The Egyptian Book of the Dead 86

Of the Swallow [From the Papyrus of Nu (British Museum No. 10,477, sheet 10).]

The Chapter of making the transformation into a swallow. The chancellor-in-chief, Nu, triumphant, saith:

“I am a swallow, I am a swallow. I am the Scorpion, the daughter of Rā. Hail, ye gods, whose scent is sweet; hail, ye gods, whose scent is sweet! [Hail,] Flame, which cometh forth from the horizon! Hail, thou who art in the city, I have brought the Warden of his Bight therein. Oh, stretch out unto me thy hand so that I may be able to pass my days in the Pool of Double Fire, and let me advance with my message, for I have come with words to tell. Oh, open [thou] the doors to me and I will declare the things which have been seen by me. Horus hath become the divine prince of the Boat of the Sun, and unto him hath been given the throne of his divine father Osiris, and Set, that son of Nut, [lieth] under the fetters which he had made for me. I have made a computation of what is in the city of Sekhem, I have stretched out both my hands and arms at the word(?) of Osiris, I have passed on to judgment, and I have come that [I] may speak; grant that I may pass on and declare my tidings. I enter in, [I am] judged, and [I] come forth worthy at the gate of Neb-er-tcher. I am pure at the great place of the passage of souls, I have done away with my sins, I have put away mine offences, and I have destroyed the evil which appertained unto my members upon earth. Hail, ye divine beings who guard the doors, make ye for me a way, for, behold, I am like unto you. I have come forth by day, I have journeyed on on my legs, I have gained the mastery over my footsteps [before] the God of Light, I know the hidden ways and the doors of the Sekhet-Aaru, verily I, even I, have come, I have overthrown mine enemies upon earth, and yet my perishable body is in the grave!”

If this chapter be known [by the deceased], he shall come forth by day, he shall not be turned back at any gate in the underworld, and he shall make his transformation into a swallow regularly and continually.