Chapter 16 (part 2)

The first company of gods are, as we learn from the text, engaged in praising AFU-RA, and they have been rewarded with the exalted office which they hold in Ament because they praised RA at sunrise and sunset when they lived upon earth, and because Ra was "satisfied" with what they did for him. They enjoy, moreover, a share of the offerings which are made to the god. A little beyond the HENIU are the "gods who hold the measuring cord," and by the orders of the great god they go over the fields of Amentet, and measure and mark out the plots of ground which are to be allotted to the KHU, or p. 146 spirits of the righteous. Every spirit is judged by the god of law and righteousness, and only after a strict examination is he allowed to take possession of his allotment. As there seems to have been only one standard of moral and religious excellence all the allotments were probably of the same size. The food of the spirits who live in the homesteads which have been thus measured in SEKHET-AARU comes from the crops which grow in that region, and the four HENBIU gods, who superintended the, measuring of the fields, are ordered to provide sand, that is to say soil, for the replenishing of the ground. The beings who are on the left of AFU-RA, in this Division are not less interesting than those on the right. Among these are four representatives of the four great classes into which the Egyptians divided mankind, namely, the RETH (for REMTH), the NEHESU, the THEMEHU, and the AAMU (vol. ii., p. 153). Of these the RETH, i.e., the "men" par excellence, were Egyptians, who came into being from the tears which fell from the Eye of RA. The THEMEHU, or Libyans, were also descended from the Eye of RA. The AAMU were the people of the deserts to the north and east of Egypt, Sinai, etc., and the NEHESU were the black tribes of Nubia and the Sudan. It is noteworthy that the members of each nation or people keep together. The representatives of the Four Nations are followed by twelve gods who are called KHERU-AHAU-AMENT, i.e., "The Holders of the Time of Life in Ament," and who p. 147 hold the serpent METERUI. These remarkable beings have in their hands the power to determine the length of life which is to be meted out to the souls who have been doomed to destruction in Amenti, that is to say, they were able to defer the doom which had been decreed for souls, though in the end they were compelled to carry out the edict of destruction. In close connexion with these gods are the TCHATCHAU, or "Great Chiefs," who were believed to write the edicts of destruction against the damned (vol. ii., p. 156), and to record the duration of the lives of those who were in Amentet; in fact, they appear to have kept the registers of Osiris, and to have served in some respects as recording angels. From what has been said above it will be clear that all the scenes and texts which illustrate and describe the Kingdom of Seker have been omitted from the BOOK OF GATES, and that the first five sections of this work describe--1. The Antechamber of the Tuat. 2. The Divisions of the Kingdom of KHENTI-AMENTI, which extended from Abydos to a region a little to the north of Memphis. We may now proceed to consider the Kingdom of Osiris, the lord of Mendes and Busiris.