the sand, and perished in
convulsions from the poison; or crocodiles seized as many of them as
they could lay hold of at the fords of rivers; or cynocephali netted
and devoured them indiscriminately along with the fish into which the
partisans of Typhon were transformed. They came safe and sound out of
one peril only to fall into another, and infallibly succumbed before
they were half through their journey. But, on the other hand, the
double who was equipped and instructed, and armed with the true voice,
confronted each foe with the phylactery and the incantation by which his
enemy was held in check. As soon as he caught sight of one of them he
recited the appropriate chapter from his book, he loudly proclaimed
himself Ra, Tumu, Horus, or Khopri--that god whose name and attributes
were best fitted to repel the immediate danger--and flames withdrew at
his voice, monsters fled or sank paralysed, the most cruel of genii
drew in their claws and lowered their arms before him. He compelled
crocodiles to turn away their heads; he transfixed serpents with his
lance; he supplied himself at pleasure with all the provisions that he
needed, and gradually ascended the mountains which surround the world,
sometimes alone, and fighting his way step by step, sometimes escorted
by beneficent divinities. Halfway up the slope was the good cow Hafchor,
the lady of the West, in meadows of tall plants where every evening
she received the sun at his setting. If the dead man knew how to ask
it according to the prescribed rite, she would take him upon her
shoulders[*] and carry him across the accursed countries at full speed.

* Coffins of the XXth and XXIst dynasties, with a yellow
ground, often display this scene. Generally the scene is
found beneath the feet of the dead, at the lower end of the
cartonage, and the cow is represented as carrying off at a
gallop the mummy who is lying on her back.

[Illustration: 266.jpg THE DECEASED PIERCING A SERPENT WITH HIS LANCE.
2]

2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Naville (_Das
AEgyptische Todtenbuch_, vol. i. pl. iii. P b). The commonest
enemies of the dead were various kinds of serpents.

Having reached the North, he paused at the edge of an immense lake, the
lake of Kha, and saw in the far distance the outline of the Islands of
the Blest. One tradition, so old as to have been almost forgotten in
Rames-side times, told how Thot the ibis there await