The Book of the Dead Part 1

The Book of the Dead.

by E. A. Wallis Budge.

CHAPTER I

The t.i.tle.

"Book of the Dead" is the t.i.tle now commonly given to the great collection of funerary texts which the ancient Egyptian scribes composed for the benefit of the dead. These consist of spells and incantations, hymns and litanies, magical formulae and names, words of power and prayers, and they are found cut or painted on walls of pyramids and tombs, and painted on coffins and sarcophagi and rolls of papyri. The t.i.tle "Book of the Dead" is somewhat unsatisfactory and misleading, for the texts neither form a connected work nor belong to one period; they are miscellaneous in character, and tell us nothing about the lives and works of the dead with whom they were buried. Moreover, the Egyptians possessed many funerary works that might rightly be called "Books of the Dead," but none of them bore a name that could be translated by the t.i.tle "Book of the Dead." This t.i.tle was given to the great collection of funerary texts in the first quarter of the nineteenth century by the pioneer Egyptologists, who possessed no exact knowledge of their contents. They were familiar with the rolls of papyrus inscribed in the hieroglyphic and the hieratic character, for copies of several had been published, [1]

but the texts in them were short and fragmentary. The publication of the Facsimile [2] of the Papyrus of Peta-Amen-neb-nest-taui [3] by M. Cadet in 1805 made a long hieroglyphic text and numerous coloured vignettes available for study, and the French Egyptologists described it as a copy of the "Rituel Funeraire" of the ancient Egyptians. Among these was Champollion le Jeune, but later, on his return from Egypt, he and others called it "Le Livre des Morts," "The Book of the Dead,"

"Das Todtenbuch," etc. These t.i.tles are merely translations of the name given by the Egyptian tomb-robbers to every roll of inscribed papyrus which they found with mummies, namely, "Kitab-al-Mayyit,"

"Book of the dead man," or "Kitab al-Mayyitun," "Book of the dead"

(plur.). These men knew nothing of the contents of such a roll, and all they meant to say was that it was "a dead man's book," and that it was found in his coffin with him.

CHAPTER II

The Preservation of the Mummified Body in the Tomb by Thoth.

The objects found in the graves of the predynastic Egyptians, i.e., vessels of food, flint knives and other weapons, etc., prove that these early dwellers in the Nile Valley believed in some kind of a future existence. But as the art of writing was, unknown to them their graves contain no inscriptions, and we can only infer from texts of the dynastic period what their ideas about the Other World were. It is clear that they did not consider it of great importance to preserve the dead body in as complete and perfect state as possible, for in many of their graves the heads, hands and feet have been found severed from the trunks and lying at some distance from them. On the other hand, the dynastic Egyptians, either as the result of a difference in religious belief, or under the influence of invaders who had settled in their country, attached supreme importance to the preservation and integrity of the dead body, and they adopted every means known to them to prevent its dismemberment and decay. They cleansed it and embalmed it with drugs, spices and balsams; they anointed it with aromatic oils and preservative fluids; they swathed it in hundreds of yards of linen bandages; and then they sealed it up in a coffin or sarcophagus, which they laid in a chamber hewn in the bowels of the mountain. All these things were done to protect the physical body against damp, dry rot and decay, and against the attacks of moth, beetles, worms and wild animals. But these were not the only enemies of the dead against which precautions had to be taken, for both the mummified body and the spiritual elements which had inhabited it upon earth had to be protected from a mult.i.tude of devils and fiends, and from the powers of darkness generally. These powers of evil had hideous and terrifying shapes and forms, and their haunts were well known, for they infested the region through which the road of the dead lay when pa.s.sing from this world to the Kingdom of Osiris. The "great G.o.ds" were afraid of them, and were obliged to protect themselves by the use of spells and magical names, and words of power, which were composed and written down by Thoth. In fact it was believed in very early times in Egypt that Ra the Sun-G.o.d owed his continued existence to the possession of a secret name with which Thoth had provided him. And each morning the rising sun was menaced by a fearful monster called Aapep, which lay hidden under the place of sunrise waiting to swallow up the solar disk. It was impossible, even for the Sun-G.o.d, to destroy this "Great Devil," but by reciting each morning the powerful spell with which Thoth had provided him he was able to paralyse all Aapep's limbs and to rise upon this world. Since then the "great G.o.ds," even though benevolently disposed towards them, were not able to deliver the dead from the devils that lived upon the "bodies, souls, spirits, shadows and hearts of the dead," the Egyptians decided to invoke the aid of Thoth on behalf of their dead and to place them under the protection of his almighty spells. Inspired by Thoth the theologians of ancient Egypt composed a large number of funerary texts which were certainly in general use under the IVth dynasty (about 3700 B.C.), and were probably well known under the Ist dynasty, and throughout the whole period of dynastic history Thoth was regarded as the author of the "Book of the Dead."

