THE TWELFTH DIVISION, or HOUR, Or CITY, is called KHEPER-KEKIU-KHAU-MESTU, the name of its Gate is THEN-NETERU, and the Hour-goddess is MAA-NEFERT-RA; it is the "uttermost limit of thick darkness," i.e., it is not a part of the Tuat proper, and it contains the great celestial watery abyss Nu, and the goddess NUT. who is here the personification of the "womb of the morning." So soon as the Sun-god passes from the thighs of Nut he will enter the Matet Boat, and begin his course in the world of light. We see AFU-RA in his Boat as before, and in the front of it is the Beetle of Khepera, under whose form the god is to be re-born. The space in front of the Boat is filled by the body of a huge serpent called ANKH-NETERU, which lives upon the rumblings of the earth, and from the mouth of which amakhiu, or loyal servants, go forth daily. Twelve amakhiu of RA now take hold of the tow-line, and entering in at
the tail of the serpent ANKH-NETERU draw AFU-RA and his Boat through its body, and bring him out at its mouth (vol. i., p. 263). During his passage through the serpent, the god transforms himself into Khepera and the twelve amakhiu who have been with him throughout his journey in the Tuat are, after they have passed out of the serpent's body, re-born on the earth each day. They enter the tail of the serpent as loyal servants, but, like their master, are transformed during their passage through its body, and they emerge from its mouth as "rejuvenated forms of RA" each day. They live on the earth during the day, but at sunset they rejoin their lord, and re-enter the Tuat; whilst they are upon earth to utter the name of the god is forbidden to them.
The transformation of the dead Sun-god into the living Khepera having been effected, twelve goddesses step forward when he emerges from the serpent, and tow the great god into the sky, and lead him along the ways of the upper sky. "They bring with them the soft winds and breezes which accompany the dawn, and guide the god to SHU," who is the personification of the atmosphere and of whatever is in the vault of heaven. Of this god are seen (vol. i., p. 277) only the head and arms, and when the Beetle of Khepera comes to him, he receives him, and places the newly-born Sun-god in the opening in the centre of the semi-circular wall which ends this
vestibule of the world of light, where he is seen by the people on earth in the form of a disk. This disk either represents a transformation of the Sun-god effected by Shu, or the celestial ball containing the germs of life, of which the type on earth is the ball of eggs which the sacred beetle is seen rolling along the ground. The mummified form in which the dead Sun-god travelled through the Tuat is now useless, and we see it cast aside and lying against the wall which divides the Tuat from this world; that there shall be no doubt about this it is described by the words "Image (or, form) Of AF."
Turning now to the beings who are on the right and left of the path of the god, we see in the upper register twelve goddesses, each of whom bears on her shoulders a serpent which produces light by belching fire from its mouth (vol. i., pp. 265, 266); these drive away APEP, and frighten the beings of darkness by their fires. Next to these are twelve gods who sing praises at dawn to the god, whom they assert to be "self-begotten" and the author of his own being, and they rejoice because at his new birth his soul will be in heaven, and his body on earth. These gods are indeed spirits of the East, and they are declared to have jurisdiction over the gods of the "land of the turquoise," i.e., Sinai. In the lower register we have a company of twenty-three gods (vol. i., pp. 271-274) who stand in the sky ready to receive Ra when he appears, and to praise him; some of them drive APEP to "the
back of the sky," some support the Great Disk in the sky, and the duty of one of them, who is called SENMEKHEF and appears in the form of a serpent, is to burn up the enemies of Ra at dawn. Thus the Sun-god passed out of the Tuat even as he entered it, with praises, and as he did so he bade farewell to Osiris, the Lord of the Tuat, under one of whose forms he had completed successfully his journey, in these words:--"Life to thee, O thou who art over the darkness! Life [to thee]! in all thy majesty. Life to thee! O KHENTI-A-AMENTET-OSIRIS, who art over the beings of Amentet. Life to thee! Life to thee O thou who art over the Tuat. The winds of Ra are in thy nostrils, and the nourishment of Khepera is with thee. Thou livest, and ye live. Hail to Osiris, the lord of the living, that is to say, of the gods who are with Osiris, and who came into being with him the first time."
Next: Twelfth Division of the Tuat. II. Eastern Vestibule of the Tuat According to the Book of Gates