able to deliver the dead from the devils that lived upon the "bodies,
souls, spirits, shadows and hearts of the dead," the Egyptians decided
to invoke the aid of Thoth on behalf of their dead and to place them
under the protection of his almighty spells. Inspired by Thoth the
theologians of ancient Egypt composed a large number of funerary
texts which were certainly in general use under the IVth dynasty
(about 3700 B.C.), and were probably well known under the Ist dynasty,
and throughout the whole period of dynastic history Thoth was regarded
as the author of the "Book of the Dead."


CHAPTER III

The Book Per-t em hru, or [The Chapters of] Coming forth by (or,
into) the Day, commonly called the "Book of the Dead."


The spells and other texts which were written by Thoth for the
benefit of the dead, and are directly connected with him, were called,
according to documents written under the XIth and XVIIIth dynasties,
"Chapters of the Coming Forth by (or, into) the Day." One rubric in
the Papyrus of Nu (Brit. Mus. No. 10477) states that the text of the
work called "PER-T EM HRU," i.e., "Coming Forth (or, into) the Day,"
was discovered by a high official in the foundations of a shrine of
the god Hennu during the reign of Semti, or Hesepti, a king of the Ist
dynasty. Another rubric in the same papyrus says that the text was
cut upon the alabaster plinth of a statue of Menkaura (Mycerinus),
a king of the IVth dynasty, and that the letters were inlaid with
lapis lazuli. The plinth was found by Prince Herutataf, a son of
King Khufu (Cheops), who carried it off to his king and exhibited it