{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_48875/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_48875","id":"gutenberg_48875","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/48875","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - Ancient","Category: History - Religious","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Eschatology, Egyptian","Immortality"],"text":"-----------------------------------------\n  Transcriber\u2019s note:\n\n  Hieroglyph scripts are shown as {H} and\n  Old English text is surrounded by + sign.\n  -----------------------------------------\n\nTHE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN DOCTRINE OF IMMORTALITY.\n\n[Illustration: [See p. 64.]\n\n\n\n\n  THE\n  ANCIENT EGYPTIAN DOCTRINE\n  OF THE\n  IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL\n\n  BY\n  ALFRED WIEDEMANN, D.PH.\n  PROFESSOR OF ORIENTAL LANGUAGES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BONN\n\n  AUTHOR OF\n  \u201c\u00c6GYPTISCHE GESCHICHTE,\u201d \u201cDIE RELIGION DER ALTEN \u00c6GYPTER,\u201d\n  \u201cHERODOT\u2019S ZWEITES BUCH\u201d\n\n  +With Twenty-one Illustrations+\n\n  LONDON\n  H. GREVEL & CO.\n  33, KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C.\n  1895\n\n  Printed by Hazell Watson, &. Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\nIn writing this treatise my object has been to give a clear exposition\nof the most important shape which the doctrine of immortality assumed\nin Egypt. This particular form of the doctrine was only one of many\ndifferent ones that were held. The latter, however, were but occasional\nmanifestations, whereas the system here treated of was the popular\nbelief among all classes of the Egyptian people, from early to Coptic\ntimes. By far the greater part of the religious papyri and tomb texts\nand of the inscriptions of funerary stel\u00e6 are devoted to it; the\nsymbolism of nearly all the amulets is connected with it; it was bound\nup with the practice of mummifying the dead; and it centred in the\nperson of Osiris, the most popular of all the gods of Egypt.\n\nEven in Pyramid times Osiris had already attained pre-eminence; he\nmaintained this position throughout the whole duration of Egyptian\nnational life, and even survived its fall. From the fourth century B.C.\nhe, together with his companion deities, entered into the religious\nlife of the Greeks; and homage was paid to him by imperial Rome.\nThroughout the length and breadth of the Roman Empire, even to the\nremotest provinces of the Danube and the Rhine, altars were raised to\nhim, to his wife Isis, and to his son Harpocrates; and wherever his\nworship spread, it carried with it that doctrine of immortality which\nwas associated with his name. This Osirian doctrine influenced the\nsystems of Greek philosophers; it made itself felt in the teachings\nof the Gnostics; we find traces of it in the writings of Christian\napologists and the older fathers of the Church, and through their\nagency it has affected the thoughts and opinions of our own time.\n\nThe cause of this far-reaching influence lies both in the doctrine\nitself, which was at once the most profound and the most attractive of\nall the teachings of the Egyptian religion; and also in the comfort\nand consolation to be derived from the pathetically human story of its\nfounder, Osiris. He, the son of the gods, had sojourned upon earth and\nbestowed upon men the blessings of civilisation. At length he fell a\nprey to the devices of the Wicked One, and was slain. But the triumph\nof evil and of death was only apparent: the work of Osiris endured, and\nhis son followed in his footsteps and broke the power of evil. Neither\nhad his being ended with death, for on dying he had passed into the\nworld to come, henceforth to reign over the dead as \u201cThe Good Being.\u201d\nEven as Osiris, so must each man die, no matter how noble and how godly\nhis life; nevertheless his deeds should be established for ever, his\nname should endure, and the life which is eternal awaited him beyond\nthe tomb. To the Egyptian, nature on every hand presented images of\nthe life of Osiris. To him that life was reflected in the struggle\nbetween good and evil, in the contest between the fertilising Nile and\nthe encroaching desert, no less than in the daily and yearly courses\nof the sun. In earlier times Osiris was occasionally confounded with\nthe Sun god; later, the two deities were habitually merged in one\nanother. The death and resurrection of Osiris occurred at the end of\nthe month Khoiak\u2212-that is to say, at the winter solstice, concurrently\nwith the dying of the Sun of the Old Year and the rising of the Sun of\nthe New. The new phoenix was supposed to make his appearance in March;\nand this bird, although usually associated with the Sun, was often\nrepresentative of Osiris. And the epithets and titles of the Sun god\nwere similarly bestowed upon Osiris.\n\nAll the Osirian doctrines were readily apprehended in spite of their\ndeep import, and they steadily tended towards the evolution of a high\nform of monotheistic belief. To no close student of these doctrines can\nthe fact seem strange that Egypt should have been the first country in\nwhich Christianity permeated the whole body of the people. The Egyptian\ncould recognise his old beliefs in many a Christian theme, and so much\ndid the figure of Christ remind him of Osiris and his son Horus, that\nto him Christ became a hero who traversed the Nile valley even as Horus\nhad done, overcoming His enemies, the evil demons and the wicked. In\nEgypt the Osirian faith and dogma were the precursors of Christianity,\nthe foundations upon which it was able to build; and, altogether apart\nfrom their intrinsic worth and far-reaching influence, it is this which\nconstitutes their significance in the history of the world.\n\nFor the choice of the illustrations, as well as for the English\nversion, I am gratefully indebted to my translator.\n\nALFRED WIEDEMANN.\n\nBonn, March 1895.\n\n\n\n\n  THE\n  ANCIENT EGYPTIAN DOCTRINE\n  OF THE\n  IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.\n\nLittle as we know of the ancient Egyptian religion in its entirety,\nand of its motley mixture of childishly crude fetichism and deep\nphilosophic thought, of superstition and true religious worship, of\npolytheism, henotheism, and pantheism, one dogma stands out clearly\nfrom this confusion, one article of belief to which the Egyptian\nreligion owes its unique position among all other religions of\nantiquity\u2212-the doctrine of the immortality of the human soul. It is\ntrue that other ancient religions attained to a similar dogma, for the\nbelief was early developed among Semites, Indo-Germanians, Turanians,\nand Mongolians; but in all these cases it appears as the outcome of a\nhigher conception of man and God and of their reciprocal relationship,\nand, when attained to, brought about the abandonment of grossly\nmaterial forms of thought. But in Egypt we have the unique spectacle\nof one of the most elaborated forms of the doctrine of immortality\nside by side with the most elementary conception of higher beings\never formulated by any people. We do not know whether the belief in\nimmortality which prevailed in the valley of the Nile is as old as the\nEgyptian religion in general, although at first sight it appears to be\nso. The oldest of the longer religious texts which have come down to us\nare found in the wall inscriptions of pyramids of kings of the Fifth\nand Sixth Dynasties (according to Manetho\u2019s scheme of the dynasties),\nand must be dated to at least 3000 B.C. In these texts the doctrine\nof immortality appears as a completed system with a long history of\ndevelopment behind it.\n\nIn that system, all the stages through which this doctrine of the\nEgyptian religion had successively passed are preserved; for the\nEgyptians were so immoderately conservative in everything that they\ncould not make up their minds to give up their old ideas of deity,\neven after having advanced to higher and purer ones. The older ideas\nwere all carefully retained, and we find various systems of religion\nwhich in point of time had followed each other on Egyptian soil\nafterwards existing side by side. There is no trace of any struggle for\nthe victory between these systems; each new order of thought was taken\nas it arose into the circle of the older ones, however heterogeneous it\nmight be to the rest. The consequence was that in Egypt there was no\nreligious progress in our sense of the term. With us it is essential\nthat old and outworn forms of belief should be cast off; with them a\nnew doctrine could achieve no greater success than to win a place among\nthe older conceptions of the Egyptian Pantheon.\n\nEach single divinity, each religious belief, each amulet, has in itself\na clear and intelligible significance; and where this is apparently\notherwise it is not because the point was obscure to the Egyptian\nmind, but because we have not yet succeeded in making it clear to\nourselves. When we abandon the consideration of single points and try\nto imagine how the different detached notions were combined by the\npeople into one belief, and what picture they had really formed of\ntheir Heaven and Pantheon\u2014then we have set ourselves an impossible\ntask. Many divinities have precisely the same character and perform the\nsame functions; whole circles of ideas are mutually exclusive; yet all\nexisted together and were accepted and believed in at one and the same\ntime.\n\nIn these circumstances any discussion of Egyptian religious ideas must\nbegin by dealing with isolated facts; each divinity, each idea, each\nsmallest amulet must be carefully examined by itself and treated of\nin the light of the texts specially referring to it. Generations of\nEgyptians pondered on each single point seeking to elucidate it. With\nanxious fear priests and laymen strove to acquire the use of all the\nformul\u00e6 by the help of which man hoped to appease the gods, overcome\ndemons, and attain to bliss, and all sought to provide themselves with\nevery amulet possessing efficacy for the world to come and import for\nman\u2019s eternal welfare. But great as must have been the expenditure of\nthought which produced and developed their various religious doctrines,\nthe Egyptians never succeeded in welding their different beliefs and\npractices into one consistent whole.