake of uniformity the old name is here retained.] {p. xxi} em ren-s en seta pet ertat-nes un-k em neter in her name of "mystery of heaven," she granteth that thou mayest exist as a god an xeft-k suten net Men-kau-Ra anx t'etta without thy foes, O King of the North and South, Men-kau-Ra, living for ever! Now it is to be noted that the passage, "Thy mother Nut spreadeth herself over thee in her name of 'Mystery of Heaven,' she granteth that thou mayest be without enemies," occurs in the texts which are inscribed upon the pyramids built by the kings of the VIth dynasty,[1] and thus we have evidence of the use of the same version of one religious text both in the IVth and in the VIth dynasties.[2] Even if we were to admit that the coffin is a forgery of the XXVIth dynasty, and that the inscription upon it was taken from an edition of the text of the Book of the Dead, still the value of the monument as an evidence of the antiquity of the Book of the Dead is scarcely impaired, for those who added the inscription would certainly have chosen it from a text of the time of Mycerinus. The Book of the Dead in the Vth dynasty. In the Vth dynasty we have--in an increased number of mastabas and other monuments--evidence of the extension of religious ceremonials, including the [1. See the texts of Teta and Pepi I. in Maspero, Recueil de Travaux , t. V., pp. 20, 38 (ll. 175, 279), and pp. 165, T73 (ll. 60, 103), etc. 2. So far back as 1883, M. Maspero, in lamenting (Guide du Visiteur de Boulaq, p. 310) the fact that the Bûlâq Museum possessed only portions of wooden coffins of the Ancient Empire and no complete example, noticed that the coffin of Mycerinus, preserved in the British Museum, had been declared by certain Egyptologists to be a "restoration" of the XXVIth dynasty, rather than the work of the IVth dynasty, in accordance with the inscription upon it; but like Dr. Birch he was of opinion that the coffin certainly belonged to the IVth dynasty, and adduced in support of his views the fact of the existence of portions of a similar coffin of Seker-em-sa-f, a king of the VIth dynasty. Recently, however, an attempt has again been made ( Aeg. Zeitschrift , Bd. XXX., p.