Page:The Religion of Ancient Egypt.djvu/223

 of the Moon, that his body may shine in the stars of the constellation Orion, on the bosom of Nut." It might be called a Breviary of the Book of the Dead, all the ideas in it being borrowed from that older collection, but the obscurities both in form and in matter are studiously avoided.

It was first published in the plates to the Travels of Vivant-Denon; then Brugsch, in an early publication of his, translated it into Latin, calling it the Book of the Metempsychosis of the ancient Egyptians; and finally, a critical edition has been given of it, with a French translation, by M. de Horrack.

Of the many other compendiums, paraphrases and imitations of the Book of the Dead, I shall only mention one, and that for the sake of a sort of definition which it gives of the gods. The English language is less suited than Greek or German for the translation of cheper chenti chep chet neb em-chet cheper-sen, which is literally, "the Becoming which is in the Becoming of all things when they become." Under this play of words the writer wishes to describe "the cause of change in everything that changes," and he adds: "the mighty ones, the powerful ones, the beneficent, the nutriu, who test by their level the words of men, the Lords of Law (Maāt), Hail to you, ye gods, ye associate gods, who are without body, who rule that which is born from the earth and that which is produced in the house of your cradles [in heaven]. &hellip;