\n\nIn most religions the gods of life are distinct from the gods of\ndeath, but such a distinction scarcely existed at all in Egypt, There\nthe same beings who were supposed to determine the fate of man in this\nworld were supposed to determine it also in the world to come; only in\nthe case of certain deities sometimes the one and sometimes the other\nside of the divine activity was brought into special prominence. The\nexercise of their different functions by the gods was not in accordance\nwith any fixed underlying principle, was not any essential outcome of\ntheir characters, but rather a matter of their caprice and inclination.\nIn course of time the Egyptian idea of these functions changed, and\nwas variously apprehended in different places. It seems to us at first\nas though the relation of the gods to the life beyond had nearly\neverywhere been regarded as more important than their relation to this\nlife. But this impression is owing to the fact that our material for\nthe study of the Egyptian religion is almost exclusively derived from\ntombs and funerary temples, while the number of Egyptian monuments\nunconnected with the cult of the dead is comparatively small.\n\nOn this account it has been supposed that both in their religion and\nin their public life the Egyptians turned all their thoughts towards\ndeath and what lay beyond it. But a close examination of the monuments\nhas proved that they had as full an enjoyment of the life here as other\nnations of antiquity, and that they are not to be regarded as a stiff\nand spiritless race of men whose thoughts were pedantically turned\ntowards the contemplation of the next world.\n\nHad this been the case, the Egyptians would have come to hold a\npessimistic view of the life here and hereafter something like that\nprevailing in India, and have striven to escape from the monotony and\ndulness of existence by seeking some means to end it. But this is the\nreverse of what happened in the valley of the Nile. The most ardent\nwish of its inhabitants was to remain on earth as long as possible,\nto attain to the age of one hundred and ten years, and to continue to\nlead after death the same life which they had been wont to lead while\nhere. They pictured the after-life in the most material fashion; they\ncould imagine no fairer existence than that which they led on the banks\nof the Nile. How simple and at the same time how complicated were\ntheir conceptions can best be shown by some account of their ideas on\nthe immortality of the soul and its constitution as a combination of\nseparate parts set forth in ancient Egyptian documents.\n\nWhen once a man was dead, when his heart had ceased to beat and\nwarmth had left his body, a lifeless hull was all that remained of\nhim upon earth. The first duty of the survivors was to preserve this\nfrom destruction, and to that end it was handed over to a guild whose\nduty it was to carry out its embalmment under priestly supervision.\nThis was done according to old and strictly established rules. The\ninternal and more corruptible parts were taken away, and the rest of\nthe body\u2014_i.e._, the bony framework and its covering\u2014was soaked in\nnatron and asphalt, smeared with sweet-smelling unguents, and made\nincorruptible. The inside of the body was filled with linen bandaging\nand asphalt, among which were placed all kinds of amulets symbolising\nimmortality\u2212-heart-shaped vases, snake-heads in carnelian, scarab\u00e6i,\nand little glazed-ware figures of divinities. By their mystic power\nthese amulets were intended to further and assist the preservation\nof the corpse, for which physical provision had already been made by\nembalmment. In about seventy days, when the work of embalmment was\ncompleted, the body was wrapped in linen bandages, placed in a coffin,\nand so returned to the family.\n\nThe friends and relatives of the deceased then carried the dead in\nsolemn procession across the river to his last resting-place, which\nhe had provided for himself in the hills forming the western boundary\nof the valley of the Nile. Mourning-women accompanied the procession\nwith their wailing; priests burnt incense and intoned prayers, and\nother priests made offerings and performed mysterious ceremonies both\nduring the procession and at the entrance to the tomb.[1] The mummy was\nthen lowered into the vault, which was closed and walled up, further\nofferings were made, and afterwards the mourners partook of the funeral\nfeast in the ante-chamber of the tomb. Harpers were there who sang of\nthe dead man and of his worth, and exhorted his relations to forget\ntheir grief and again to rejoice in life, so long as it should be\ngranted unto them to enjoy the light of the sun; for when life is\npast man knows not what shall follow it; beyond the grave is darkness\nand long sleep. Gayer and gayer grew the banquet, often degenerating\ninto an orgy; when at length all the guests had withdrawn, the tomb\nwas closed, and the dead was left alone. Afterwards it was only on\ncertain feast days that the relatives made pilgrimages to the city of\nthe dead, sometimes alone and sometimes accompanied by priests. On\nthese occasions they again entered the ante-chamber of the tomb, and\nthere offered prayers to the dead, or brought him offerings, either in\nthe shape of real foods and drinks, or else under the symbolic forms\nof little clay models of oxen, geese, cakes of bread, and the like.\nOtherwise the tomb remained unvisited. How it there fared with the dead\ncould only be learned from the doctrines and mysteries of religion; to\ndescend into the vault and disturb the peace of the mummy was accounted\na heavy crime against both gods and men.\n\nAnd yet how much an Egyptian could have wished to look behind the\nsealed walls of the sepulchral chamber and see what secret and\nmysterious things there befell the dead! For their existence had not\nterminated with death; their earthly being only had come to an end,\nbut they themselves had entered on a new, a higher and an eternal\nlife. The constituent parts, whose union in the man had made a human\nlife possible, separated at the moment of his death into those which\nwere immortal and those which were mortal. But while the latter formed\na unity, and constituted the corruptible body only ([Illustration:\n{H}] KHA), on which the above-mentioned rites of embalmment were\npractised, each of the former were distinct even when in combination.\nThese \u201cliving, indestructible\u201d parts of a man, which together almost\ncorrespond to our idea of the soul, had found their common home in\nhis living body; but on leaving it at his death each set out alone to\nfind its own way to the gods. If all succeeded in doing so, and it was\nfurther proved that the deceased had been good and upright, they again\nbecame one with him, and so entered into the company of the blessed, or\neven of the gods.\n\nThe most important of all these component parts[2] was the so-called\n[Illustration: {H}], KA, the divine counterpart of the deceased,\nholding the same relation to him as a word to the conception which it\nexpresses, or a statue to the living man. It was his individuality\nas embodied in the man\u2019s name; the picture of him which was, or\nmight have been, called up in the minds of those who knew him at the\nmention of that name.[3] Among other races similar thoughts have given\nrise to higher ideas, and led to a philosophic explanation of the\ndistinction between personalities and persons, such as that contained\nin the Platonic Ideas. But the Egyptian was incapable of abstract\nthought, and was reduced to forming a purely concrete conception of\nthis individuality, which is strangely impressive by reason of its\nthorough sensuousness. He endowed it with a material form completely\ncorresponding to that of the man, exactly resembling him, his second\nself, his Double, his _Doppelg\u00e4nger_.[4]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 1.\u2014Hatsheps\u00fb, accompanied by her KA, making\nperfume-offerings. (_From the temple of D\u00ear el Bahri._)[5]]\n\nMany scenes, dating from the eighteenth century B.C. and onwards,\nrepresent different kings appearing before divinities, while behind\nthe king stands his KA, as a little man with the king\u2019s features\n(fig. 1), or as a staff with two hands (fig. 2),[6] and surmounted by\ncertain symbols of royalty, or by the king\u2019s head. In these scenes the\nPersonality accompanies the Person, following him as a shadow follows a\nman.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 2.\u2014The KA of Rameses II., represented by the\ntwo-handed staff, standing behind the king while he slays his enemies\nbefore R\u0101 Harmakhis. (_From Ab\u00fb Simbel_.)[7]]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 3.\u2014Amenophis III. making offerings to his KA.\n(_From his temple at Soleb._)[8]]\n\nBut even as early as the time of Amenophis III., about 1500 B.C.,\nthe Egyptians had carried the idea still further, and had completely\ndissevered the Personality from the Person, the king being frequently\nrepresented as appearing before his own Personality, which bears the\ninsignia of divinity, the staff of command, and the symbol of life,\nthe [Illustration: {H}] _\u0101nkh_ (fig. 3). To it the king presents\nofferings of every kind and prefers his petition for gifts of the gods\nin exchange His Personality replies: \u201cI give unto thee all Life, all\nStability, all Power, all Health, and all Joy (enlargement of heart);\nI subdue for thee the peoples of Nubia (Khent), so that thou mayest\ncut off their heads.\u201d In bas-reliefs of the same period which represent\nthe birth of Amenophis III.,[9] his KA is born at the same time as the\nking, and both are presented to Amen R\u0101, as two boys exactly alike\n(fig. 4), and blessed by him. About this time the kings began to build\ntemples to their own Personalities, and appointed priests to them;\nand from time to time the sovereign would visit his temple to implore\nfrom himself his own protection, and still greater gifts. So long\nas the king walked the earth, so long his \u201cliving KA, lord of Upper\nand Lower Egypt, tarried in his dwelling, in the Abode of Splendour\n([Illustration: {H}] Pa D\u00fbat)\u201d;[10] for his KA was himself, independent\nof him, superior to him, and yet his counterpart and bound up with him.