14. A difficult passage, but the readings are unanimous. What is ⁂? Brugsch translates it “the Talisman of the Earth,” and Pierret “le salut de la terre.” No objection can be raised against the truth of either of these meanings taken by itself. But we have to look at the entire context. The expression literally signifies “the back of the earth.” In Latin we say _sinus_, _gremium_ and _viscera terrae_. The Egyptians themselves talk of the back of Seb, ⁂⁂⁂, out of which the plants grow, and in a place quoted by Duemichen (_Zeitschrift_, 1871, p. 92, note) ⁂⁂ _ta_ the _Earth_, is substituted for Seb. I believe then that ⁂ is best translated by _Soil of the Earth_. 15. Thy mother Isis. So _Ba_. The Turin text has Nut, which is inconsistent with what follows. 16. _La_ gives Tatunen; _Af_, Tunen; the Turin recension Tanen, names belonging to the god also called Ptah, Sokru and Osiris. See the inscriptions in Mariette’s _Abydos_, I, pl. 16, 6, on the Tat figures. Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis, seems to be here addressed. 17. This rubric does not occur in the older MSS. 18. This hymn has not yet been found in the older MSS. A text carefully corrected from the papyri of the Louvre will be found in M. Lefébure’s _Traduction comparée des Hymnes au Soleil composant le XV^e chapitre du Ritual Funéraire Egyptien_. Paris, 1868. 19. ‘Chepera, father of the gods.’ Expressions like this are liable to be misunderstood by superficial readers. They are not meant to imply that ‘father of the gods’ was the special attribute of Chepera. ‘Father of the gods’ is predicated in Chapter 8 of Sutu, and it is predicated elsewhere of many other divinities. As in mathematics _any_ point in space may be conceived as the origin of a given line or surface, so in Egyptian mythology any god may be rightly called the father of the gods. And for the same reason. The Day precedes the Night, but not more truly than Night precedes, or in mythological language _gives birth to_ Day. But we may begin at Daybreak, or at Noon, or at Sunset, or with the Sun or the Moon, or with the rising of the Nile or any other natural phenomenon which obeys an evidently permanent fixed Law. ----- Footnote 11: One of the names of the Uræus on the royal crown. Footnote 12: ‘The Glorious ones’; see Note 1 on Chapter I. Footnote 13: See note 11. Footnote 14: An abode of bliss (like the Elysian fields) frequently mentioned and described in the Book of the Dead. Footnote 15: The dragon Âpepi. Footnote 16: