The Literature of the Ancient Egyptians Part 15

HERE ENDETH * [THE HYMN] IN PEACE,*

ACCORDING TO AN ANCIENT COPY.*

The following extract is taken from a work in which the power and glory of Amen are described in a long series of Chapters; the papyrus in which it is written is in Leyden.

"[He, _i.e._ Amen], driveth away evils and scattereth diseases. He is the physician who healeth the eye without [the use of] medicaments. He openeth the eyes, he driveth away inflammation (?)... He delivereth whom he pleaseth, even from the Tuat (the Other World). He saveth a man from what is ordained for him at the dictates of his heart. To him belong both eyes and ears, [he is] on every path of him whom he loveth. He heareth the pet.i.tions of him that appealeth to him. He cometh from afar to him that calleth [before] a moment hath pa.s.sed. He maketh high (_i.e._ long) the life [of a man], he cutteth it short. To him whom he loveth he giveth more than hath been fated for him. [When] Amen casteth a spell on the water, and his name is on the waters, if this name of his be uttered the crocodile (?) hath no power. The winds are driven back, the hurricane is repulsed. At the remembrance of him the wrath of the angry man dieth down. He speaketh the gentle word at the moment of strife. He is a pleasant breeze to him that appealeth to him. He delivereth the helpless one. He is the wise (?) G.o.d whose plans are beneficent.... He is more helpful than millions to the man who hath set him in his heart. One warrior [who fighteth] under his name is better than hundreds of thousands. Indeed he is the beneficent strong one. He is perfect [and] seizeth his moment; he is irresistible.... All the G.o.ds are three, Amen, Ra and Ptah, and there are none like unto them. He whose name is hidden is Amen. Ra belongeth to him as his face, and his body is Ptah. Their cities are established upon the earth for ever, [namely,] Thebes, Anu (Heliopolis), and Hetkaptah (Memphis). When a message is sent from heaven it is heard in Anu, and is repeated in Memphis to the Beautiful Face (_i.e._ Ptah). It is done into writing, in the letters of Thoth (_i.e._ hieroglyphs), and despatched to the City of Amen (_i.e._ Thebes), with their things. The matters are answered in Thebes.... His heart is Understanding, his lips are Taste, his Ka is all the things that are in his mouth. He entereth, the two caverns are beneath his feet. The Nile appeareth from the hollow beneath his sandals. His soul is Shu, his heart is Tefnut. He is Heru-Khuti in the upper heaven. His right eye is day. His left eye is night. He is the leader of faces on every path. His body is Nu. The dweller in it is the Nile, producing everything that is, nourishing all that is. He breatheth breath into all nostrils. The Luck and the Destiny of every man are with him. His wife is the earth, he uniteth with her, his seed is the tree of life, his emanations are the grain."

HYMNS TO THE SUN-G.o.d

The following extracts from Hymns to the Sun-G.o.d and Osiris are written in the hieratic character upon slices of limestone now preserved in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

"Well dost thou watch, O Horus, who sailest over the sky, thou child who proceedest from the divine father, thou child of fire, who shinest like crystal, who destroyest the darkness and the night. Thou child who growest rapidly, with gracious form, who restest in thine eye. Thou wakest up men who are asleep on their beds, and the reptiles in their nests. Thy boat saileth on the fiery Lake Neserser, and thou traversest the upper sky by means of the winds thereof. The two daughters of the Nile-G.o.d crush for thee the fiend Neka, Nubti (_i.e._ Set) pierceth him with his arrows. Keb seizeth (?) him by the joint of his back, Serqet grippeth him at his throat. The flame of this serpent that is over the door of thy house burneth him up. The Great Company of the G.o.ds are wroth with him, and they rejoice because he is cut to pieces. The Children of Horus grasp their knives, and inflict very many gashes in him. Hail! Thine enemy hath fallen, and Truth standeth firm before thee.

When thou again transformest thyself into Tem, thou givest thy hand to the Lords of Akert (_i.e._ the dead), those who lie in death give thanks for thy beauties when thy light falleth upon them. They declare unto thee what is their hearts' wish, which is that they may see thee again.

When thou hast pa.s.sed them by, the darkness covereth them, each one in his coffin. Thou art the lord of those who cry out (?) to thee, the G.o.d who is beneficent for ever. Thou art the Judge of words and deeds, the Chief of chief judges, who stablishest truth, and doest away sin. May he who attacketh me be judged rightly, behold, he is stronger than I am; he hath seized upon my office, and hath carried it off with falsehood. May it be restored to me."

HYMN TO OSIRIS

"[Praise be] unto thee, O thou who extendest thine arms, who liest asleep on thy side, who liest on the sand, the Lord of the earth, the divine mummy.... Thou art the Child of the Earth Serpent, of great age.