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 4.\u2014The infant king, Amenophis III. and his KA,\npresented to Amen R\u0101, the god of Thebes, by two Nile gods, and by\nHorus. (_From the temple of Amenophis III., at Luxor._)[11]]\n\nThe disjunction of the Personality from the Person was not, however,\nrigorously and systematically insisted upon; the two were indeed\nseparate, but were so far one as to come into being only through and\nwith each other. A man lived no longer than his KA remained with\nhim, and it never left him until the moment of his death. But there\nwas this difference in their reciprocal relations: the KA could live\nwithout the body, but the body could not live without the KA. Yet this\ndoes not imply that the KA was a higher, a spiritual being; it was\nmaterial in just the same way as the body itself, needing food and\ndrink for its well-being, and suffering hunger and thirst if these were\ndenied it. In this respect its lot was the common lot of Egyptian gods;\nthey also required bodily sustenance, and were sorely put to it if\nofferings failed them and their food and drink were unsupplied.\n\nAfter a man\u2019s death his KA became his Personality proper; prayers\nand offerings were made to the gods that they might grant bread and\nwine, meat and milk, and all good things needful for the sustenance\nof a god to the KA of the deceased.[12] Offerings were also made to\nthe KA itself, and it was believed that from time to time it visited\nthe tomb in order to accept the food there provided for it. On such\noccasions it became incorporate in the mummy, which began to live and\ngrow ([Illustration: {H}] r\u00fbd), or renew itself as do plants and trees\n([Illustration: {H}] renp), and became, as the texts occasionally\nexpress it, \u201cthe living KA in its coffin.\u201d The rich founded endowments\nwhose revenues were to be expended to all time in providing their KAS\nwith food offerings, and bequeathed certain sums for the maintenance of\npriests to attend to this; large staffs of officials were kept up to\nprovide the necessaries of life for the Personalities of the dead.[13]\nThe KA was represented by statues of the dead man which were placed\nwithin his tomb, and sometimes in temples also by gracious permission\nof the sovereign.[14] Wherever one of these statues stood, there might\nthe KA sojourn and take part in Feasts of Offerings and the pleasures\nof earthly life; there even seems to have been a belief that it might\nbe imprisoned in a statue by means of certain magic formul\u00e6. Royal\nstatues in the temples were destined to the use of the royal KAS,\nthe many statues of the same king in one temple being apparently all\nintended for his own Ka service.[15]\n\nThe Egyptians, holding the belief that the statue of a human being\nrepresented and embodied a human KA, concluded that the statues of\nthe gods represented and embodied divine KAS, and were indeed neither\nmore nor less than the KAS of the gods. Thus the idea of divinity\nbecame entirely anthropomorphic, and, just as the king built his\ntemple not to himself but to his Personality, so also sanctuaries were\nsometimes dedicated not to a god himself but to his Personality.\nFor example, the chief temple of Memphis was not for the service of\nthe god Ptah,\u2014the maker of the world, whom the Greeks compared to\nHeph\u00e6stos,\u2014but rather for that of his KA. Ptah was not alone among\nthe gods in this respect. The pyramid texts show that even in the times\nof the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties Thot, Set, Horus, and other gods were\nrecognised as having KAS; that is to say, each was supposed to be\npossessed of his own Personality in addition to himself.[16] It was\nbelieved that the divine KA, this image which had the greater likeness\nto man, stood nearer to man than the god himself, and hence in the case\nof votive stel\u00e6 dedicated to the incarnation of Ptah in the sacred\nApis-bull of Memphis, prayer for the divine favour and blessings is not\nas a rule addressed to the Apis, but to its Ka. It is a very remarkable\nfact that in several inscriptions[17] the god R\u0101 is credited with no\nless than seven BAS and fourteen KAS, corresponding to the various\nqualities or attributes pertaining to his own being, and which he could\ncommunicate to the person of the king; such as: wealth, stability,\nmajesty, glory, might, victory, creative power, etc.[18]\n\nThus the apprehension of the KA, of a man\u2019s Personality, as his\n_Doppelg\u00e4nger_, or _Double_, found even in some of the oldest texts,\nacquired a far-reaching significance which extended not only to the\ndoctrine of human immortality but also to the conception of the\nrelations of gods to men.\n\nAs we have already stated, each man had a KA so long as he was alive,\nbut at his death it left him and led an independent existence. Only\nafter long wanderings did he meet it again in the world to come, and we\nstill possess the prayer with which he was to greet it, beginning with\nthe words, \u201cHail to thee who wast my KA during life! I come unto thee,\u201d\netc.[19]\n\n[Illustration: Fig.: 5.\u2014SET OF \u201cCANOPIC\u201d VASES.[21]\n\n  \u0226mset.    D\u00fbam\u00fbtef.    H\u0101pi.    Qebhsen\u00fbf.]\n\n[21] The illustration represents the set of Canopic vases dating from\nthe Thirtieth Dynasty, made for the priest T\u2019et-bast-auf-\u0101nkh, and\nfound by Prof. Petrie at _Hawara (Hawara, Biahmu, and Arsino\u00eb_, p. 9).\nThey are now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.\n\nThe lids of such vases represent the four genii of the dead:\n\n\u0226mset, [Illustration: {H}], man-headed;\nD\u00fbam\u00fbtef, [Illustration: {H}], jackal-headed;\nH\u0101pi, [Illustration: {H}], cynocephalous;\nQebhsen\u00fbf, [Illustration: {H}], hawk-headed.\n\nThe second immortal part of man was his heart ([Illustration:{H}]\n_\u00e0b_).[20] The heart was removed from the body by the embalmers,\nand the texts give no definite explanation as to what became of it.\nDuring certain periods of Egyptian history, but still comparatively\nrarely, it was enclosed, as were the rest of the viscera, in special\nalabaster, limestone, or wooden vases, of which four were placed with\nthe mummy in its grave. These vases are generally but most erroneously\ncalled \u201cCanopic\u201d vases. They usually date from the times of the New\nEmpire, but we have some few dating from the Ancient Empire. In other\ncases the viscera were replaced within the body after its embalmment,\nand with them waxen images of the four genii of the dead as their\nguardian divinities. But for the most part documents do not afford\nus any information as to what was done with the material heart.\nPerhaps the priests took measures for its disappearance in order to\nfurnish some tangible foundation for their doctrine concerning the\nheart. Certain statements of Greek writers seem to imply some such\nproceeding. According to these authorities the viscera, which must\nhave included the heart, were cast into the Nile, because they were\ndesignated as the source of all human error. Porphyry gives us even\nthe form of the prayer which was repeated when the chest containing\nthe intestines was presented before the Sun; and if the text of this\nprayer has not hitherto been confirmed from original documents it is\nyet so thoroughly Egyptian in character that its authenticity cannot be\ndoubted.[22]\n\nBut the immortal heart of a man, which stood in a similar relationship\nto his material heart as his KA to the whole body, left him at death\nand journeyed on alone through the regions of the other world till it\nreached the \u201cAbode of Hearts.\u201d Its first meeting with the deceased\nto whom it had belonged was in the Hall of Judgment, where it stood\nforth as his accuser; for in it all his good and evil thoughts had\nfound expression during his lifetime. They had not originated there,\nfor the heart was essentially divine and pure, but it had of necessity\nharboured and known them,[23] and therefore it was called upon to\ntestify concerning the man\u2019s former thoughts and deeds before Osiris,\njudge of the dead.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 6.\u2014A heart scarab.[24]]\n\nIn the meantime the mummy was without heart, and had become lifeless\nand dead; for to pierce the heart of anything was equivalent to utterly\ndestroying it. The OSIRIS, too (to which we shall presently return),\nwould have shared the fate of the mummy had the device not been\nconceived of providing the latter with an artificial heart in place of\nits own original one, which had returned to the gods. The provisional\nheart was represented by an artificial scarab\u00e6us, generally made of\nhard greenish stone in the image of the beetle, which was a symbol of\ngenesis and resurrection (fig. 6). Underneath it was made flat, and\ninscribed with magic formul\u00e6,[25] that it might be the substitute for\nthe dead man\u2019s heart, and also ensure his resurrection by virtue of\nits form. But when his own heart was restored to him the scarab\u00e6us lost\nits significance. Like all the rest of the amulets which the Egyptians\ngave to their dead, its efficacy only availed for the space of time\nintervening between death and the reunion of those elements which death\nhad separated. When once the resurrection had taken place there was no\nfurther need of amulets, nor any hurt through lack of them.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 7.\u2014The Ba as a bird.]\n\nAnother immortal part of man was the [Illustration: {H}],\n[Illustration: {H}], [Illustration: {H}], BA. This conception most\nnearly corresponds to our \u201csoul,\u201d for it was a being which, on the\ndeath of the man in whom it had dwelt, left him in order to fly to the\ngods, to whom it was closely akin, and with whom it abode when not\nunited to the man. But, nevertheless, the BA was neither immaterial\nnor able to dispense with food and drink.[26] It bore the form of a\nhuman-headed bird (fig. 7), sometimes with hands (figs. 10, 14); or of\na ram-headed scarab\u00e6us (fig, 8). From the fifteenth to the eleventh\ncentury B.C. it was preferably represented under the second form which\nis really nothing more than its hieroglyphic symbol. The phonetic\nvalue of the ram, [Illustration: {H}], is _ba_, and of the scarab\u00e6us,\n[Illustration: {H}], _kheper_, which latter means _to be, to become_;\nand the composite figure of the ram-headed scarab\u00e6us signifies,\ntherefore, something like \u201che who has become a soul.