Page:Book of the Dead.djvu/35

Rh Amenti. He has been enrolled by the Scribe to Rameses, has been to the Slinger of the Sacred Bull, and knows what Nit is—not! He has received the Ladder and Hod, and now requests that he be prepared for his journey to the Oasis of Bunk.

—'Does he know who I am?

—Nay, nor does he give a hoot!

—I should worry! But have the Ladder and Hod been explained to him?

—They have not.

—Again I should worry. Mortals, pause and go slow. That which you see you do not behold. Standing, as you do, upon the illimitable confines Of the inevitable void, cogitating upon the profundity of the yet-to-be, you are — yet you are not! Therefore, why? Go to the silent Sphinx, who sits in solemn grandeur, with the winds of the desert whistling through her whiskers, and the shining sands drifting through her stern. Ask her why? Wherefore? And of which? And she answers not. Perhaps she does not know.

Man's natural tendency is toward egotism. You think you amount to something—you do not. Nobody does—except us. Therefore, we, as Egyptian deities, teach you many beautiful things which you do not know, and of which we have never heard.

Be honest—and people will be suspicious. Be saving— and you will be called a skin-flint. Be virtuous—and you will be very, very lonesome. Stand up for your rights—and you will surely get it in the neck.

As a parting admonition, I will say: We have watched your coming and your going. Your past