Amen was only another form of the power of procreation, renewed birth
and resurrection which was typified by Osiris. The oldest copies of the
PER-T EM HRU which we have on papyrus contain a few extracts from other
ancient funerary works, such as the "Book of Opening the Mouth," the
"Liturgy of Funerary Offerings," and the "Book of the Two Ways." But
under the rule of the Priest-Kings the scribes incorporated with the
Chapters of the PER-T EM HRU extracts from the "Book of Ami-Tuat"
and the "Book of Gates," and several of the vignettes and texts that
are found on the walls of the royal tombs of Thebes.

One of the most remarkable texts written at this period is found in
the Papyrus of Nesi-Khensu, which is now in the Egyptian Museum in
Cairo. This is really the copy of a contract which is declared to have
been made between Nesi-Khensu and Amen-Ra, "the holy god, the lord of
all the gods." As a reward for the great piety of the queen, and her
devotion to the interests of Amen-Ra upon earth, the god undertakes to
make her a goddess in his kingdom, to provide her with an estate there
in perpetuity and a never-failing supply of offerings, and happiness
of heart, soul and body, and the [daily] recital upon earth of the
"Seventy Songs of Ra" for the benefit of her soul in the Khert-Neter,
or Under World. The contract was drawn up in a series of paragraphs
in legal phraseology by the priests of Amen, who believed they had
the power of making their god do as they pleased when they pleased.

Little is known of the history of the PER-T EM HRU after the downfall
of the priests of Amen, and during the period of the rule of the
Nubians, but under the kings of the XXVIth dynasty the Book enjoyed a
great vogue. Many funerary rolls were written both in hieroglyphs and
hieratic, and were decorated with vignettes drawn in black outline;
and about this time the scribes began to write funerary texts in