Thy head ... and goeth round over thy feet. Ra-Khepera shineth upon thy body, when thou liest on thy bed in the form of Seker, so that he may drive away the darkness that shroudeth thee, and may infuse light in thy two eyes. He pa.s.seth a long period of time shining upon thee, and sheddeth tears over thee. The earth resteth upon thy shoulders, and its corners rest upon thee as far as the four pillars of heaven. If thou movest thyself, the earth quaketh, for thou art greater than.... [The Nile] appeareth out of the sweat of thy two hands. Thou breathest forth the air that is in thy throat into the nostrils of men; divine is that thing whereon they live. Through thy nostrils (?) subsist the flowers, the herbage, the reeds, the flags (?), the barley, the wheat, and the plants whereon men live. If ca.n.a.ls are dug ... and houses and temples are built, and great statues are dragged along, and lands are ploughed up, and tombs and funerary monuments are made, they [all] rest upon thee. It is thou who makest them. They are upon thy back. They are more than can be done into writing (_i.e._ described). There is no vacant s.p.a.ce on thy back, they all lie on thy back, and yet [thou sayest] not, "I am [over] weighted therewith. Thou art the father and mother of men and women, they live by thy breath, they eat the flesh of thy members.

'Pautti' (_i.e._ Primeval G.o.d) is thy name." The writer of this hymn says in the four broken lines that remain that he is unable to understand the nature (?) of Osiris, which is hidden (?), and his attributes, which are sublime.

HYMN TO SHU

The following Hymn is found in the Magical Papyrus (Harris, No. 501), which is preserved in the British Museum. The text is written in the hieratic character, and reads:

"Homage to thee, O flesh and bone of Ra, thou first-born son who didst proceed from his members, who wast chosen to be the chief of those who were brought forth, thou mighty one, thou divine form, who art endowed with strength as the lord of transformations. Thou overthrowest the Seba fiends each day. The divine boat hath the wind [behind it], thy heart is glad. Those who are in the Antti Boat utter loud cries of joy when they see Shu, the son of Ra, triumphant, [and] driving his spear into the serpent fiend Nekau. Ra setteth out to sail over the heavens at dawn daily. The G.o.ddess Tefnut is seated on thy head, she hurleth her flames of fire against thy enemies, and maketh them to be destroyed utterly.

Thou art equipped by Ra, thou art mighty through his words of power, thou art the heir of thy father upon his throne, and thy Doubles rest in the Doubles of Ra, even as the taste of what hath been in the mouth remaineth therein. A will hath been done into writing by the lord of Khemenu (Thoth), the scribe of the library of Ra-Harmakhis, in the hall of the divine house (or temple) of Anu (Heliopolis), stablished, perfected, and made permanent in hieroglyphs under the feet of Ra-Harmakhis, and he shall transmit it to the son of his son for ever and ever. Homage to thee, O son of Ra, who wast begotten by Temu himself. Thou didst create thyself, and thou hadst no mother. Thou art Truth, the lord of Truth, thou art the Power, the ruling power of the G.o.ds. Thou dost conduct the Eye of thy father Ra. They give gifts unto thee into thine own hands. Thou makest to be at peace the Great G.o.ddess, when storms are pa.s.sing over her. Thou dost stretch out the heavens on high, and dost establish them with thine own hands. Every G.o.d boweth in homage before thee, the King of the South, the King of the North, Shu, the son of RA, life, strength and health be to thee! Thou, O great G.o.d Pautti, art furnished with the brilliance of the Eye [of Ra] in Heliopolis, to overthrow the Seba fiends on behalf of thy father. Thou makest the divine Boat to sail onwards in peace. The mariners who are therein exult, and all the G.o.ds shout for joy when they hear thy divine name. Greater, yea greater (_i.e._ twice great) art thou than the G.o.ds in thy name of Shu, son of Ra."

