Third Division of the Tuat

THE Boat of AFU-RA, leaving the abode of the SOULS OF THE TUAT, now enters that of the BAIU-SHETAIU, or the "SECRET SOULS," and we find that a change has taken place as regards the crew. The goddess of the hour called TENT-BAIU has taken charge of the Boat, a hawk-headed god acts as steersman, and the number of the other gods is reduced to four. The region now entered by Afu-Ra is called NET-NEB-UA-KHEPER-AUT, and it is 309 (or 480) atru or leagues in length, and 120 in width; it is, in fact, a continuation of the domains of Osiris, and in it is the House of Tet wherein the great god of the dead himself dwells. The Boat of AFU-RA is preceded by three boats (vol. i., pp. 45-47) of a mystical character, containing hawk-gods, and mummied forms of gods who are akin to Osiris. Facing the boats are four forms of Osiris, with their arms and hands covered. Having arrived in this Division, AFU-RA cries out to its god, Osiris, who straightway creates these secret boats and sends them

to bring AFU-RA to the place where he is. The abode of Osiris is situated on the NET-ASAR i.e., the "Stream of Osiris," a name given to the river of the Tuat in the THIRD DIVISION, and it is at the head of this river that the throne of Osiris rests according to some copies of the Theban Recension of the Book of the Dead. The inhabitants who are seen on both banks of the stream are called PERTIU, and they live on lands which have been allotted to them by Afu-Ra; in return for these they serve Osiris and defend him from the attacks of all his enemies. As the boat in which AFU-RA stands and the three other boats move on, the gods on the banks move with them and guard them, and when they have escorted the great god to the end of their territory, they return to their old places and await his coming on the following night.

On the right of AFU-RA are twenty-six gods, and of these eight are forms of Osiris, four of Osiris of the North, and four of Osiris of the South; all are under the rule of KHETRA, who is the "Warder of this Field" (vol. i., p. 60), but it is only when they hear the words of AFU-RA that they come to life. The work which they do in this region is to hew and hack souls in pieces, to imprison the shadows of the dead, and to carry out the sentence of death on those who are doomed to destruction in a place of fire; they cause fires to come into being, and flames to burst forth on the wicked.

[paragraph continues] Now in this case also the beings who are doomed to be burned in a place specially set apart for this purpose cannot be of the number of the gods who protect Osiris, for they were created by Ra to serve this god in this Division of the Tuat, and to attend upon himself as he made his journey through it each day! They must, then, be the dead of olden time who have reached this Division, but who through want of friends and relatives upon earth to make proper and sufficient offerings daily, or through some other cause, have failed to find nourishment and have perished in consequence. The realm of Osiris had to be cleared of such beings, and the gods whose duty it was to protect him destroyed them with fire. We may note, too, that in this Division the shadows and souls of the dead were supposed to wander about, and though we do not know how they arrived there, or exactly why they failed to please Osiris, it is quite certain that they were regarded as a danger to the god, and destroyed in consequence.

On the left of AFU-RA stands a row of deities (vol. i. p. 50 ff.), some wholly in animal forms, who appear to have taken part in the burial ceremonies which were performed for Osiris; the exact functions of many of them are unknown, and the names of certain of them are not found elsewhere. According to the text these gods are clothed with their own bodies of flesh, and their souls speak from them, and their shadows are joined to them. Having been addressed by

they sing praises to the god, and when he has passed from their Division they, as well as the gods on the right of the BOAT, lift up their voices and weep. In return for the lands which were given them by Osiris, in the possession of which they were confirmed by AFU-RA, these gods have certain duties to perform, viz., to take vengeance upon the fiend SEBA, to make Nu to come into being, and to cause HAPI to flow. From this it appears that SEBA possessed at times power over Nu, that is to say, the great celestial watery mass which was the source of the river NILE in Egypt; to destroy this fiend was all-important, for without water the inhabitants of the Tuat could not live, and the cessation of the flow of the NILE would cause the ruin and death of the people of Egypt. It is interesting to note the connexion of the NILE with the chief domain of Osiris, and it is, no doubt, a reminiscence of the period in the history of the god when he was a water-god. A knowledge of the beings in these pictures and of the texts of this DIVISION was considered of very great importance for the deceased, for, knowing their forms and their names, he would not be terrified by their "roarings," and would not in his haste to escape from them fall headlong into their pits. In this DIVISION of the Tuat we see that AFU-RA was absolute master, and that he is made to create its inhabitants to serve Osiris, and Khenti-Amenti, and himself, and to allot to them places to dwell in, and food to keep them alive. When he withdraws his light from them they

weep, and sink into a state of inertness to await his return on the following day.

