revenues! I have not pulled down the scale of the
balance! I have not falsified the beam of the balance! I have not taken
away the milk from the mouths of sucklings! I have not lassoed cattle on
their pastures! I have not taken with nets the birds of the gods! I
have not fished in their ponds! I have not turned back the water in its
season! I have not cut off a water-channel in its course! I have not
put out the fire in its time! I have not defrauded the Nine Gods of the
choice part of victims! I have not ejected the oxen of the gods! I have
not turned back the god at his coming forth! I am pure! I am pure! I am
pure! I am pure! Pure as this Great Bonu of Heracleopolis is pure!...
There is no crime against me in this land of the Double Truth! Since I
know the names of the gods who are with thee in the Hall of the Double
Truth, save thou me from them!" He then turned towards the jury and
pleaded his cause before them. They had been severally appointed for
the cognizance of particular sins, and the dead man took each of them by
name to witness that he was innocent of the sin which that one recorded.
His plea ended, he returned to the supreme judge, and repeated, under
what is sometimes a highly mystic form, the ideas which he had already
advanced in the first part of his address. "Hail unto you, ye gods who
are in the Great Hall of the Double Truth, who have no falsehood in
your bosoms, but who live on Truth in Aunu, and feed your hearts upon it
before the Lord God who dwelleth in his solar disc! Deliver me from
the Typhon who feedeth on entrails, O chiefs! in this hour of supreme
judgment;--grant that the deceased may come unto you, he who hath not
sinned, who hath neither lied, nor done evil, nor committed any crime,
who hath not borne false witness, who hath done nought against himself,
but who liveth on truth, who feedeth on truth. He hath spread joy on all
sides; men speak of that which he hath done, and the gods rejoice in it.
He hath reconciled the god to him by his love; he hath given bread to
the hungry, water to the thirsty, clothing to the naked; he hath given
a boat to the shipwrecked; he hath offered sacrifices to the gods,
sepulchral meals unto the manes. Deliver him from himself, speak not
against him before the Lord of the Dead, for his mouth is pure, and his
two hands are pure!" In the middle of the Hall, however, his acts were
being weighed by the assessors. Like all objects belonging to the gods,
the bala