the naked man, and a ferry boat to him that had none.  I have made offerings to the gods, and given funerary meals to the spirits.  Therefore be ye my deliverers, be ye my protectors; make ye no accusations against me in the presence [of the Great God].  I am clean of mouth and clean of hands; therefore let be said unto me by those who shall see me:  ‘Come in peace, come in peace’ (i.e. Welcome!  Welcome!)....  I have testified before Herfhaf,[2] and he hath approved me.  I have seen the things over which the Persea tree spreadeth [its branches] in Rastau.  I offer up my prayers to the gods, and I know their persons.  I have come and have advanced to declare the truth and to set up the Balance[3] on its stand in Aukert."[4]

[Footnote 1:  The Lord to the uttermost limit, i.e. Almighty God.]

[Footnote 2:  The celestial ferryman who ferried the souls of the righteous to the Island of Osiris.  None but the righteous could enter his boat, and none but the righteous was allowed to land on the Island of Osiris.]

[Footnote 3:  The balance in which the heart was weighed.]

[Footnote 4:  A name of a part of the Other World near Heliopolis.]

Then addressing the god Osiris the deceased says:  “Hail, thou who art exalted upon thy standard, thou lord of the Atef crown, whose name is ‘Lord of the Winds,’ deliver me from thine envoys who inflict evils, who do harm, whose faces are uncovered, for I have done the right for the Lord of Truth.  I have purified myself and my fore parts with holy water, and my hinder parts with the things that make clean, and my inward parts have been [immersed] in the Lake of Truth.  There is not one member of mine wherein truth is lacking.  I purified myself in the Pool of the South.  I rested in the northern town in the Field of the Grasshoppers, wherein the sailors of Ra bathe at the second hour of the night and at the third hour of the day.”  One would think that the moral worth of the deceased was such that he might then pass without delay into the most holy part of the Hall of Truth where Osiris was enthroned.  But this is not the case, for before he went further he was obliged to repeat the magical names of various parts of the Hall of Truth; thus we find that the priest thrust his magic into the most sacred of texts.  At length Thoth, the great Recorder of Egypt, being satisfied as to the good faith and veracity of the deceased, came to him and asked why he had come to the Hall of Truth, and the deceased replied that he had come in order to be “mentioned” to the god.  Thoth then asked him, “Who is he whose heaven is fire, whose walls are serpents, and the floor of whose house is a stream of water?” The deceased replied, “Osiris”; and he was then bidden to advance so that he might be introduced to Osiris.  As a reward for his righteous life sacred food, which proceeded from the Eye of Ra, was allotted to him, and, living on the food of the god, he became a counterpart of the god.