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THIRD DIVISION OF THE TUAT.

II. THE KINGDOM OF KHENTI-AMENTI-OSIRIS ACCORDING TO THE BOOK OF GATES.

Before AFU-RA can pass into the THIRD DIVISION it is necessary for him to pass through a Gate which is protected by two strong walls, with a passage running between them. This passage is swept by flames of fire which proceed from two uraei; each end of it is guarded by a warder in mummied form, and on the inner side of the inner wall is a company of gods. The Gate is called SEPTET-UAUAU, and the name of its monster serpent is AQEBI. So soon as the Boat enters the DIVISION or HOUR four of the gods of the region appear, and take it in tow; the god is in the same form as before, and has in no way suffered by his passage through the Gate, because at the word of SA the Gate opened, the flames which swept between the walls ceased, and the warders of the passage and the guardian gods withdrew their opposition. In this DIVISION a serious obstacle had to be overcome. Immediately in the fair way of the course of AFU-RA is a group of eight gods, called FAIU-NETERU, who bear on their shoulders a long pole-like object, each end of which terminates in a bull's head. This object is,

intended to represent the long tunnel in the earth, each end of which was guarded by a bull, through which, according to one tradition, the night-Sun passed on his journey from the place of sunset to the place of sunrise. At intervals on the tunnel are seated seven gods called NETERU-AMIU, i.e., the "gods who are within," and they are intended to represent the guardians of the seven portions into which the tunnel was divided; the name given to the tunnel is "UAA-TA," i.e., "Boat of the Earth," but there is no doubt that it originally represented

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The Boat of the Earth.

a kind of Tuat which was complete in itself, as the bulls' heads, one at each end of it, prove.

The difficulty of passing through the "Boat of the Earth" is soon overcome, for the gods of the Tuat tow AFU-RA through it, and we see them at the other end of the Division still holding the tow-line in their hands. In front of them are the four gods, whose arms and hands are covered (vol. ii., p. 107), whom we have already seen in the BOOK AM-TUAT (Vol. i., p. 48), where they were in charge of the four boats which filled the

picture. It is not difficult to explain why the "Boat of the Earth" was omitted by the Theban priests from their composition; had they kept it in it they would have been obliged to make their god AFU-RA, the night form of AMEN-RA, to submit to being towed through an inferior Tuat, and to being absorbed by the earth-god. 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

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

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. The dwellers in the LAKE OF BOILING WATER entreat AFU-RA to come to them, saying, "Send forth thy light upon us, O thou great god who hast fire in thine eye" (vol. ii., p. 113). In answer, the god decrees that their food shall consist of loaves of bread and green, herbs, and that their beer shall be made from the kemtet plant. This plant has not as yet been accurately identified, but it is tolerably certain that it belonged to a species which was characteristic of the neighbourhood of the Lake.

The beings who stand on the left hand of AFU-RA are divided into two groups: the first consists of nine men, and the second of nine gods, and each group is under the command of TEMU. Between TEMU and the first company, who are called TCHATCHA we see (vol. ii., p. 114) coiled the monster serpent APEP which has

collapsed as a result of the utterance of the word of power by TEMU. This serpent tried to envelop the boat of AFU-RA with its folds, and then to force a way into his boat; but the TCHATCHA, i.e., "Great Chiefs," cut open its head, and slit its body in many places, and its destruction was finished by TEMU. These TCHATCHA live upon the same food as Ra, but they also partake of the offerings made upon earth to KHENTI-AMENTI, the ancient god of the dead of Abydos. The nine gods who follow these are called NEBU-KHERT, and their duty is to repulse the serpents SEBA and AF (vol. ii., p. 115), and to enchant and to render helpless and motionless APEP when he attempts to force the gates of KHENTI-AMENTI. Their food is the same as that of the TCHATCHA, but they possess a power of a remarkable character (which is represented by the words "maat kheru"), for they know how to utter words in such a way, and with such a tone of voice, that the effect which they wish them to have must of necessity take place. Everything which Osiris possessed as god and judge of the dead he owed to the "maat kheru," or "word of maat." As the god AFU-RA passes out of the THIRD DIVISION both the TCHATCHA and the NEBU-KHERT give themselves up to lamentation, and they return to the entrance, and wait for the re-appearance of his boat on the following night, when they will again attack SEBA, and AF, and APEP, and overcome them. The exact place which was set apart for the souls of human beings is nowhere described in the texts.

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