Not _Ḥāmeḥit_, which is the name both of the _Uu_ of the nome and of
the goddess worshipped in it, whose emblem is the fish ⁂.
------------------------------------
CHAPTER CXIII.
_Chapter whereby one knoweth the Powers of Nechen._(1.)
I know the Mystery of Nechen: Horus, and that which his mother did(2.)
for him, when she herself uttered the cry: “Let Sebak, the Lord of the
Marshes, be brought to us.”
He cast the net for them and he found them, and his mother made them
fast in their places.
Sebak, the Lord of the Marshes, said: “I sought and I found the traces
of them under my fingers on the strand. I netted them in a powerful net,
as the net proved to be.”
And Râ said: “Verily, those are fishes in the hands of Sebak. and he
hath found the two arms of Horus for him, which had become fishes.”(3.)
And Râ said: “A mystery, a mystery, in the Net.”
And the hands of Horus were brought to him, and displayed before his
face, on the feast of the fifteenth day of the month; when the fishes
were produced.
Then Râ said: “I grant Nechen to Horus, in the place of his two arms;
that his two hands be displayed before his face in Nechen; and I grant
to him whatsoever is therein comprised on the feast of the fifteenth day
of the month.”
And Horus said: “Be it granted to me that Tuamāutef and Kebhsenuf be
taken with me, and that they be guards of my body in dutiful
service.(4.) Let them be this under the god of Nechen.”
And Râ said: Be that granted to thee, there and in Sati, and let that be
done for them which is done for those who are in Nechen; yea, they are
asking to be with thee.
And Horus said: Be they with thee, so that they be with me to listen to
Sutu invoking the Powers of Nechen: “Be it granted to me that I may make
my entry among the Powers of Nechen.”
I know the Powers of Nechen: they are Horus, Tuamāutef, and Kebhsenuf.
NOTES.
1. _Nechen_, the chief hieroglyphic variants of which are ⁂, ⁂,
⁂ and ⁂⁂, was situated in the third nome (⁂ _Ten_) of
Upper Egypt, and was called by the Greeks Hieracōnpolis, ‘city of the
Hawks,’ from the hawk-headed divinities mentioned in this chapter as
Powers of Nechen, and of which numberless pictures are found on the
monuments.
2. Between these words and those which the three old papyri[96] _Aa_,
_Ae_, and _Ib_, which unfortunately do not agree together on all points,
have a few passages here which do not appear in the later papyri. They
read, “Horus and what his mother did, tossing in distressful agitation
(⁂⁂⁂⁂, ⲕⲓⲙ, σαλεύεσθαι) over the water.” The mother then
addresses persons who are not named, in words of which the sense is not
clear; and Rā speaks words of which the only certain ones are “the son
of Isis.” Then follows the usual text.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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