in peace! I repeat to you the good deeds which my own heart did for me from within the serpent-coil, in order to silence strife ... I made the four winds, that every man might breathe in his time ... I made the great inundation, that the humble might benefit by it like the great ... I made every man like his fellow; and I did not command that they do wrong. It is their hearts which disobey what I have said ... I have created the gods from my sweat, and the people from the tears of my eye. Coffin text 1031 is spoken by the deceased, who replies: I shall sail rightly in my bark, I am lord of eternity in the crossing of the sky. I am not afraid in my limbs, for Hu and Hike overthrow for me that evil being. I shall see light-land, I shall dwell in it ... Make way for me, that I may see Nun and Amun! For I am that Akh who passes by the guards ... I am equipped and effective in opening his portal! As for any person who knows this spell, he will be like Re in the eastern sky, like Osiris in the netherworld. He will go down to the circle of fire, without the flame touching him ever! The Book of Two Ways A few coffins from the Middle Egyptian necropolis of el-Bersheh (Deir El Bersha) contain unique graphical representations of the realm of the afterlife, along with spells related to the journey of the deceased through the Duat. This collection, called the Book of Two Ways, was the first example of an Ancient Egyptian map of the underworld. The Book of Two Ways is a precursor to the New Kingdom books of the underworld as well as the Book of the Dead, in which descriptions of the routes through the afterlife are a persistent theme. The two ways depicted are the land and water routes, separated by a lake of fire, that lead to Rostau and the abode of Osiris. The oldest copy currently known belonged to a woman named Ankh who lived during the reign of the nomarch Ahanakht I. See also Ancient Egyptian afterlife beliefs Ancient Egyptian funerary texts References Bibliography Raymond O. Faulkner, "The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts", , 3 vols., 1972–78. The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife, Erik Hornung,