o him. Hail, holy Ament of Osiris with the
mysterious names, the most holy of the gods, thou who art the most
hidden of all mysteries. Hail! the royal Osiris worships thee; he
addresses the great god who is within thee. Hail! he worships
thee; open thy mysterious doors to him. Hail! he worships thee;
(open to him) thy hidden spheres, for he has his dwelling in the
heavens like Ra, and his throne is upon the earth like Seb; he is
seated upon the throne of Seb, upon the seats of Horchuti; his
spirit soars into the heavens, it rests there; his body descends
to the earth in the midst of the gods. He walks with Ra, he
follows Tum, he is like Chepra, he lives as thou livest in truth.

2 When this book is read he who reads it purifies himself at the
hour when Ra sets, who rests in the Ament of the Ament, when Ra is
in the midst of hidden things, completely.

The Book Of Respirations

Translated by P. J. De Horrack

The manuscript a translation of which here follows belongs to the Museum
of the Louvre, in Paris, where it is registered under the No. 3284
(_Deveria, Catalogue des MS. egypt._, p. 132). It probably dates from the
epoch of the Ptolemies. It is in hieratic writing and generally known by
the name of "Book of Respirations" or "Book of the Breaths of Life,"
according to Mr. Le Page Renouf's ingenious interpretation. This book
seems to have been deposited exclusively with the mummies of the priests
and priestesses of the god Ammon-Ra, if we may judge from the titles
inserted into the manuscripts.

Dr. Brugsch, in 1851, first directed the attention of Egyptologists to
this curious work, by publishing a transcription in hieroglyphics of a
hieratic text in the Berlin Museum, with a Latin translation, under the
title of "_Shai an Sinsin, sive liber Metempsychosis_," etc. He added to
this a copy of a hieratic text of the same book found in Denon ("_Voyage
en Egypte_," pl. 136).

A full analysis of this literary composition has also been given by Dr.
Samuel Birch, in his Introduction to the "_Rhind Papyri_," London, 1863.

The Paris manuscript is as yet unpublished, but a copy of it will be
produced ere long by the present translator. A few passages corrupted by
the ancient scribe have been restored from copies of the same text, which
are in the Egyptian Museum of the Louvre.

The "Book of Respirations" has a great analogy with that of