Budge, Ernest A. Wallis [Oth.]: The book of the dead: the Papyrus Ani in the British Museum ; the Egyptian text with interlinear transliteration and translation, a running translation, introd. etc. ([Text]) (London, 1895)

THE DOCTRINE OF ETERNAL LIFE.

lix

divine body rested in Annu.”1 In this respect the god and the deceased were on
an equality. As we have seen above, the body neither leaves the tomb nor
reappears on earth; yet its preservation was necessary. Thus the deceased
addresses Tmu2: “ Hail to thee, O my father Osiris, I have come and I have
“ embalmed this rny flesh so that my body may not decay. I am whole, even as my
“ father Khepera was whole, who is to me the type of that which passeth not away.
“ Come then, O Form, and give breath unto me, O lord of breath, O thou who art
“ greater than thy compeers. Stablish thou me, and form thou me, O thou who art
“ lord of the grave. Grant thou to me to endure for ever, even as thou didst grant
“ unto thy father Tmu to endure ; and his body neither passed away nor decayed.
“ I have not done that which is hateful unto thee, nay, I have spoken that which thy
“ ka loveth ; repulse thou me not, and cast thou me not behind thee, O Tmu, to
“ decay, even as thou doest unto every god and unto every goddess and unto
“ every beast and creeping thing which perisheth when his soul hath gone forth

“ from him after his death, and which falleth in pieces after his decay.

“ Homage to thee, O my father Osiris, thy flesh suffered no decay, there were no
“ worms in thee, thou didst not crumble away, thou didst not wither away, thou
“ didst not become corruption ancl worms; and I myself am Khepera, I shall
“ possess my flesh for ever and ever, I shall not decay, I shall not crumble away,
“ I shall not wither away, I shall not become corruption.”

But the body does not lie in the tomb inoperative, for by the prayers and
ceremonies on the day of burial it is endowed with the power of changing into a
sahu, or spiritual body. Thus we have such phrases as, “ I germinate like the
“ plants,”3 “ My flesh germinateth,”4 “ I exist, I exist, I live, I live, I germinate, I
“ germinate,”5 “ thy soul liveth, thy body 'A) germinateth by the command of Ra

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Lepsius, Todtenbuch, Bl. 77, 1. 7.

2 This chapter was found inscribed upon one of the linen wrappings of the mummy of Thothmes III.,

and a copy of the text is given by Naville (Todte?ibuch, Bd. I., Bl. 179); for a later version see

Lepsius, Todtenbuch, Bl. 75, where many interesting variants occur.

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I I I

Chapter LXXXIII., 3.

5

Bl. 75-)

:jj. Chapter LXIV., 1. 49.

(Naville, Todtenbuch, Bd. I., Bl. 76.)
Chapter CLIV. (Lepsius, Todtenbuch,

h 2

The sahu or
spiritual body.