Chapter 6 (part 1)

p. 64 CHAPTER III. THE REUNION OF THE BEATIFIED AND THEIR RECOGNITION OF EACH OTHER IN THE OTHER WORLD. HAVING now described Sekhet-hetep and the Halls and Gates of the Other World according to the Book of Coming Forth by Day (PER-EM-HRU), We may pass on to consider how far souls in Sekhet-hetep had the power to know and recognize each other, and to enjoy intercourse with relatives and friends. From many scenes and passages in texts it has for some time past been clear that husband met wife, and wife met husband again beyond the grave, for in the Papyrus of Ani we see Ani accompanied by his wife in the House of Osiris and in many other places, and in the Papyrus of Anhai 1 we see Anhai bowing before two mummied forms, which represent her father and mother, and seated in a boat side by side with her husband. From the Papyrus of Nebseni 2 we know that the meeting of the deceased with his mother, father, and wife was believed to take place on the island in the first division of Sekhet-hetep called Qenqentet, for he says, p. 65 [paragraph continues] "O Qenqentet, I have entered into thee, and I have seen the Osiris (i.e., his father) and I have gazed upon my mother, and had union [with my wife]." 1 Other passages in the PER-EM-HRU indicate that the Egyptian hoped to meet again other people besides his father, mother, and wife, in Sekhet-hetep. Thus in the LIInd Chapter the deceased is made to say, "Let me have the power to manage my own fields in Tattu (Mendes), and my own growing crops in Aunu (Heliopolis). Let me live upon bread made from white grain, and let my beer be made from red grain, and may my ancestors, and my father and my mother be given unto me as guardians of my door and for the ordering of my territory." This petition is repeated in Chapter CLXXXIX., lines 7-9, which was written with the object of preventing a man from being, hungry, and so being obliged to eat filth or offal. From another passage (Chapter LXVIII., lines 13, 14) it is clear that the deceased expected to find in the Other World slaves, or domestic servants, who would help him to cultivate the land which he believed would be allotted to him, and there is reason for supposing that such beings would have been known to him upon earth. He says, "I have gained the mastery over the p. 66 waters, I have gained the mastery over the canal, I have gained the mastery over the river, I have gained the mastery over the furrows, I have gained the mastery over the men who work for me, I have gained the mastery over the women who work for me in Neter-khert, I have gained the mastery over the things which were decreed to me on earth in Neter-khert." Thus we see that every pious Egyptian hoped to live again with the members of his household after death in Sekhet-hetepet. Now the word which I have rendered "ancestors" in the extract given above is abtu , or abut , and its form and evident meaning suggest a comparison with the common Semitic word for "fathers"; the determinatives prove that the word describes people of both sexes. It occurs twice in the PER-EM-HRU, viz., in Chapter LII., line 6, and Chapter CLXXXIX., line 7, 1 and was translated "persons" by me in 1896; the oldest example of the use of the word was published by M. P.