CHAPTER XIII

MORAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL LITERATURE

Side by side with the great ma.s.s of literature of a magical and religious character that flourished in Egypt under the Ancient Empire, we find that there existed also a cla.s.s of writings that are remarkably like those contained in the Book of Proverbs, which is attributed to Solomon, the King of Israel, and in "Ecclesiasticus," and the "Book of Wisdom." The priests of Egypt took the greatest trouble to compose Books of the Dead and Guides to the Other World in order to help the souls of the dead to traverse in safety the region that lay between this world and the next, or Dead Land, and the high officials who flourished under the Pharaohs of the early dynasties drew up works, the object of which was to enable the living man to conduct himself in such a way as to satisfy his social superiors, to please his equals, and to content his inferiors, and at the same time to advance to honours and wealth himself. These works represent the experience, and shrewdness, and knowledge which their writers had gained at the Court of the Pharaohs, and are full of sound worldly wisdom and high moral excellence. They were written to teach young men of the royal and aristocratic cla.s.ses to fear G.o.d, to honour the king, to do their duty efficiently, to lead strictly moral, if not exactly religious, lives, to treat every man with the respect due to his position in life, to cultivate home life, and to do their duty to their neighbours, both to those who were rich and those who were poor. The oldest Egyptian book of Moral Precepts, or Maxims, or Admonitions, is that of Ptah-hetep, governor of the town of Memphis, and high confidential adviser of the king; he flourished in the reign of a.s.sa, a king of the fifth dynasty, about 3500 B.C. His work is found, more or less complete, in several papyri, which are preserved in the British Museum and in the National Library in Paris, and extracts from it, which were used by Egyptian pupils in the schools attached to the temples, and which are written upon slices of limestone, are to be seen in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and elsewhere. The oldest copy of the work contains many mistakes, and in some places the text is unintelligible, but many parts of it can be translated, and the following extracts will ill.u.s.trate the piety and moral worth, and the sagacity and experience of the shrewd but kindly "man of the world" who undertook to guide the young prince of his day. The sage begins his work with a lament about the evil effects that follow old age in a man--

"Depression seizeth upon him every day, his eyesight faileth, his ears become deaf, his strength declineth, his heart hath no rest, the mouth becometh silent and speaketh not, the intelligence diminisheth, and it is impossible to remember to-day what happened yesterday. The bones are full of pain, the pursuit that was formerly attended with pleasure is now fraught with pain, and the sense of taste departeth. Old age is the worst of all the miseries that can befall a man. The nose becometh stopped up and one cannot smell at all." At this point Ptah-hetep asks, rhetorically, "Who will give me authority to speak? Who is it that will authorise me to repeat to the prince the Precepts of those who had knowledge of the wise counsels of the learned men of old? "In answer to these questions the king replies to Ptah-hetep, "Instruct thou my son in the words of wisdom of olden time. It is instruction of this kind alone that formeth the character of the sons of n.o.blemen, and the youth who hearkeneth to such instruction will acquire a right understanding and the faculty of judging justly, and he will not feel weary of his duties." Immediately following these words come the "Precepts of beautiful speech" of Ptah-hetep, whose full t.i.tles are given, viz. the Erpa, the Duke, the father of the G.o.d _(i.e._ the king), the friend of G.o.d, the son of the king. Governor of Memphis, confidential servant of the king. These Precepts instruct the ignorant, and teach them to understand fine speech; among them are the following:

"Be not haughty because of thy knowledge. Converse with the ignorant man as well as with him that is educated.

"Do not terrify the people, for if thou dost, G.o.d will punish thee. If any man saith that he is going to live by these means, G.o.d will make his mouth empty of food. If a man saith that he is going to make himself powerful (or rich) thereby, saying, 'I shall reap advantage, having knowledge,' and if he saith, 'I will beat down the other man,' he will arrive at the result of being able to do nothing. Let no man terrify the people, for the command of G.o.d is that they shall enjoy rest.

"If thou art one of a company seated to eat in the house of a man who is greater than thyself, take what he giveth thee [without remark]. Set it before thee. Look at what is before thee, but not too closely, and do not look at it too often. The man who rejecteth it is an ill-mannered person. Do not speak to interrupt when he is speaking, for one knoweth not when he may disapprove. Speak when he addresseth thee, and then thy words shall be acceptable. When a man hath wealth he ordereth his actions according to his own dictates. He doeth what he willeth.... The great man can effect by the mere lifting up of his hand what a [poor]

man cannot. Since the eating of bread is according to the dispensation of G.o.d, a man cannot object thereto.

"If thou art a man whose duty it is to enter into the presence of a n.o.bleman with a message from another n.o.bleman, take care to say correctly and in the correct way what thou art sent to say; give the message exactly as he said it. Take great care not to spoil it in delivery and so to set one n.o.bleman against another. He who wresteth the truth in transmitting the message, and only repeateth it in words that give pleasure to all men, gentleman or common man, is an abominable person.

"If thou art a farmer, till the field which the great G.o.d hath given thee. Eat not too much when thou art near thy neighbours.... The children of the man who, being a man of substance, seizeth [prey] like the crocodile in the presence of the field labourers, are cursed because of his behaviour, his father suffereth poignant grief, and as for the mother who bore him, every other woman is happier than she. A man who is the leader of a clan (or tribe) that trusteth him and followeth him becometh a G.o.d.

