representative upon earth of the god.  He drew his power and wisdom direct from the god, and it was believed that these required renewal daily.  To bring about this renewal of the divine spirit in the god’s vicegerent upon earth, the king entered the temple in the early morning, and performed ceremonies and recited formulae that purified both the sanctuary and himself.  He then advanced to the shrine, which contained a small gilded wooden figure of the god, inlaid with precious stones and provided with a movable head, arms, and legs, and opened it and knelt down before the figure.  He performed further ceremonies of purification, and finally took the figure of the god in his arms and embraced it.  During this embrace the divine power of Amen-Ra, which was in the gilded figure at that moment, passed into the body of the king, and the divine power and wisdom, which were in the king as the god’s representative, were renewed.  The king then closed the doors of the shrine and left the sanctuary for a short time.  When he returned he opened the shrine again, and made adoration to the god, and presented a series of offerings that symbolised Truth.  After this the king dressed the figure of the god in sacred apparel, and decorated it.  Then, having performed further acts of worship before it, he closed the doors of the shrine, sealed them with mud seals, and left the sanctuary.

VI.  The BOOK “MAY MY NAME FLOURISH.”—­This was a very popular funerary work in the Roman Period.  It is a development of a long prayer that is found in the Pyramid Texts, and was written by the priests and used as a spell to make the name of the deceased flourish eternally in heaven and on the earth.  Many copies of it, written on narrow strips of papyrus, are preserved in the British Museum.

VII.  The BOOK OF AAPEP, the great enemy of the Sun-god.—­Aapep was the god of evil, who became incarnate in many forms, especially in wild and savage animals and in monster serpents and venomous reptiles of every kind.  He was supposed to take the form of a huge serpent and to lie in wait near the portals of the dawn daily, so that he might swallow up the sun as he was about to rise in the eastern sky.  He was accompanied by legions of devils and fiends, red and black, and by all the powers of storm, tempest, hurricane, whirlwind, thunder and lightning, and he was the deadly foe of all order, both physical and moral, and of all good in heaven and in earth.  At certain times during the day and night the priests in the temple of Amen-Ra recited a series of chapters, and performed a number of magical ceremonies, which were intended to strengthen the arms of the Sun-god, and give him power to overcome the resistance of Aapep.  These chapters acted on Aapep as spells, and they paralysed the monster just as he was about to attack the Sun-god.  The god then approached and shot his fiery darts into him, and his attendant gods hacked the monster’s body to pieces, which shrivelled up under the burning heat of the rays of the Sun-god, and all the devils and fiends of darkness fled shrieking in terror at their leader’s fate.  The sun then rose on this world, and all the stars and spirits of the morning and all the gods of heaven sang for joy.  The complete text of this book is found in a long papyrus dated in the reign of Alexander II in the British Museum (No. 10,188).