The boat in which Ra crosses the sky by day and the netherworld by night, while the serpent Apep assails it and the gods aboard drive him off; the justified dead hoped, by the spells buried with them, to join that crew. Egyptologists call it the solar bark; the series spells the boat as this entry's name does, keeping bark for a tree's covering and a dog's cry. The royal books of the netherworld painted in the kings' tombs chart the voyage hour by hour, and the series' fifth novel, The Twelve Hours of Night, follows a single such night. In the series, barque names only the boats of the gods; the river's working craft are boats and barges.