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The Book of Gates: The Book of Gates: Chapter II. The Ante-Chamber of the Tuat

THE ANTE-CHAMBER OF THE TUAT.

IN THE FIRST DIVISION of the "Book of Gates of the Tuat," according to the sarcophagus of Seti I., we see the horizon of the west, , or the mountain of the west, divided into two parts, , and the boat of the sun is supposed to sail between them, and to enter by this passage into the Tuat. On the right hand is fixed a jackal-headed standard, and on each side of it kneels a bearded god; one god is called TAT, and is a personification of the region which is beyond the day, and the other SET, , and represents the funeral mountain. On the left hand is a ram-headed standard, and on each side of it also kneels a bearded god; as before, one is called Tat and the other Set. The ram's head has the horizontal, wavy horns, which belong to the particular species of ram that was the symbol of the god Khnemu; this animal disappeared from Egypt before the XIIth Dynasty, but the tradition of him remained. In the middle of the scene sails the boat of the sun. The god is symbolized by a beetle within a disk, which is enveloped in the folds of a

Part of the horizon over which the Boat of the Sun passes to enter the Tuat at eventide.
In it are the Twelve Gods of the Funeral Mountain.

Part of the horizon over which the Boat of the Sun passes to enter the Tuat at eventide.
In it are the twelve Gods of Set-Amentet.

The paragraph below the above text is practically a duplicate of it, but it contains no mention of either the jackal-headed or the rain-headed sceptre, and it is unnecessary to give it here.

On the right of the boat stand twelve gods, who are called "gods of the mountain," and the text referring to them reads:--

On the left of the boat stand twelve gods, who are called "gods of Set-Amentet," and the text referring to them reads:--

"The hidden place. [These are] those who have consumed the men, and the gods, and all the cattle, and all the reptiles which this great god hath created. 'This great god hath decreed plans for them after he made them to spring up in the land which he created, that is to say, in the Amentet which he made."