"If thou dost humble thyself and dost obey a wise man, thy behaviour will be held to be good before G.o.d. Since thou knowest who are to serve, and who are to command, let not thy heart magnify itself against the latter. Since thou knowest who hath the power, hold in fear him that hath it....

"Be diligent at all times. Do more than is commanded. Waste not the time wherein thou canst labour; he is an abominable man who maketh a bad use of his time. Lose no chance day by day in adding to the riches of thy house. Work produceth wealth, and wealth endureth not when work is abandoned.

"If thou art a wise man, beget a son who shall be pleasing unto G.o.d.

"If thou art a wise man, be master of thy house. Love thy wife absolutely, give her food in abundance, and raiment for her back; these are the medicines for her body. Anoint her with unguents, and make her happy as long as thou livest. She is thy field, and she reflecteth credit on her possessor. Be not harsh in thy house, for she will be more easily moved by persuasion than by violence. Satisfy her wish, observe what she expecteth, and take note of that whereon she hath fixed her gaze. This is the treatment that will keep her in her house; if thou repel her advances, it is ruin for thee. Embrace her, call her by fond names, and treat her lovingly.

"Treat thy dependants as well as thou art able, for this is the duty of those whom G.o.d hath blessed.

"If thou art a wise man, and if thou hast a seat in the council chamber of thy lord, concentrate thy mind on the business [so as to arrive at] a wise decision. Keep silence, for this is better than to talk overmuch.

When thou speakest thou must know what can be urged against thy words.

To speak in the council chamber [needeth] skill and experience.

"If thou hast become a great man having once been a poor man, and hast attained to the headship of the city, study not to take the fullest advantage of thy situation. Be not harsh in respect of the grain, for thou art only an overseer of the food of G.o.d.

"Think much, but keep thy mouth closed; if thou dost not how canst thou consult with the n.o.bles? Let thy opinion coincide with that of thy lord.

Do what he saith, and then he shall say of thee to those who are listening, 'This is my son.'"

The above and all the other Precepts of Ptah-hetep were drawn up for the guidance of highly-placed young men, and have little to do with practical, every-day morality. But whilst the Egyptian scribes who lived under the Middle and New Empires were ready to pay all honour to the writings of an earlier age, they were not slow to perceive that the older Precepts did not supply advice on every important subject, and they therefore proceeded to write supplementary Precepts. A very interesting collection of such Precepts is found in a papyrus preserved in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. They are generally known as the "Maxims of Ani," and the following examples will ill.u.s.trate their scope and character:

"Celebrate thou the festival of thy G.o.d, and repeat the celebration thereof in its appointed season. G.o.d is wroth with the transgressor of this law. Bear testimony [to Him] after thy offering....

"The opportunity having pa.s.sed, one seeketh [in vain] to seize another.

"G.o.d will magnify the name of the man who exalteth His Souls, who singeth His praises, and boweth before Him, who offereth incense, and doeth homage [to Him] in his work.

"Enter not into the presence of the drunkard, even if his acquaintance be an honour to thee.

"Beware of the woman in the street who is not known in her native town.

Follow her not, nor any woman who is like her. Do not make her acquaintance. She is like a deep stream the windings of which are unknown.

"Go not with common men, lest thy name be made to stink."

"When an inquiry is held, and thou art present, multiply not speech; thou wilt do better if thou holdest thy peace. Act not the part of the chatterer.

"The sanctuary of G.o.d abhorreth noisy demonstrations. Pray thou with a loving heart, and let thy words be hidden (or secret). Do this, and He will do thy business for thee. He will hearken unto thy words, and He will receive thy offering.

"Place water before thy father and thy mother who rest in their tombs.... Forget not to do this when thou art outside thy house, and as thou doest for them so shall thy son do for thee."

"Frequent not the house where men drink beer, for the words that fall from thy mouth will be repeated, and it is a bad thing for thee not to know what thou didst really say. Thou wilt fall down, thy bones may be broken, and there will be no one to give thee a hand [to help thee]. Thy boon companions who are drinking with thee will say, 'Throw this drunken man out of the door.' When thy friends come to look for thee, they will find thee lying on the ground as helpless as a babe.

"When the messenger of [death] cometh to carry thee away, let him find thee prepared. Alas, thou wilt have no opportunity for speech, for verily his terror will be before thee. Say not, 'Thou art carrying me off in my youth.' Thou knowest not when thy death will take place. Death cometh, and he seizeth the babe at the breast of his mother, as well as the man who hath arrived at a ripe old age. Observe this, for I speak unto thee good advice which thou shalt meditate upon in thy heart. Do these things, and thou wilt be a good man, and evils of all kinds shall remove themselves from thee."

"Remain not seated whilst another is standing, especially if he be an old man, even though thy social position (or rank) be higher than his.