\u201d\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 8.\u2014Ram-headed scarab\u00e6us.[27]]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 9.\u2014The Ba visiting the mummy on its funeral couch.\n(From \u201cThe Book of the Dead,\u201d)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 10.\u2014The Ba flying down the shaft of the tomb and\nbringing offerings to the mummy.\n\n(From \u201c_The Book of the Dead._\u201d)]\n\nIt is otherwise with the first image, which really represents the soul\nas it was imagined by the Egyptians. We have sculptured figures and\ndrawings (fig. 9) showing the little soul perched by the sarcophagus,\ntouching the mummy, and bidding it farewell before rising to the\ngods.[28] In other scenes the soul is depicted as it comes flying from\nheaven with the sign of life in its hand, and approaching the grave to\nvisit the mummy; or as flying down into the vault with the offerings\nwhich it had found at the door of the tomb, bringing bread in one hand\nand a jar of water in the other, as food and drink for the body which\nonce invested it (fig. 10).\n\nThis conception of the soul as a kind of bird is noteworthy when\ncompared with the ideas which other nations have formed of it. The\nGreeks sometimes represented the \u03b5\u1f34\u03b4\u03c9\u03bb\u03bf\u03bd, or soul, as a small winged\nhuman figure (fig. 11); in Roman times it was imagined as a butterfly\n(fig. 12); and in medi\u00e6val reliefs and pictures we see it leaving the\nmouth of the dead man as a child (fig. 13), or a little naked man.[29]\nThe latter form recalls that of the Egyptian KA, although the idea\nwhich it embodies reminds one rather of the BA.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 11.\u2014The placing of the dead in the tomb by\nThanatos (Death) and Hypnos (Sleep). The small winged figure represents\nthe dead man\u2019s soul. (From a _lekythos_ published by M. C. POTTIER in\nhis _\u00c9tude sur les Lecythes Blancs Attiques_. The \u03b5\u1f34\u03b4\u03c9\u03bb\u03bf\u03bd was usually\npainted black.)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 12.\u2014Scene from a sculptured sarcophagus of the\nthird century a.d., in the Capitoline Museum, Rome. To the left, below\nthe chariot of Selene and the draped figure of Night, lies the dead\nbody of the man, whose soul hovers above him as a butterfly beside the\ninverted torch of the pensive winged boy representing either Sleep or\nDeath. Fate sits with open scroll at the dead man\u2019s head, and above\nher his soul is again represented as a Psyche, carried away by Hermes.\n(See BOTTARI, _Mus\u00e9e Capitoline_, vol. iv., pl. xxv. Cf. also many\nrepresentations of Amor and Psyche in ancient art, showing Psyche\u2014the\nsoul\u2014sometimes as a winged figure and sometimes as a butterfly.)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 13.\u2014The soul of a man leaving him at his death in\nthe form of a naked child, and received by an angel. (_From the porch\nof the cathedral church of St. Trophimus, at Arles._)]\n\nThe [Illustration: {H}], S\u0100H\u00db, also was considered as immortal. This\nis invariably depicted as a swathed mummy, and represented the form\nwhich the man wore upon earth. Originally it was related to the KA, but\nwhereas the latter was a complete Personality, the S\u0100H\u00db was nothing\nbut a hull,\u2014a form without contents. Yet this also was of the gods\nand imperishable, returning to its heavenly home when death had set it\nfree. Since the body, or KHA[30] had also the same form, it naturally\ncame about that when the mummy was mentioned in religious texts as\nreanimated by the KA it was frequently confounded with the S\u0100H\u00db. In\nthis sense it is said that \u201cthe S\u0100H\u00db lives in the Sarcophagus (or in\nthe underworld), it grows (_r\u00fbd_), it renews itself (_renp_).\u201d[31] But\nin more precise texts the two things are kept distinct, as, _e.g._,\n\u201cthe BA (soul) sees its KHA, it rests upon its S\u0100H\u00db.\u201d[32] At such times\nthe BA had power over the S\u0100H\u00db, and, as is said on the Sarcophagus of\nPanehemisis, \u201cthe S\u0100H\u00db lives at the command of the BA.\u201d[33]\n\nIn close connection with the S\u0101h\u00fb was the [Illustration: {H}], KHA\u00cfB,\nthe shadow, represented as a fan, or sunshade (fig. 14), in scenes\nprofessing to portray the next world.[34]\n\nAs all earthly forms must needs have their shadows, such was also\nthe case with things in the world to come; there, too, the sun\nshone and all the optical phenomena of earth were repeated. But,\nnot content to accept this as a simple fact, the Egyptians ascribed\nseparate existences both to the shadows of the dead and to those of\ngods and genii. According to Egyptian belief a shadow might live on\nindependently, apart from its owner, and this was exactly what it was\nsupposed to do at the moment when death had taken place; then the KHA\u00cfB\nwent forth alone to appear in the realm of the gods. This Ancient\nEgyptian idea of the independent existence of a man\u2019s shadow recalls to\nour minds Chamisso\u2019s story of Peter Schlemihl, published in 1823.[35]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 14.\u2014BA and KHA\u00cfB. (From \u201c_The Book of the Dead._\u201d)]\n\nThe KA, the \u00c5B, the BA, the S\u0100H\u00db, and the KHA\u00cfB constituted the\nchief elements of that which was immortal in man, but others were\nalso occasionally included, especially one which was called the Kh\u00fb,\n[Illustration: {H}], i.e. the Luminous.[36] To these, however, there\nis less frequent reference; they were of importance in local cults\nonly, and were either included among the parts already mentioned or\nwere so vaguely defined that they may be safely left out of account in\ntreating of the soul as conceived by the Egyptians without danger of\nour conception being falsified by the omission.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWhen the immortal was thus resolved into its component parts at death,\nwhat then became of the human individuality which had resulted from\ntheir combined action, and how could its different parts find each\nother again in the next world, in order to form the new man of the\nresurrection? The Egyptians had evolved a very simple solution of this\nproblem, although one which, according to our mode of thought, stands\nin direct contradiction to their doctrine of the soul. It was assumed\nthat in addition to his immortal elements the man as a person of a\nparticular appearance and character was also endowed with a kind of\ndeathlessness, which seems to have held good only for a time, and not\nfor ever. To this conception of a dead man, in whom soul and life were\nlacking but who in the interim still possessed existence, feeling, and\nthought, the Egyptians gave the name of OSIRIS.\n\nOsiris was the first divine King of Egypt who reigned in true human\nlikeness; he civilised the Egyptians, instructed them in agriculture,\ngave them laws, and taught them true religion. After a long and blessed\nreign he fell a prey to the machinations of his brother Set (Typhon),\nand having been slain was constrained to descend into the underworld,\nwhere he evermore lived and reigned as judge and king of the dead. His\nfate of death was the fate of all men. Every one, when his earthly\npilgrimage was ended, must descend into the underworld by the gates of\ndeath; but each man hoped to rise again, even as Osiris had risen, to\nlead henceforth the life of the blessed. In this hope men called their\ndead OSIRIS, just as Germans speak of their dead as \u201cblessed,\u201d\u2014hoping\nthat blessedness may indeed be their lot. Death had not changed Osiris;\nas he had been king on earth, so he was king in the world beyond death.\nIn the same way man, too, remained that which he had been here; death\nmerely made a break in his life, without altering any of his conditions\nof existence.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 15.\u2014Hypocephalus, from a drawing by Dr. W. H,\nRylands.]\n\nThe relation subsisting between a man\u2019s OSIRIS and his mummy was not\nclearly apprehended, even by the Egyptians themselves. Identical they\nwere not\u2014that fact is obviously implied by the texts, which never\nonce substitute the mummy for the Osiris; men knew also from experience\nthat no mummy had ever left its place of embalmment, or the tomb, to\njourney on into the next world. Yet mummy and OSIRIS were nevertheless\nnot entirely different and distinct; both had the same appearance\nand the same character. Moreover, the texts describe the OSIRIS as\nresembling the mummy in appearance while really differing from it, and\nthe embalmers equipped the mummy as though it were called upon to\njourney forth as the OSIRIS. The inherent contradiction in all this\narose principally from the fact that the Egyptian hoped and believed\nthat shortly after death he would arise again, complete in flesh and\nblood as he had lived upon earth; whereas experience contradicted his\ncreed, for it showed him that the mummy never did and never could\nleave the earth. He extricated himself from the dilemma by providing\nthe mummy with a _Doppelg\u00e4nger_: its own perfect counterpart, yet not\nitself. When once we have familiarised ourselves with this singular\nidea we find in it a simple key to all the riddles of the OSIRIS.\n\nThe mummy was provided with an artificial heart in the shape of a\nscarab\u00e6us,[37] because the Osiris could not live without one, and\nalso with various amulets, by virtue of every one of which demons of\nthe next world could be overcome. A stuccoed disc of papyrus, linen,\nor bronze, which, by the figures and formul\u00e6 inscribed upon it, had\nmystic power to preserve the needful warmth of life to the Osiris (fig.\n15), was placed under the head of the mummy.[38] The soles of the\nfeet which had trodden the mire of earth were removed in order that\nthe OSIRIS might tread the Hall of Judgment with pure feet; and the\ngods were prayed to grant milk to the Osiris that he might bathe his\nfeet in it and so assuage the pain which the removal of the soles must\nneeds have caused him. And, finally, the soles which had been excised\nwere placed within the mummy in order that the OSIRIS might find them\nto hand for the completion of his Personality.