Recension, and to indicate the contents of the principal Chapters. No
one papyrus can be cited as a final authority, for no payprus contains
all the Chapters, 190 in number, of the Theban Recension, and in no
two papyri are the selection and sequence of the Chapters identical,
or is the treatment of the vignettes the same.


CHAPTER IV

Thoth, the Author of the Book of the Dead.

Thoth, in Egyptian Tchehuti or Tehuti, who has already been
mentioned as the author of the texts that form the PER-T EM HRU, or
Book of the Dead, was believed by the Egyptians to have been the heart
and mind of the Creator, who was in very early times in Egypt called
by the natives "Pautti," and by foreigners "Ra." Thoth was also the
"tongue" of the Creator, and he at all times voiced the will of the
great god, and spoke the words which commanded every being and thing
in heaven and in earth to come into existence. His words were almighty
and once uttered never remained without effect. He framed the laws
by which heaven, earth and all the heavenly bodies are maintained; he
ordered the courses of the sun, moon, and stars; he invented drawing
and design and the arts, the letters of the alphabet and the art of
writing, and the science of mathematics. At a very early period he was
called the "scribe (or secretary) of the Great Company of the Gods,"
and as he kept the celestial register of the words and deeds of men,
he was regarded by many generations of Egyptians as the "Recording
Angel." He was the inventor of physical and moral Law and became
the personification of JUSTICE; and as the Companies of the Gods of
Heaven, and Earth, and the Other World appointed him to "weigh the