Page:The Religion of Ancient Egypt.djvu/134

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THE GODS OF EGYPT.
119
The Reign of Law.

M. de Rougé, in the extract which I have read from his Lecture, quotes the Egyptian expression, "the Only Being, living in truth," "le seul Etre, vivant en vérité." But the original words, ānχ em maāt, mean very much more than "living in truth." A more grammatically exact translation would be, "who lives by truth," or "whose existence depends upon truth;" but "truth" is not the exact meaning of maāt. When speaking of the moral code recognized by the Egyptians, I used the word "Right" as including both Truth and Justice. But it now becomes necessary to define the term more precisely.

Maāt as a noun signifies a perfectly straight and inflexible rule. It is evidently, I believe, derived from the root , "to stretch out," or "hold out straight before one," "protendere," as in the act of presenting an offering, mā hotep.[1] "I have stretched out (mā-na) my hand, as the master of the crown," says the Osiris in the Book of the Dead.[2] "Tehuti has extended to her (mā-nes) his hand," is said in one of the texts at Dendera.[3] With this notion of stretching out are con-

  1. Sharpe and Bonomi, "Sarcophagus," pl. 8, lines 5 and 8.
  2. Todt. 40, 2, comp. with 12, 2.
  3. Other words connected with the same root are maāt, an offering, πρόθεσις, signifying that part of the forehead from which the horns project in cattle, a fair wind, and an extent of water.