er=ankh sceptre. In the second
boat the figure of a boy (ahi) turning (an or sah) his head, holds up the
ankh. In 15, we seem to have an evidence of the ascendancy of Isis
worship, for the boat contains not only the cow, under the name satit=she
who shoots, or the archeress, but also the standing figure of the goddess,
crowned by the disk or circle between two horns.

A striking proof that the knowledge of the true, hidden meaning of the
signs just discussed was regarded by those who possessed it as an evidence
of an advanced stage of initiation in the mysteries of the priesthood, is
furnished by the following text, which accompanies pl. VI, 16:

In the Book of the Dead (Leyden, Papyrus, p. 16), in a chapter entitled:
"Chapter of the knowledge of the eastern spirits, ro en rex biu abti," the
dead person utters the following words: "I know that eastern mountainous
region of the heaven whose south is at the sea Kharo and the north at the
river of Ro, at the place where the day-god Ra drives around amidst
storm-winds. I am a welcome comrade in the boat and I row without tiring
in the bark of Ra. I know that tree of emerald green brandies amongst
which Ra shows himself when he goes over the layer of clouds of the god
Su. I know that gate out of which Ra issues. I know the meadow of alo,
whose wall is of iron.... _I know the eastern spirits, namely the god
Hur-Chuti, the calf next to this god and the god of the morning_," the
original text of the latter sentence being: "au-a-rekh-ku-a biu abti
Hur-chuti pu behsu kher nutar pen nutar duaut pu" (Brugsch, _op. cit._, I,
p. 72).

The evasion and caution with which the speaker alludes to his knowledge of
the meaning of the signs, without betraying the latter, sufficiently
indicate the obligation of absolute secrecy which bound him, and it may be
inferred that several of the words he employed were intended to be
misleading to an outsider just as the astronomical pictures, exposed to
public view, were purposely made to seem to relate to the more familiar
sun, moon and constellations, the mind being thus led away from the hidden
but true star-god=Polaris. The circumstance that, on the body of the young
bull in the boat, there are seven dots and above it a single star and that
the hawk-headed seated deity behind it is crowned by the serpent circle or
disk of Amen-Ra, sufficiently enlightens us as to the true, veiled
significance which represents different forms of the "hidden god,"