Egyptian Literature/The Book of the Dead/Of Evil Recollections
OF EVIL RECOLLECTIONS
[From the Papyrus of Nu (British Museum No. 10,477, sheet 8).]
The Chapter of driving evil recollections from the mouth. The overseer of the palace, the chancellor-in-chief, Nu, triumphant, the son of the overseer of the palace, the chancellor-in-chief, Amen-hetep, triumphant, saith:
“Hail, thou that cuttest off heads, and slittest brows, thou being who puttest away the memory of evil things from the mouth of the Khus by means of the incantations which they have within them, look not upon me with the [same] eyes with which thou lookest upon them. Go thou round about on thy legs, and let thy face be [turned] behind thee so that thou mayest be able to see the divine slaughterers of the god Shu who are coming up behind thee to cut off thy head, and to slit thy brow by reason of the message of violence [sent] by thy lord, and to see(?) that which thou sayest. Work thou for me so that the memory of evil things shall dart from my mouth; let not my head be cut off; let not my brow be slit; and let not my mouth be shut fast by reason of the incantations which thou hast within thee, according to that which thou doest for the Khus through the incantations which they have within themselves. Get thee back and depart at the [sound of] the two speeches which the goddess Isis uttered when thou didst come to cast the recollection of evil things into the mouth of Osiris by the will of Suti his enemy, saying, ‘Let thy face be toward the privy parts, and look upon that face which cometh forth from the flame of the Eye of Horus against thee from within the Eye of Tem,’ and the calamity of that night which shall consume thee. And Osiris went back, for the abomination of thee was in him; and thou didst go back, for the abomination of him is in thee. I have gone back, for the abomination of thee is in me; and thou shalt go back, for the abomination of me is in thee. Thou wouldst come unto me, but I say that thou shalt not advance to me so that I come to an end, and [I] say then to the divine slaughterers of the god Shu, ‘Depart.’”