the earth is thine.  What is in the heavens is thine.  What is in the waters is thine.  Thou art the Lord of Truth, the hater of sinners, whom thou overthrowest in their sins.  The Goddesses of Truth are with thee; they never leave thee.  No sinful man can approach thee in the place where thou art.  Whatsoever appertaineth to life and to death belongeth to thee, and to thee belongeth everything that concerneth man.”

During the period of the occupation of Egypt by the Romans, the three last-named works were still further abridged, and eventually the texts that were considered essential for salvation were written upon small sheets of papyrus from 9 to 12 inches high, and from 5 to 10 inches wide.

CHAPTER VI

THE EGYPTIAN STORY OF THE CREATION

If we consider for a moment the vast amount of thought which the Egyptian gave to the problems of the future life, and their deep-seated belief in resurrection and immortality, we cannot fail to conclude that he must have theorised deeply about the constitution of the heaven in which he hoped to live everlastingly, and about its Maker.  The translations given in the preceding pages prove that the theologians of Egypt were ready enough to describe heaven, and the life led by the blessed there, and the powers and the attributes of the gods, but they appear to have shrunk from writing down in a connected form their beliefs concerning the Creation and the origin of the Creator.  The worshippers of each great god proclaimed him to be the Creator of All, and every great town had its own local belief on the subject.  According to the Heliopolitans, Atem, or Tem, and at a later period Ra, was the Creator; according to Memphite theology he was Ptah; according to the Hermopolitans he was Thoth; and according to the Thebans he was Amen (Ammon).  In only one native Egyptian work up to the present has there been discovered any connected account of the Creation, and the means by which it was effected, namely, the British Museum Papyrus, No. 10,188.  This papyrus was written about 305 B.C., and is therefore of a comparatively late date, but the subject matter of the works contained in it is thousands of years older, and it is only their forms which are of a late date.  The Story of the Creation is found in the last work in the papyrus, which is called the “Book of overthrowing Aapep, the Enemy of Ra, the Enemy of Un-Nefer” (i.e. Osiris).  This work is a liturgy, which was said at certain times of the day and night in the great temple of Amen-Ra at Thebes, with the view of preventing the monster Aapep from obstructing the sunrise.  Aapep was supposed to lie in wait for the sun daily just before sunrise, with the view of doing battle with him and overthrowing him.  When the Sun-god arrived at the place where Aapep was, he first of all cast a spell upon the monster, which rendered him helpless, and then he cast his fiery rays upon