Chapter 7 (part 6)

From each of these Books we find that the Sun-god was not able to pass through the Tuat by virtue of the powers which he possessed as the great god of the world, but p. 93 only through his knowledge of the proper words of power, and of magical names and formulae, before the -utterance of which every denizen of the Tuat was powerless. Osiris had, of course, passed through the Tuat, and seated himself on his throne in the "House of Osiris," but even he would have been unable to perform his journey in safety through the Tuat without the help of the words of power which Horus, the son of Isis, the son of Osiris," had uttered, and the magical ceremonies which he had performed. Words and ceremonies alike he learned from Isis, who, according to a later tradition, obtained the knowledge of them from Thoth, the Divine Intelligence. Now if Osiris and Ra had need of such magical assistance in their passage through the Tuat, how much greater must have been the need of man! The Tuat was, according to the authors of the funeral works of the XVIIIth and XIXth Dynasties, divided into twelve portions, some of which are called "SEKHET," i.e., "Field," others "NUT," i.e., "City," others "ARRIT," i.e., "Hall," and others "QERRET," i.e., "Circle." The first indicates that the region to which it was applied was believed to consist of cultivated lands, the second suggests a place where there were many buildings and houses, the third a territory which was vast and spacious, and which, in some respects, represented p. 94 an empty courtyard, or hall, or compound of a house, and the fourth probably describes the circular form of some divisions. Now since the Tuat was traversed by the sun-god during the hours of the night,, the Egyptians regarded each of these divisions as the equivalent of an hour, and hence it came that the sections of the Books of the Tuat were often called "Hours," the First Hour corresponding to the First Division, and so on up to the Twelfth Hour. It will, however, be urged that during the summer in Egypt the night is not twelve hours long, but the answer to this objection is that the first division is in reality only the ante-chamber of the Tuat, and the twelfth the ante-chamber of the sky of this world, into which the Sun-god enters to begin the new day. The divisions II. to XI. of the Tuat have an entirely different character from the ante-chamber of the Tuat and that of the sky. It has already been said that a river flows from one end of the Tuat to the other, and its existence can only be explained in one way. At a very early period of their history the Egyptians believed that the Sun-god passed over the sky, which they held to be a vast watery mass, in some kind of boat; the belief in the existence of such a boat was absolutely necessary, for unless the fire of the sun was protected from contact with the water of the sky, it would, they argued, be extinguished. So far back as the period when the Pyramids of Giza were built, the existence of two boats was assumed; in one, called MATET, the Sun-god sailed from the time he rose p. 95 until noon, and in the other, called SEKTET, he sailed from noon to sunset. When the conception of the existence of the Tuat was evolved, and the belief that the Sun-god passed through it each night gained credence, it became necessary to find some means of transport for the god.