[39] That nothing might\nbe wanting to this Personality, the gods were besought that the mummy\nshould not suffer earthly corruption, and it was held to be of supreme\nimportance that flesh and bones, muscles and limbs should all remain\nin place. With the mummy were also placed _The Book of the Dead_, as\nwell as other religious and mystic texts needed by the OSIRIS for\nhis guidance through the regions beyond the grave, and from which he\nmight learn the prayers which had to be spoken in due order and place\naccording to strict prescriptions. In short, the mummy was treated\nprecisely as though it were an OSIRIS. But the difference was great:\nthe mummy remained within the sarcophagus in the sepulchral chamber,\nwhile the OSIRIS proceeded on his way.\n\nThe journey of the OSIRIS, treated at wearisome length, forms the\nfavourite subject of Egyptian texts, and to this is devoted the largest\nand best known work in the religious literature of the nation: the\ncompilation called by us _The Book of the Dead_. This book contains\nno systematic account of the journey, such as the analogy of similar\nliteratures might lead us to expect, but exhibits it in a series\nof disconnected stages by giving the prayers which the OSIRIS must\nrepeat when passing through different parts of the underworld, or\non encountering certain genii there. A chapter is devoted to each\nprayer, but the chapters do not follow each other in the order in\nwhich the prayers were to be used. The Egyptians never attained to\nany clear idea of the Osirian underworld; the same confusion and\nobscurity reigned over it as over their whole conception of the unseen\nworld and of deity. They pondered deeply over a series of separate\nproblems without being able to unite the results into one consistent\nwhole, which should command acceptance, or to form any definite and\npermanent topography of the regions beyond the tomb. Hence there is\nno fixed sequence for the chapters of _The Book of the Dead_; the\norder varies materially in the different manuscripts to which we are\nindebted for our knowledge of the work. The number of chapters in the\ndifferent copies also varies; while in some it is small, in others,\nas in the Ptolemaic copy for a certain A\u00fbf\u0101nkh, published by Lepsius,\nit reaches to one hundred and sixty-five. Since there was no fixed\nrule as to order or number, priest or scribe might make a selection of\nsuch chapters as he or the family of the deceased held to be the most\nessential, and each was at liberty to form for himself a more or less\nmodified conception of the characteristics of the underworld.\n\nWe cannot here follow the OSIRIS through all the details of his\njourney, but must be content to know that according to the account\nin _The Book of the Dead_ he issued victorious from all his trials,\novercame all enemies whom he encountered, and was ushered at length\ninto the Hall of the Double Truth, and received by the goddess of\nTruth. Here also he found the chief gods of the Osirian cycle gathered\ntogether, and the forty-two assessors of Divine Justice near the\ncanopy under which the god Osiris was enthroned. Then the deceased\nspoke, and proceeded to recite the \u201cNegative Confession\u201d\u2014a denial of\nsins of commission\u2014declaring that he had not been guilty of certain\ndefinite sins, and denying one or another particular form of guilt\nto each of the assessors. He had not done evil, had not robbed, nor\nmurdered, nor lied, not caused any to weep, not injured the property of\nthe gods, and so on.[40] The judges heard all in silence, giving no\nsign either of approval or disapproval; but when the confession was\nended the heart of the deceased was brought forward and laid in the\nscales against the image or symbol of Truth. The weighing was\nsuperintended by the gods Anubis and Horus, while Thot, the scribe of\nthe gods, stood by ready to record the result (fig. 16).[41]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 16.\u2014The weighing of the dead man\u2019s heart against\nthe feather symbolic of Ma\u0101t, the goddess of Truth. (_From \u201cThe Book of\nthe Dead\u201d_)]\n\nThis was the time for the deceased anxiously to call upon his heart in\nthe prescribed formula from _The Book of the Dead_,[42] not to bear\nwitness against him, for \u201cthe heart of a man is his own god,\u201d[43] and\nmust now determine his everlasting fate. If his heart were content with\nhim, and the scales turned in his favour, then the god Thot commanded\nthat his heart should be restored to him to be set again in its place.\nThis was done, and forthwith the immortal elements which death had\nseparated began to reunite. His KA, and all the remaining parts of\nhimself, were now restored to the justified OSIRIS, who was thus built\nup into the complete man who had once walked the earth, and who now\nentered upon a new life, the everlasting life of the righteous and the\nblessed. He was joyfully admitted by the gods into their circle, and\nwas henceforth as one of them.\n\n_The Book of the Dead_ and cognate religious texts, always assume that\njudgment goes in favour of the deceased, that his heart approves him,\nand that he becomes one of the blessed. Nowhere are we clearly informed\nas to the fate of the condemned who could not stand before the god\nOsiris. We are told that the enemies of the gods perish, that they are\ndestroyed or overthrown; but such vague expressions afford no certainty\nas to how far the Egyptians in general believed in the existence of a\nhell as a place of punishment or purification for the wicked;[44] or\nwhether, as seems more probable, they held some general belief that\nwhen judgment was pronounced against a man his heart and other immortal\nparts were not restored to him. For such a man no re-edification and no\nresurrection was possible. The immortal elements were divine, and by\nnature pure and imperishable; but they could be preserved from\nentering the OSIRIS, from re-entering the hull of the man who had\nproved himself unworthy of them. The soul, indeed, as such did not die,\nalthough personal annihilation was the lot of the evil-doer in whom it\nhad dwelt. But it was the hope of continued individuality which their\ndoctrine held out to the Egyptians; this it was which they promised to\nthe good and in all probability denied to the wicked.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 17.\u2014The Blessed Dead ploughing and sowing by the\nwaters of the celestial Nile. (_From \u201cThe Book of the Dead.\u201d_)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 18.\u2014The blessed Dead reaping and treading out the\ncorn in the fields of Aal\u00fb. (_From \u201cThe Book of the Dead.\u201d_)]\n\nAfter judgment the righteous entered into blessedness, unchanged\nin appearance as in nature; the only difference being that, while\nthe existence which they had led upon earth had been limited in its\nduration, the life of the world to come was eternal. But the future\nblessedness for which the Egyptian hoped was far from being a passive\nstate of bliss such as is promised by most of the higher religions,\nan absorption into the All or into the Godhead, a dreamy state of\nfloating in everlasting repose, content, and unimpassioned joy. The\naverage Egyptian expected to lead as active a life in the world to\ncome as he had led here. Although with the Godhead, he counted on\nretaining his independent individuality in all respects and on working\nand enjoying himself even as he had done on earth. He expected his\nchief employment to be agriculture, the occupation which must have\nseemed most natural to a people almost entirely dependent upon the\nproduce of the fields. A vignette belonging to chap. cx. of _The Book\nof the Dead_ represents the dead at work in the fields of the\nBlessed,[45] ploughing with oxen, casting the seed-corn into the\nfurrows (fig. 17), cutting the ripe ears with sickles, driving oxen to\ntread out the grain from the straw (fig. 18), and finally piling up the\ncorn in heaps against it was required to serve for the making of bread.\nFor change and recreation they sailed upon the canals of the next world\nin their boats (fig. 19), played at draughts with their own souls, or\nmade offerings to the gods, especially to the celestial Nile, which\ngave water to their fields and fertility to their seed (fig. 20). All\nwent on exactly as here, excepting that the work of the blessed was\ninvariably crowned with success. The Nile always overflowed the fields\nto best advantage, the corn grew five ells high and its ears were\ntwo ells long, the harvest never failed to be abundant, the weather\nwas always favourable, the fresh and pleasant north wind was always\nblowing, the foe was always conquered, and the gods graciously accepted\nall offerings and requited the givers with rich gifts of all kinds. In\nshort, the life of the dead in the kingdom of the gods was an idealised\nearthly life, although not always a very moral life according to our\nstandards.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 19.\u2014One of the Osirian dead sailing in his papyrus\nbark along the heavenly canals. (_From \u201cThe Book of the Dead.\u201d_)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 20.\u2014-The Blessed Dead making offerings to the\ncelestial Nile-god. (_From \u201cThe Book of the Dead.\u201d_)]\n\nBut this belief in the life of the next world as the exact counterpart\nof this implied a danger which involved the Egyptian in heavy cares.\nThe dead lived, therefore they must of necessity eat and drink, for\nwithout these processes the continuation of life was inconceivable;\nif the dead were without food they would be starved. The inscription\nof the sepulchral pyramid of \u00dbnas, an Egyptian king of the Fifth\nDynasty, gives expression to this fear. \u201cEvil is it for \u00dbnas,\u201d says\nthat text, \u201cto be hungry and have nothing to eat; evil is it for \u00dbnas\nto be thirsty and have nothing to drink.\u201d The necessities of life\nwere, indeed, partly ensured to the dead by means of the offerings\nmade to them by their sur-vivors on recurrent feast-days, and partly\nmysteriously created for their use in the next world by the repetition\nof magic formul\u00e6 in this.