Egyptian Literature/The Book of the Dead/Of the Ink-pot and Palette

4255934Egyptian LiteratureThe Book of the Dead: Of the Ink-pot and Palette1901

OF THE INK-POT AND PALETTE

[From the Papyrus of Nu (British Museum No. 10,477, sheet 12).]

The Chapter of praying for an ink-pot and for a palette. The chancellor-in-chief, Nu, triumphant, saith:

“Hail, aged god, who dost behold thy divine father and who art the guardian of the book of Thoth, [behold I have come; I am endowed with glory, I am endowed with strength, I am filled with might, and I am supplied with the books of Thoth], and I have brought [them to enable me] to pass through the god Aker who dwelleth in Set. I have brought the ink-pot and the palette as being the objects which are in the hands of Thoth; hidden is that which is in them. Behold me in the character of a scribe! I have brought the offal of Osiris, and I have written thereon. I have made (i.e., copied) the words of the great and beautiful god each day fairly. O Heru-khuti, thou didst order me and I have made (i.e., copied) what is right and true, and I do bring it unto thee each day.”