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OPENING THE MOUTH OF OSIRIS
In one of the tombs of the New Stone Age was found a flint instrument which, as we know from inscriptions of the dynastic period, was used in performing the ceremony of "opening the mouth" of the dead, a fact that proves that even in the Old Stone Age a ceremony was performed on the dead body with the purpose of assisting the soul, or spirit, to acquire the faculties and powers needed by it in the other world. In this ceremony the flint instrument was thrust between the teeth of the dead man, and when these were separated his spirit form was believed. to acquire the power to eat and drink, to speak, to think, and to perform all the natural functions of the body.
The Chapter Of Opening The Mouth Of Osiris. The scribe Ani, triumphant, saith:
"May the good Ptah open my mouth, and may the god of my city loose the swathings, even the swathings which are over my mouth. Moreover, may Thoth, being filled and furnished with charms, come And loose the bandages, even the bandages of Set which fetter my mouth; and may the god Tem hurl them at those who would fetter--me--with them, and drive them back. May my mouth be opened, may my mouth be unclosed by Shu with his iron knife wherewith he opened the mouths of the gods. I am the goddess Sekhet, and I sit upon --my--place in the great wind (?) of heaven. I am the great goddess Sah who dwelleth among the Souls of Annu--Heliopolis--. Now as concerning every charm and all the words which may be spoken against me, may the gods resist them, and may each and every one of the company of the gods withstand them."
SOUL AND BODY
(From the Papyrus of Ani, British Museum, No. 10,470, sheet 17)
The chapter of Causing the Soul to be United to its Body in the Underworld. The Osiris Ani, triumphant, saith:
"Hail, thou god Anniu--i.e., Bringer!--Hail, thou god Pehrer--i.e., Runner--, who dwellest in thy hall!--Hail--, great God! Grant thou that my soul may come unto me from wheresoever it may be. If--it--would tarry, let then my soul be brought unto me from wherever it may be, for thou shalt find the Eye of Horns standing by thee like unto those beings who are like unto Osiris, and who never lie down in death. Let not the Osiris Ani, triumphant, lie down in death among those who lie down in Annu, the land wherein souls are joined unto their bodies even in thousands. Let me have possession of my ba--soul--, and of my khu, and let me triumph therewith in every place wheresoever it may be.--Observe these things which--I--speak, for it hath staves with it;--observe then, O ye divine guardians of heaven, my soul-wheresoever it may be.--If it would tarry, do thou make my soul to look upon my body, for thou shalt find the Eye of Horus standing by thee like those--beings who are like unto Osiris--.
"Hail, ye gods, who tow along the boat of the lord of millions of years, who bring--it--above the underworld and who make it to travel over Nut, who make souls to enter into--their--spiritual bodies, whose hands are filled with your ropes and who clutch your weapons tight, destroy ye the Enemy; thus shall the boat of the sun be glad and the great God shall set out on his journey in peace. And behold, grant ye that the soul of Osiris Ani, triumphant, may come forth before the gods and that it may be triumphant along with you in the eastern part of the sky to follow unto the place where it was yesterday;--and that it may have--peace, peace in Amentet. May it look upon its material body, may it rest upon its spiritual body; and may its body neither perish nor suffer corruption forever."
(These words are to be said over a soul of gold inlaid with precious stones and placed on the breast of Osiris.)
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