I am Chepera, my limbs are lasting for ever. I do not know corruption. I do not rot, I do not putrefy, I do not become worms. I do not lose the eye of Shu. I am, I am, I live, I live, I grow, I grow, and when I shall awake in peace, I shall not be in corruption, I shall not be destroyed in my bandages. I shall be free of pestilence, my eye will not be corrupted, my skin (?) will not disappear. My ear will not be deaf, my head will not be taken away from my neck, my tongue will not be torn away, my hair will not be cut off, my eyebrows shall not be shaven off. No grievous harm shall come upon me, my body is firm, it shall not be destroyed. It shall not perish in this earth for ever. NOTES. This Chapter is not frequently met with in the papyri; it was written on the wrappings and the bandages of the dead; for instance, on the funeral cloth of King Thothmes III, where it is not complete. This Chapter is interesting, as it shows how repulsive to the Egyptians was the idea of corruption, of the decay of the body, which is described here in most realistic terms. This is one of the reasons why they gave such importance to mummification. Parts of this Chapter are very obscure. The translation has been made from the text on the mummy cloth of Thothmes III, supplemented by the Papyrus of _Nu_. The only vignette we have is that of the Turin Papyrus, showing a mummy lying on the bed, and illumined by the rays of the sun. 1. ⁂⁂⁂, “to pass away, to disappear through corruption or decay.” Sometimes it seems to have an active sense: to let something pass away, to lose it. 2. ⁂⁂⁂, ⁂ is generally translated “firm, stable, abiding” (Chapter 1, note 9), but I believe in most cases it has another sense: “to vivify, to impart the breath of life,” as one may judge from the title of Chapter 182, which mentions two acts, one of which is the consequence of the other, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂: “the book of vivifying Osiris, giving breath to him whose heart is motionless.” In the mythological or celestial geography ⁂⁂⁂ is the East (Pl. IV). There life originates; there also the deceased inhales the breath of life (Chapter 57, p. 110; Naville, _Todt._, Einl., p. 28). 3. See _Sphinx_, V, p. 199. 4. ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. I consider ⁂⁂ as being here the adverb _afterwards_. His soul goes out, and _afterwards_ he dies, it goes down and _afterwards_ he decays. 5. ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, litt. the destroyers; the word occurs again further on: the destroyer who is in his bush(?) or cover, the hidden one. It is evidently a metaphor, for the sense is obvious; it is putrefaction. The word in the Turin papyrus ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, litt. locks, might apply to the vegetation or the excrescences which are often the sign of putrefaction.