The phrase "Tal the tem of the tumulum" (56.34) contains the tale of TM, the old god who, in FW is a type of HCE; here he falls into a tomb, a tumulus. Additionally, Mr. Atherton has rightly observed (Books, p. 133) that the word "tumulum" contains a clear reference to the primal mud-heap upon which TM as the creator-god, after masturbating into his mouth, spat out the first beings. Thus, the "tumulum" is both the mound of creation, and the tumulus tomb of burial. It is noteworthy how many of the references which involve this cyclic image link TM to Lewis Carroll: "as a creator — and therefore, from Joyce's axiom, a type of God" (Books, p. 132). For example, Carroll's reference to the belfry of Christ Church resembling a "meat safe" becomes, in a Book of the Dead context, "the key of Efas-Taem". In his "Lewis Carroll and Finnegans Wake" (English Studies, XXXIII, 3 [1952]), Mr. Atherton showed that the "key" was a transcription of the Middle Egyptian TM Sa-Ef, "Tem is his own Son". Being informed by a well-known Egyptologist that the transcription was meaningless, he withdrew the note from Books. Later, after the press of publication, he ascertained that the words did indeed mean "TM is his own Son", but the Egyptologist had decided this was nonsense. Here is a reminder that we are not studying Middle Egyptian grammar, but Joyce's use of Egyptian material in FW.  

Haunted Ink