4. _Instead of truth_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. There are two
ways according to which this expression may be translated, but only one
of them can be the right one. ⁂⁂⁂ is a compound preposition,
_instead of_, _in loco_, _anstatt_, _au lieu de_, بمنزلة. And this is
evidently the right construction. If ⁂ be taken as the simple
preposition governing ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, the meaning will be that
the deceased did not “tell lies _in the cemetery_.” The Pyramid Texts
(Unas, 394) have the expression ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂(_sic_),
“Right instead of Wrong.”
5. This is only an approximate version of a passage, the true text of
which was lost at an early period. M. Maspero (_Origines_, p. 189)
understands it as follows: “Je n’ai jamais imposé du travail à l’homme
libre quelconque, en plus de celui qu’il faisait pour luimême!” The last
words are the translation of ⁂⁂⁂, according to _Td._ (tomb
of Ramses IV) all the other ancient texts having ⁂, ‘_for me_.’ But
the chief difficulties occur at the beginning of the sentence.
6. _Shorten the palm’s length_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. Many papyri
read ⁂, which is a superficial measure, more in place under the next
precept.
7. _The fields’ measure_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.
8. _The beam of the balance_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.
_The tongue_ [rather _plummet_] _of the balance_,
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.
The balance is so frequently represented in false perspective by
Egyptian artists, that Sir J. G. Wilkinson has given an account of it,
which is quite unintelligible to those who have ever so moderate a
knowledge of statics. Mr. Petrie’s description is the true one. “The
beam was suspended by a loop or ring from a bracket projecting from the
stand.... Then below the beam, a long tongue was attached, not above the
beam as with us. To test the level of the beam, a plummet hung down the
tongue, and it was this plummet which was observed to see if the tongue
was vertical and the beam horizontal.”—_A Season in Egypt_, p. 42.
In Pl. XXXVI, a few pictures will be found which give a more correct
notion of the Egyptian balance than some of the absurd representations
which defy a scientific explanation.
It is evident that if the tongue is fastened at a wrong angle, the beam
will not really be horizontal when the tongue is shown by the plummet
line to be vertical. This seems to be the fraud alluded to in the text.
The word ⁂⁂, ⁂⁂, the name given to the plummet,
apparently signifies a cup _full_ of liquid. It is etymologically
identical with ⁂⁂⁂⁂, _a toper_ (ⲑⲁϧⲓ, ϯϩⲉ, _ebrius_,
_ebrietas_), ⁂⁂⁂, ⲧⲓϧⲓ, _a crane_, and ⁂⁂⁂ the
crane-god, Thoth.
The apparatus of which the plummet forms so important a part, whether
for the balance or for building purposes, is called ⁂⁂⁂
(_Denkm._, III, 26), ⁂⁂.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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