[46] But if the offerings ceased, or if no one\ntook the trouble to repeat the formul\u00e6, the dead were left to their own\nresources, and must work, and till the land, and earn their own living.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 21.\u2014Ancient kingdom KA-statues of servants\u2212potters\nand bread-makers. (_Originals in the Ghizeh Museum_.)]\n\nSuch enforced labour could hardly have appeared very attractive to\nEgyptians of the upper classes, and so an expedient suggested by the\nconditions of their earthly life was devised for evading it on their\nbehalf. The rich man who had servants to work for him in this world was\ndesirous of securing like service for himself in the world to come. In\nthe time of the Ancient Empire it seems to have been taken for granted\nthat those who were servants in this life would be servants also in\nthe life beyond. With this selfish end in view the rich of those times\nhad placed within their own sepulchral chambers KA-statues of their\nservants in order to ensure immortal life to them also (fig. 21). As\nthe old Germans were followed into the next world by their slaves and\nhorses; as other uncivilised nations sent the servants of the dead to\nthe realm of death after their masters,[47] so in Ancient Egypt a\ncertain portion of mankind was set apart to serve the rest through all\neternity. But as Egyptian civilisation advanced and a more humane state\nof feeling dawned, these views were modified, and the thought gained\nground that all Egyptians were equal in the presence of death and of\nthe gods. So the rich man was obliged to renounce his hope of finding\nhis servants again at his service beyond the tomb, and was face to face\nwith the old fear of being reduced to heavy toil through the possible\nnegligence of his successors.\n\nA most singular expedient was adopted to avert this danger: little\nimages of clay, or wood, or stone, or even of bronze, were made in\nhuman likeness, inscribed with a certain formula,[48] and placed\nwithin the tomb, in the hope that they would there attain to life and\nbecome the useful servants of the blessed dead; they are the so-called\n\u00dbSHABTI\u00db (or Respondents), of which hundreds and thousands of specimens\nmay be found in collections of Egyptian antiquities (see\nFrontispiece[49]). These \u201cservants for the underworld,\u201d or \u201cservants\nto the OSIRIS,\u201d as the texts call them, owed their very being and life\nto the dead, and stood to him in the same relation as man to God. And\nas men seek to testify their gratitude to the Creator by doing Him\nservice, so it was hoped that these little figures would show their\nthankfulness by their diligence, and spare their master and maker all\ntoil.\n\nMany other customs arose out of similar ideas to those which gave rise\nto the institution of \u00dbSHABTI\u00db. Articles of personal adornment and for\ntoilet use, wreaths, weapons, carriages, playthings, and tools were\ngiven to the dead, and a whole set of household furniture was often\nlaid away in the grave in order that the OSIRIS should not be obliged\nto set to work at once to make or collect these things for himself on\nhis entrance into the next world; for this purpose choice was often\nmade of such objects as the man had used and valued in his lifetime.\nAll this care, however, was bestowed not simply in the interest of\nthose who had entered upon the life everlasting but also in that of\nthose who were left behind. Among other powers possessed by the dead\nwas that of going to and fro upon earth; and, to prevent their exercise\nof it, all things whose lack might impel them to revisit the scenes\nof their earthly lives were placed within the tombs, for their visits\nmight not be altogether pleasant for survivors withholding any part of\nthe goods which belonged to the dead. But these facts must not lead\nus to conclude that the tomb was the permanent dwelling of the dead,\nand that the objects placed within it were really intended for his use\nthere, and for all time.\n\nAs the amulets laid in and about the mummy were for the use of the\nOSIRIS, so the furniture and implements placed near the coffin were\nintended not so much for the mummy lying in its tomb as for the\nOsiris dwelling with the gods. Each of these objects had its heavenly\ncounterpart, even as the mummy was represented by the OSIRIS.[50]\n\nIt was thus that the Egyptians sought to make themselves homes in the\nnext world, and to secure all the comforts and pleasures of their\nearthly life in the life which was to come. Nevertheless, the pious\nEgyptian did not expect to remain for ever as an Osiris, or as a god\nin human likeness: he rather hoped for ever-increasing freedom, for\nthe power of taking other shapes and transforming himself at will into\nquadrupeds; or into birds\u2014such as the swallow or the heron; or into\nplants\u2014more especially the lotus; or even into gods.[51]\n\nThis is no doctrine of compulsory transmigration such as used to be\nfreely ascribed to the Egyptians on the strength of the statements made\nby Herodotus[52]; there is no question here of souls being forced to\nassume fresh forms in which their purification is gradually worked out\nand their perfection achieved. To the Egyptian transmigration was not\nthe doom of imperfect souls, but a privilege reserved for such as had\nalready attained perfection. Again and again the texts assert that the\nblessed may assume any form and visit any place at will; body and place\ncan no longer enthral him. He may travel round the heavens with the\nSun-god R\u0101, or arise from the shades with Osiris in the \u201cdivine night\u201d\nof the 26th of the month Khoiak (_i.e._ at the winter solstice); he is\neven as a god, nay, he is himself a god, able to live in and by Truth,\nactually taking it, indeed, as food and drink.\n\nThe power of the soul to incarnate itself at pleasure became one of the\nchief reasons for embalming the body. As we have seen, the preservation\nof the body was held to be necessary because the mummy was supposed\nto be the material form of which the Osiris was the essential reality.\nBut this temporary need might have been met in simpler fashion, since\nthe journey of the Soul to the Hall of Judgment was accomplished in a\ncomparatively short time. There was, however, a further need for which\nprovision had to be made. The soul might sometimes visit the mummy,\nagain take up its abode in its former body, and, animating it anew,\nreturn to earth under that form and thus revisit the spots where once\nit had dwelt. To this end it required an earthly and tangible body, and\nthis was supplied by the mummy. If the mummy were destroyed, then the\nsoul not only lost one of the forms in which it might incarnate itself,\nbut that one with which its interests were naturally most closely\nconnected\u2014that one which linked it to earth and best enabled it to\nexhort the survivors to remember the funerary offerings, and to see\nhow it fared with those whom it had been obliged to leave behind. The\ndestruction of the mummy did not involve the destruction of the soul,\nbut it narrowed the soul\u2019s circle of activity and limited its means of\ntransmigration.\n\nThis doctrine gave rise to the necromantic theory that a soul might be\ncompelled by means of magic formul\u00e6 to re-enter its body, and to speak\nthrough the dead lips. The magician who had brought this about could\nthen stipulate for all kinds of favours before restoring the soul to\nfreedom. It is true that such an attempt was reckoned highly dangerous;\nand, according to a tale dating from Ptolemaic times, a royal prince\nnamed Setna,[53] who had succeeded in the undertaking, paid heavily for\nhaving sought to make the spirits of the dead subject to him, when,\nthrough his own imprudence, he was overpowered by those whom he had\ninvoked.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe above sketch of the eschatology of the Ancient Egyptians is drawn\nfrom their own religious texts. As to the origin of that system and\nthe transformations which it had undergone before reaching the form\nunder which it is known to us we are as yet entirely ignorant; but it\nis obvious that it must have developed gradually and assimilated many\noriginally heterogeneous doctrines. For instance, the Ka and the Osiris\nmust surely once have had the same significance, and not have been\nconsidered as two different factors of the dead man\u2019s being until\ntime had brought about the fusion of two theological systems\u2014in one\nof which the KA was regarded as the spiritual _Doppelg\u00e4nger_, or\nDouble, while in the other it was named the OSIRIS. All attempts at\nsolving these and similar problems connected with this subject are,\nas yet, mere hypotheses. As far back as Egyptian history has been\ntraced the people appear to have been in possession not only of written\ncharacters, national art and institutions, but also of a complete\nsystem of religion. As in all other departments of Egyptian life and\nthought, so with the Egyptian religion\u2014we cannot trace its beginnings.\nIn the earliest glimpse of it afforded by the Egyptian texts it appears\nas perfect in all its essential parts; nor were after-times able to\neffect much change in it by the addition of new features. What greatly\nintensifies the deep historical interest of Egyptian eschatology is\nthat it testifies not only to the fact that a whole nation believed in\nthe immortality of the soul four thousand years before the birth of\nChrist, but also that this nation had even then succeeded in clearly\npicturing the future life to themselves after a fashion which may\nindeed often seem strange and incomprehensible to modern minds but\nto which we cannot deny a certain consistency and a deep spiritual\nconnotation.\n\nWe shall not here discuss the many analogies subsisting between\nEgyptian belief and the religious systems of other nations and times,\nnor yet its great differences from them; and it is for the sciences of\nanthropology and comparative religion to determine to what extent the\nEgyptian doctrine of immortality originated in Egypt itself, and how\nmuch was brought there by the Egyptians from the common home which they\nhad shared with the Semites and Indo-europeans.