Chapter 12 (part 2)

The text which refers to this remarkable scene tells us that AFU-RA addresses the eight gods who support the "Boat of the Earth," and declares that he who is in it is "holy," and in reply the being or beings ENNURKHA-TA (?) say, "Praised be the BA," i.e., the ram-headed form of Osiris, which the god has taken, "which the double bull has swallowed (or, absorbed); let the god be at peace with that which he hath created." The gods also say, "Praised be RA, whose BA hath set himself in order with the EARTH-GOD," Thus it is quite clear that the "Boat of the Earth" is the abode of the "Earth-god." To the right of AFU-RA, as he passes through this Division or Hour, are the twelve "holy gods who are in the Tuat," each in his shrine, with its doors thrown wide open; they are guarded by a huge serpent called SETI. These gods are in mummied form, and represent a large class of the beatified dead which exists in the realm of Osiris. According to the text which refers to them AFU-RA finds the shrines closed when he appears, and the gods within weeping and lamenting; at his word the doors fly open, and the occupants of the p. 128 shrines obtain air and food and adore him, but when he has passed on the doors of the shrines close again, and the gods betake themselves to lamentations until he reappears on the following night. Thus another class of the dead owes its revivification, light, and food to the beneficence of AFU-RA rather than to Osiris. A little beyond the Twelve Shrines is a group of Twelve Gods, who are partially immersed in the "Lake of Boiling Water"; in front of each is a large plant. The waters of this lake have the peculiar property of appearing cool to the taste and touch of the gods who live on it, and who feed upon the plants which grow in it. It is important to notice that the Lake is said to be boiling hot, and that "the birds betake themselves to flight when they see the waters thereof, and when they smell the stench which is in it." Now this description tells us at once that the Lake of Boiling Water is no other than a collection of water which resembles that of the famous "ASPHALTITIS LACUS," or ἀσφαλτῖτις λίμην, which is described by Diodorus Siculus (ii. 48; xix. 98). The water of this Lake is said to be very salt, and of an extremely noxious smell, and the fire which burns beneath the ground, and the stench of the bitumen render the inhabitants of the neighbouring country sickly and short-lived. The country round about is nevertheless well fitted for the cultivation of palms, wherever it is traversed by fresh water. It is quite clear that the author of the Egyptian text cannot have borrowed his p. 129 description of the Lake from later writers, and it is equally clear that his account of it represents the tradition of the existence of some hot sulphur spring or bituminous lake which existed in Egypt, probably in or near one of the Oases. At Kharga, for example, there are several springs the waters of which reach a temperature of 97° Fahrenheit. As we see in the picture (vol. ii., p. 112) a large plant, or small tree, growing before each of its inhabitants, it is evident that some kind of vegetation flourished in the neighbourhood of the Lake, and the quaint costume of the gods, who, of course, typified the inhabitants of the region, suggests that they were not Egyptian.