Adams, Walter M.: The house of the hidden places: a clue to the creed of early Egypt from Egyptian sources (London, 1895)

soo The Initiation of the Postulant. [Ch.

passed, and the road above the earth he
traversed, many trials, he now learns, are
waiting for him. There are tasks of justice to
be fulfilled, if he omitted those good works on
earth, the memorials of which may be his
sponsors ("Ushabti") (v., vi.). Apep, too,
the dark serpent that devours the hidden
Light, as the winding darkness of the autumnal
equinox devours the light of the year, lies in
wait (vii.) to crush him in its multitudinous
folds, while he treads the path where Light
and Darkness balance. Still mounting upward,
and at each step approaching nearer the grave,
the catechumen is instructed how, when that
serpent shall be passed, the Gate of the West
(viii., is..), the aperture of the western wall,
will conduct him into the Well, or Chamber of
the deep Waters, as the setting sun goes down
into the deep waters of the western ocean and
<:omes forth thence in triumph (x., xi.). Pass-
ing in silence over that which shall happen to
him in the Well, since that knowledge cannot