\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] The whole process of embalmment is briefly described in the _Rhind\nPapyrus_, edited by Birch, London, 1863, and by BRUGSCH, Leipzig,\n1865. The procedure of the _taricheuts_ is described in a Vienna\npapyrus, edited by BERGMANN, Vienna, 1887, and the conclusion of their\noperations in a Paris papyrus and a B\u00fblaq papyrus, edited by MASPERO,\n_Pap. du Louvre_, Paris, 1875. For the transport of the mummy, see\nD\u00dcMICHEN, _Kal. Insch._, pl. 35 _sqq_. The minutely ordered ritual for\nthe ceremonies at the door of the tomb was published and investigated\nin SCHIAPARELLI\u2019S admirable work, _Il Libro dei Funerali_, Turin,\n1881\u20141890.\n\n[2] On these component parts cf. WIEDEMANN in the _Proceedings of the\nOrientalist Congress at St. Etienne_, II. (1878), p. 159 _et seq._\nMany parallel texts to the additional chapter of _The Book of the\nDead_, there referred to, may be found in VON BERGMANN\u2019S _Sarkophag des\nPanehemisis_, I., p. 22; II., p. 74 _et seq._\n\n[3] On this account KA was sometimes used as interchangeable with REN\n[Illustration: {H}]\u2014name.\n\n[4] There is no modern word which exactly expresses the Egyptian idea\nof the KA; Maspero\u2019s translation of \u201cDOUBLE, _Doppelg\u00e4nger_\u201d is the\nbest hitherto proposed; Meyer\u2019s translation of \u201c_Ghost_\u201d (_Gesch. \u00c6g._,\np. 83) is altogether misleading.\n\n[5] The illustration is taken from LEPSIUS, _Denkm\u00e4ler_, III. 21.\nHere the solar cartouche, or throne-name, of Thothmes II., and his\nHorus-: or Ka-name, are palimpsests effacing the names of Queen\nHatsheps\u00fb R\u0101maka, the builder of the temple. The figures in this scene\noriginally represented the Queen and her KA; but as she is always\nportrayed in male attire throughout the temple, it was only necessary\nto change her names in order to appropriate her figure as that of a\nking. The first satisfactory explanation of the Horus-or KA-name was\ngiven by PETRIE in _A Season in Egypt_, pp. 21, 22; cf. MASPERO,\n_\u00c9tudes \u00c9gyptologiques_ II., p. 273 _et seq._ He shows that the\nrectangular parallelogram in which the Horus-name is written is the\nexact equivalent of the square panel over the false door in the tomb,\nby which the KA was supposed to pass from the sepulchral vault into the\nupper chamber, or tomb-chapel, where offerings were provided for it.\nA private person had but one name, which was also the name of his KA.\nBut, on ascending the throne, the king took four new names in addition\nto the one which he had hitherto borne, and among them a name for his\nKA.\n\n[6] We have a crude representation of this KA sign, dating from the\nreign of Amenemhat I., of the Twelfth Dynasty; see PETRIE, _Tanis I._\n(Second Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund), pl. I., No. 3.\n\n[7] LEPSIUS, _Denkm\u00e4ler_, III. 186. The hands of the KA-staff have\ndoubtless a common origin with those of the KA-sign\u2014[Illustration:\n{H}].\n\n[8] LEPSIUS, _Denkm\u00e4ler_, III. 87.\n\n[9] In the course of his excavations at D\u00ear el Bahri, for the Egypt\nExploration Fund, M. Naville discovered the originals of these scenes\nin a series of bas-reliefs representing the birth of Queen Hatsheps\u00fb\nwhich were plagiarised by Amenophis III.\n\n[10] LEPSIUS, _Denkm\u00e4ler_, III. 21, 129.\n\n[11] LEPSIUS, _Denkm\u00e4ler_, III., pl. 75.\n\n[12] Such prayers were also inscribed on funerary stel\u00e6 in order\nthat passers-by might repeat them for the benefit of the dead. These\ninscriptions vary but little. The prayer on the funerary tablet of\nKhemnekht (now in the Agram Museum) dates from the Thirteenth Dynasty,\nand runs as follows: \u201cO every scribe, every Kherheb (lector, priestly\nreciter), all ye who pass by this stele, who love and honour your gods,\nand would have your offices to flourish (shine) for your children,\nsay ye: \u2018Let royal offerings be brought unto Osiris for the Ka of the\npriest Khemnekht\u2019\u201d: For an account of the development of the formul\u00e6\non funerary stel\u00e6, see WIEDEMANN, _Observations sur quelques st\u00e8les\nfun\u00e9raires \u00e9gyptiennes, Le Mus\u00e9on X._, 42, 199 _et seq._\n\n[13] The particulars above summarised may be verified from contracts\nwhich a prince (_erp\u0101-h\u0101_) of Si\u00fbt concluded with the priests of\nAnubis under the Tenth or Eleventh Dynasty (discussed by MASPERO,\n_Transactions of the Society of Biblical Arch\u00e6ology_ VII., p. 6\n_et seq._, _\u00c9tudes de Mythologie_, I., p. 62 _et seq._, and ERMAN,\n_\u00c6g. Zeitschr._, 1882, p. 159 ff., the best publication of these\ninscriptions being that by GRIFFITH, _Inscriptions of Si\u00fbt and D\u00ear\nR\u00eefeh_, London, 1889. Similar contracts were made even in the times\nof the pyramid-building kings: cf. _e.g._ LEPSIUS, _Denkm\u00e4ler_, II.\n3-7; DE ROUG\u00c9, _Inscriptions hi\u00e9roglyphiques_, pl. I.; MARIETTE, _Les\nMastabahs_, p. 316 _et seq._)\n\n[14] As in the case of statues found in the temple of Ptah at Memphis\n(MARIETTE, _Mon. div._, pl. 27 b), and in that of Amon at Karnak\n(MARIETTE, _Karnak_, pl. 8 f; cf. LEPSIUS, _Auswahl_, pl. 11).\n\n[15] This striking theory was first broached by MASPERO, _Rec. de\nTrav._, I., p. 154; _\u00c9tudes de Mythologie_, I., p. 80.\n\n[16] We find occasional mention of the Ka of the East and the Ka of the\nWest (Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, 2nd ed., III., pp. 200, 201),\nwhich are to be considered as being the Kas of the deities of the East\nand of the West, and not as Kas of the abstract conceptions of East and\nWest.\n\n[17] LEPSIUS, _Denkm\u00e4ler_, III. 194, l. 13; D\u00dcMICHEN,\n_Tempelinschriften_, I., pl. 29; VON BERGMANN, _Hierogl. Insch._, pl.\n33 pl. 61, col. 2; RENOUF, _Transactions of the Society of Biblical_\n_Arch\u00e6ology_, VI., pp. 504 _et seq._; BRUGSCH, _Dictionary, Supplt._,\npp. 997 _et seq._, 1230.\n\n[18] Cf. 1 Chron. XXIX. 11, 12; Isa. XI. 2.\n\n[19] This prayer is contained in that part of _The Book of the Dead_,\nchap, CV., entitled _Chapter whereby the KA of a person is satisfied\nin the Nether world_: \u201cHail to thee who wast my KA during life! Lo! I\ncome unto thee, I arise resplendent, I labour, I am strong, I am hale\n(_var._, I pass on), I bring grains of incense, I am purified thereby,\nI purify thereby that which goeth forth from thee. This conjuration\nof evil which I say; this warding off of evil which I perform; (this\nconjuration) is not made against me (?)\u201d The conjuration runs as\nfollows: \u201cI am that amulet of green felspar, the necklace of the god\nR\u0101, which is given (_var._, which I gave) unto them who are upon the\nhorizon. They flourish, I flourish, my KA flourishes even as they,\nmy duration of life flourishes even as they, my KA has abundance of\nfood even as they. The scale of the balance rises, Truth rises high to\nthe nose of the god R\u0101 in that day on which my KA is where I am (?)\nMy head and my arm are made (?) to where I am (?) I am he whose eye\nseeth, whose ears hear; I am not a beast of sacrifice. The sacrificial\nformul\u00e6 proceed where I am, for the upper ones\u201d\u2014otherwise said, \u201cfor\nthe upper ones of heaven.\u201d The funerary papyrus of S\u00fbtimes (NAVILLE,\n_Todtenbuch_, I., pl. 117) contains the following addition at the end\nof this chapter: \u201cI enter (?) unto thee (to the _Ka_?). I am pure, the\nOsiris is justified against his enemies.\u201d The accompanying vignette for\nthis chapter shows the deceased as worshipping or sacrificing before\nthe KA-sign on a standard. Occasionally we find the KA sign represented\nas enclosing pictures of offerings, a form explained by the common\ndouble meaning of the word KA, which signifies both \u201c_Double_\u201d and\n_food_.\n\n[20] In the religious texts the heart is called both {H} _\u00e1b_ and {H}\n_h\u0101ti_. Sometimes, as in _The Book of the Dead_, chap. XXVI. _et seq._,\nthe two were differentiated; but, generally speaking, the two terms\nappear to have been synonymous.\n\n[22] PLUTARCH, _Septem sap. conviv._, p. 159 B: \u201cWe then, said I\u201d\n(Diales), \u201crender these tributes to the belly (\u03c4\u1fc7 \u03b3\u03b1\u03c3\u03c4\u03c1\u03af). But if Solon\nor any one else has any allegation to make we will listen.\u201d \u201cBy all\nmeans,\u201d said Solon, \u201clest we should appear more senseless than the\nEgyptians, who cutting up the dead body showed [the entrails] to the\nsun, then cast them into the river, but of the rest of the body, as\nnow become pure, they took care. For in reality this [the belly] is\nthe pollution of our flesh, and the Hell, as in Hades,\u2014full of dire\nstreams, and of wind and fire confused together, and of dead things.\u201d\n\nPLUTARCH, _De esu carnium orat._, ii., p. 996, 38: \u201cAs the Egyptians,\ntaking out from the dead the belly (\u03c4\u1f74\u03bd \u03ba\u03bf\u03b9\u03bb\u03af\u03b1\u03bd) and cutting it up\nbefore the sun, cast it away, as the cause of all the sins which the\nman has committed; in like manner that we ourselves, cutting out\ngluttony and bloodthirstiness, should purify the rest of our life.\u201d\n\nPORPHYRY, _De abst._, iv., 10: \u201cWhen they embalm those of the noble\nthat have died, together with their other treatment of the dead body,\nthey take out the belly (\u03c4\u1f74\u03bd \u03ba\u03bf\u03b9\u03bb\u03af\u03b1\u03bd), and put it into a coffer, and\nholding the coffer to the sun they protest, one of the embalmers making\na speech on behalf of the dead. This speech, which Euphantus translated\nfrom his native language, is as follows: \u201cO Lord, the Sun, and all ye\ngods who give life to men, receive me and make me a companion to the\neternal gods. For the gods, whom my parents made known to me, as long\ntime as I have had my life in this world I have continued to reverence,\nand those who gave birth to my body I have ever honoured. And for the\nrest of men, I have neither slain any, nor defrauded any of anything\nentrusted to me, nor committed any other wicked act, but if I haply\nin my life have sinned at all,: by either eating or drinking what was\nunlawful, not on my own account did I sin, but on account of these\n(showing the coffer in which the belly [\u1f21 \u03b3\u03b1\u03c3\u03c4\u03ae\u03c1] lay).\u201d And having\nsaid these things he throws it into the river; but the rest of the\nbody, as pure, he embalms. Thus they thought that they needed to excuse\nthemselves to the Deity on account of what they had eaten and drunk,\nand therefore to reproach the belly.