of every kind, and his allies were the "Red Fiends" and the "Black
Fiends," and every power of darkness. In the midst of the magical spells
of this papyrus we find two copies of the "Book of knowing how Ra came
into being, and of overthrowing Aapep." One copy is a little fuller than
the other, but they agree substantially. The words of this book are said
in the opening line to have been spoken by the god Nebertcher, _i.e._
the "Lord to the uttermost limit," or God Himself. The Egyptian
Christians, or Copts, in their religious writings use this name as an
equivalent of God Almighty, the Lord of All, the God of the Universe.
Nebertcher says: "I am the creator of what hath come into being. I
myself came into being under the form of the god Khepera. I came into
being under the form of Pautti (or, in primeval time), I formed myself
out of the primeval matter, I made myself out of the substance that was
in primeval time."[1] Nothing existed at that time except the great
primeval watery mass called NU, but in this there were the germs of
everything that came into being subsequently. There was no heaven, and
no earth, and the god found no place on which to stand; nothing, in
fact, existed except the god. He says, "I was alone." He first created
himself by uttering his own name as a word of power, and when this was
uttered his visible form appeared. He then uttered another kind of word
of power, and as a result of this his soul (_ba_) came into being, and
it worked in connection with his heart or mind (_ab_). Before every act
of creation Nebertcher, or his visible form Khepera, thought out what
form the thing to be created was to take, and when he had uttered its
name the thing itself appeared in heaven or earth. To fill the heaven,
or place where he lived, the god next produced from his body and its
shadow the two gods Shu and Tefnut. These with Nebertcher, or Khepera,
formed the first triad of gods, and the "one god became three," or, as
we should say, the one god had three aspects, each of which was quite
distinct from the other. The tradition of the begetting of Shu and
Tefnut is as old as the time of the pyramids, for it is mentioned in the
text of Pepi I, l. 466. The next act of creation resulted in the
emerging of the Eye of Nebertcher (later identified with Ra) from the
watery mass (NU), and light shone upon its waters. Shu and Tefnut then
united and they produced Keb, the Earth-god, and Nut, the Sky-goddess.
The text the