NOTES. This is another of those chapters of which the antiquity is proved by the coffins of Horhotep and Queen Mentuhotep. And even in the early times to which these coffins belong it must have been extremely difficult to understand. In the translation here given I have adhered as closely as possible to the oldest texts, but these, as the variants show, are not entirely trustworthy. 1. _Thigh._ This is the usual translation, which accords with the frequent pictures of the goddess Nut, as the Sky, with the divine Scarab in the position described.[39] But ⁂⁂⁂ signifies that which _runs_, from ⁂⁂⁂ _uār_, run, _fugere_; and the noun (_the runner_) is often applied to _running water_. It is the geographical name of a river or canal. M. Naville has already pointed out that in the Book of the Dead it has for variants ⁂⁂⁂ and ⁂⁂⁂, of which _bath_ is a fair translation. 2. The names of these two animals (especially of the second) vary greatly in the texts. But if we wish rightly to understand the sense of the chapter, we must bear in mind that it is not the animals themselves that are meant, but the characteristics implied by the names of the animals. And as the Sanskrit _vṛkas_, the Greek λύκος, the old Slavonic _vluku_, the Gothic _vulfs_, and our own _wolf_, signify the _robber_, so does the Egyptian ⁂⁂⁂⁂, whether signifying _wolf_, _wolfhound_, or _bloodhound_, indicate _speed_. The names of the second animal in the earlier texts, whether they stand for hyænas ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, or for other animals of the chase (⁂⁂⁂⁂), imply either _speed_ or _ferocity_. And what must we understand under the latter term? We must look to the context. It is of a god speaking of himself and of his attributes. He is proud of them, and certainly does not wish them to be taken in a bad sense. Nor is it necessary that we should do so. We have only to remember what we learnt at school. Cicero (_de Sen._, 10, 33) contrasts the ‘ferocitas juvenum,’ the high _pluck_ of the young, with the ‘infirmitas puerorum,’ and the ‘gravitas’ and ‘maturitas’ of later periods of life. Livy uses the term _ferox_, in the same sense as Cicero. What we have to understand of the Egyptian expression is, ‘mettlesome, of high, unbridled spirit.’ In the later texts the _Bennu_ bird has been substituted for the beasts of the chase. 3. The later texts read ⁂⁂, but all the earlier ones give another word ⁂⁂ or ⁂⁂. This is often used in a bad sense, when spoken of the enemy; but it merely implies tenacity, pertinacity, obstinacy, which are, of course, very bad things in opposition, but in themselves virtues of a high order.[40] The word is used as a name for the divine Cynocephali ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ who appear at sunrise over the _Tank of Flame_. 4. ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, _the same who bringeth into being the gods out of Silence, or reduceth them to inactivity_.