\u201d\n\n[23] It was in this sense that the Egyptians regarded the heart as the\nseat of the feelings, and spoke of the heart as rejoicing, as mourning,\nas weeping.\n\n[24] The illustration is taken from photographs of a scarab in the\nEdwards collection at University College, London.\n\n[25] For the translation of chap, xxx b. of The Book of the Dead, which\nformed the usual inscriptions on heart scarabs, see p. 53.\n\n[26] The possession of the formula in chap, cxlviii. of _The Book of\nthe Dead_, from line 8, ensured abundance (of food) to the BA of the\ndead.\n\n[27] Illustrations 7 and 8 are taken from photographs of objects in the\nEdwards Museum at University College.\n\n[28] _See The Book of the Dead_, NAVILLE\u2019S edition, pls. 4, 97, 101,\n104; LEPSIUS\u2019 edition, pls. 33, etc., etc.\n\n[29] See, _e.g._, illustration and Orcagna\u2019s fresco of the Triumph of\nDeath, in the Campo Santo of Pisa.\n\n[30] See p. 10.\n\n[31] VON BERGMANN, _Sarkophag des Panehemisis_, I., pp. 11, 15, 24;\nPIERRET, _Insc. du Louvre_, II., p. 23; MARIETTE, _Dend\u00e9rah_, iv., 62a.\n\n[32] _The Book of the Dead_, lxxxix. 6.\n\n[33] VON BERGMANN, _Sarkophag des Panehemisis_, I., p. 37, where the\ntranslation is not quite accurately given.\n\n[34] In _Transactions of the Society of Biblical Arch\u00e6ology_, VIII., p.\n386 _et seq._, Birch has collected passages bearing on this point.\n\n[35] On primitive beliefs as to a man\u2019s shadow being a vital part of\nhimself, see FRAZER, _The Golden Bough_, Vol. I., pp. 141-44.\n\n[36] See MASPERO, _Recueil de Travaux relatifs \u00e0 \u00c9gypt_, III., p. 105\n_et seq._; and _Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de l\u2019Orient_, Vol. I., p.\n114. In _The Book of the Dead_, chap. lxxxix., 3, the KH\u00db is mentioned\nin connection with the BA; in chap. cxlix., 40, with the KHA\u00cfB; and in\nchap. xcii., 5, with both.\n\n[37] See p. 30.\n\n[38] A certain part in the religious life of our own time has been\nplayed by a similar \u201cHypocephalus,\u201d viz., the Mormon Scriptures (cf.:\nJoseph Smith, _A Pearl of Great Price_, 1851, p. 7). For particulars of\nthe Hypocephalus of the illustration see _Proceedings of the Society of\nBiblical Arch\u00e6ology_, Vol. VI., p. 52, and plate.\n\n[39] See Ebers, _\u00c6g. Zeitschr._, 1867, p. 108; 1871, p. 48; WIEDEMANN,\n_Proceedings of the Orientalist Congress at St. Etienne_, II., p. 155.\n\n[40] The \u201cNegative Confession\u201d forms chap. cxxv. of _The Book of the\nDead_, and varies slightly in different copies. The following is\nRenouf\u2019s translation of the chapter as it appears in a Nineteenth\nDynasty papyrus (see _The Papyrus of Ani_, London, 1890):\u2014\u201cI am not\na doer of what is wrong. I am not a plunderer. I am not a robber. I\nam not a slayer of men. I do not stint the quantity of corn. I am not\na niggard. I do not seize the property of the gods. I am not a teller\nof lies. I am not a monopoliser of food. I am no extortioner. I am not\nunchaste. I am not the cause of others\u2019 tears. I am not a dissembler.\nI am not a doer of violence. I am not of domineering character. I do\nnot pillage cultivated land. I am not an eavesdropper. I am not a\nchatterer. I do not dismiss a case through self-interest. I am not\nunchaste with women or men. I am not obscene. I am not an exciter of\nalarms. I am not hot in speech. I do not turn a deaf ear to the words\nof righteousness. I am not foul-mouthed. I am not a striker. I am not\na quarreller. I do not revoke my purpose, I do not multiply clamour\nin reply to words. I am not evil-minded or a doer of evil. I am not a\nreviler of the king. I put no obstruction upon the water. I am not a\nbawler. I am not a reviler of the God. I am not fraudulent. I am not\nsparing in offerings to the gods. I do not deprive the dead of the\nfuneral cakes. I do not take away the cakes of the child, or profane\nthe god of my locality. I do not kill sacred animals.\u201d\n\n[41] On the Egyptian Goddess of Truth, see WIEDEMANN, La _D\u00e9esse Ma\u0101_,\nin the _Annales du Mus\u00e9e Guimet_, x., pp. 561 _et seq._ With regard to\nthe meaning of the Egyptian name and word _Ma\u0101t_, which is generally\ntranslated \u201ctruth, or justice,\u201d Renouf has said: \u201cThe Egyptians\nrecognised a divinity in those cases only where they perceived the\npresence of a fixed Law, either of permanence or change. The earth\nabides for ever, and so do the heavens. Day and night, months,\nseasons, and years succeed each other with unfailing regularity; the\nstars are not less constant in their course, some of them rising and\nsetting at fixed intervals, and others eternally circling round the\npole in an order which never is disturbed. This _regularity_, which\nis the constitutive character of the Egyptian divinity, was called\n[Illustration: {H}] _Ma\u0101t_. The gods were said to be neb\u00fb ma\u0101t,\n\u2018possessors of _ma\u0101t_.\u2019 or _\u0101nchi\u00fb em ma\u0101t_, \u2018subsisting by or through\n_ma\u0101t_.\u2019 _Ma\u0101t_ is in fact the Law and Order by which the universe\nexists. Truth and justice are but forms of _Ma\u0101t_ as applied to human\naction.\u201d\u2014_Papyrus of Ani, Introduction_, p. 2.\n\n[42] This prayer is contained in chap. xxx. of _The Book of the Dead_:\u2014\n\n\u201c_Chapter whereby the heart of a person is not kept back from\n               him in the Netherworld_.\n\n  Heart mine which is that of my mother,\n  Whole heart mine which is that of my birth,\n  Let there be no estoppel against me through evidence, let no\n    hindrance be made to me by the divine Circle; fall thou\n    not against me in presence of him who is at the Balance.\n  Thou art my genius (KA), who art by me (in my KHA-T), the\n    Artist who givest soundness to my limbs.\n  Come forth to the bliss towards which we are bound;\n  Let not those Ministrants who deal with a man according to\n    the course of his life give a bad odour to my name.\n  Pleasant for us, pleasant for the listener, is the joy of the\n    Weighing of the Words.\n  Let not lies be uttered in presence of the great god, Lord of\n    the Amenti.\n  Lo! how great art thou (as the triumphant one).\u201d\n\n                                            \u2014_Renouf\u2019s translation_.\n\n[43] As stated on the mummy case of Panehemisis, ed. VON BERGMANN, I.,\np. 29.\n\n[44] The conception of a kind of hell is certainly found in the book\n_Am D\u00fbat_ (cf. J\u00c9QUIER, _Le livre de ce qu\u2019il y a dans l\u2019Had\u00e8s_, Paris,\n1894, p. 127); such allusions are, however, exceptional, and Egyptian\nbelief in a hell appears to have existed at times only, and to have\nbeen confined to certain classes of society.\n\n[45] The \u201cfields of Aal\u00fb\u201d; cf. the \u201cElysian fields\u201d of the Greeks.\n\n[46] See p. 19.\n\n[47] From scenes in the tomb of Ment\u00fbherkhepeshf at Thebes, dating from\nthe beginning of the Nineteenth Dynasty, we have evidence that Egyptian\nfuneral ceremonies occasionally included human sacrifice at the gate of\nthe tomb, the object of such sacrifice being doubtless that of sending\nservants to the dead. But the practice would seem to have been very\nexceptional, at any rate after Egypt had entered upon her long period\nof greatness. See MASPERO, _M\u00e9moires de la Mission Arch\u00e9ologique du\nCaire_, V., p. 452; cf. WIEDEMANN, in _Le Mus\u00e9on_, XIII., p. 457 _et\nseq._; see also GRIFFITH, _The Tomb of Paheri_, pp. 20, 21, in the\nEleventh Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund.\n\n[48] Chapter vi. of _The Book of the Dead_ consists of this formula,\nwhich there reads: \u201cO \u00dbshabti there! Should I be called and appointed\nto do any of the labours that are done in the Netherworld by a person\naccording to his abilities, lo! all obstacles have been beaten down for\nthee; be thou counted for me at every moment, for planting the fields,\nfor watering the soil, for conveying the sands of East and West, Here\nam I, whithersoever thou callest me!\u201d\u2014_Renouf\u2019s Translation_.\n\n[49] The frontispiece represents one of 399 \u00dbSHABTI\u00db made for a\npriest named Hor\u00fbt\u2019a, who lived during the Twenty-sixth Dynasty.\nThese \u00dbSHABTI\u00db were found at Hawara by Petrie: see _Kahun, Gurob, and\nHawara_, pp. 9, 19.\n\n[50] Professor Petrie, speaking of his discovery that it was the\nEgyptian custom to place masonic deposits of miniature model tools,\netc., underneath the foundations of temples, and giving an account of\nthe foundation deposits which he found beneath the pyramid temple of\n\u00dbsertesen II., at Illah\u00fbn, says: \u201cThe reason for burying such objects\nis yet unexplained; but it seems not unlikely that they were intended\nfor the use of the KAS of the builders, like the models placed in tombs\nfor the KAS of the deceased. Whether each building had a KA, which\nneeded ghostly repair by the builders\u2019 KAS, is also to be considered\u201d\n(_Kahun, Gurob, and Hawara_, p. 22). We know that each building had its\nguardian spirit in the form of a serpent (cf. the representation of one\ndating from the time of Amenophis III, in Ghizeh, No. 217, published by\nMARIETTE, _Mon. Div._, pl. 63 b).\n\n[51] _The Book of the Dead_, chaps. lxxvi.-lxxxviii.\n\n[52] \u201cThe Egyptians were also the first to broach the opinion that the\nsoul of man is immortal, and that when the body dies it enters into\nan animal which is born at the same moment, thence passing on (from\none animal into another) until it has circled through all creatures of\nthe earth, the water, and the air, after which it enters again into\na new-born human frame. The whole period of the transmigration is\n(they say) three thousand years. There are Greek writers, some of an\nearlier, some of a later date, who have borrowed this doctrine from the\nEgyptians, and put it forward as their own.\u201d\u2014HERODOTUS, II., 123. See\nWIEDEMANN, _Herodots Zweites Buch_, p. 457 _et seq._\n\n[53] For the \u201cStory of Setna\u201d see Vol. II. of Professor Petrie\u2019s\n_Egyptian Tales_.\n\nPrinted by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.","title":"The ancient Egyptian doctrine of the immortality of the soul","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":13651}