CHAPTER III

The Book Per-t em hru, or [The Chapters of] Coming forth by (or, into) the Day, commonly called the "Book of the Dead."

The spells and other texts which were written by Thoth for the benefit of the dead, and are directly connected with him, were called, according to doc.u.ments written under the XIth and XVIIIth dynasties, "Chapters of the Coming Forth by (or, into) the Day." One rubric in the Papyrus of Nu (Brit. Mus. No. 10477) states that the text of the work called "PER-T EM HRU," i.e., "Coming Forth (or, into) the Day,"

was discovered by a high official in the foundations of a shrine of the G.o.d Hennu during the reign of Semti, or Hesepti, a king of the Ist dynasty. Another rubric in the same papyrus says that the text was cut upon the alabaster plinth of a statue of Menkaura (Mycerinus), a king of the IVth dynasty, and that the letters were inlaid with lapis lazuli. The plinth was found by Prince Herutataf, a son of King Khufu (Cheops), who carried it off to his king and exhibited it as a "most wonderful" thing. This composition was greatly reverenced, for it "would make a man victorious upon earth and in the Other World; it would ensure him a safe and free pa.s.sage through the Tuat (Under World); it would allow him to go in and to go out, and to take at any time any form he pleased; it would make his soul to flourish, and would prevent him from dying the [second] death." For the deceased to receive the full benefit of this text it had to be recited by a man "who was ceremonially pure, and who had not eaten fish or meat, and had not consorted with women." On coffins of the XIth dynasty and on papyri of the XVIIIth dynasty we find two versions of the PER-T EM HRU, one long and one short. As the t.i.tle of the shorter version states that it is the "Chapters of the PER-T EM HRU in a single chapter,"

it is clear that this work, even under the IVth dynasty, contained many "Chapters," and that a much abbreviated form of the work was also current at the same period. The rubric that attributes the "finding" of the Chapter to Herutataf a.s.sociates it with Khemenu, i.e., Hermopolis, and indicates that Thoth, the G.o.d of this city, was its author.

The work PER-T EM HRU received many additions in the course of centuries, and at length, under the XVIIIth dynasty, it contained about 190 distinct compositions, or "Chapters." The original forms of many of these are to be found in the "Pyramid Texts" (i.e., the funerary compositions cut on the walls of the chambers and corridors of the pyramids of Kings Unas, Teta, Pepi I Meri-Ra, Merenra and Pepi II at Sakkarah), which were written under the Vth and VIth dynasties. The forms which many other chapters had under the XIth and XIIth dynasties are well represented by the texts painted on the coffins of Amamu, Sen, and Guatep in the British Museum (Nos. 6654, 30839, 30841), but it is possible that both these and the so-called "Pyramid Texts"

all belonged to the work PER-T EM HRU, and are extracts from it. The "Pyramid Texts" have no ill.u.s.trations, but a few of the texts on the coffins of the XIth and XIIth dynasties have coloured vignettes, e.g., those which refer to the region to be traversed by the deceased on his way to the Other World, and the Islands of the Blessed or the Elysian Fields. On the upper margins of the insides of such coffins there are frequently given two or more rows of coloured drawings of the offerings which under the Vth dynasty were presented to the deceased or his statue during the celebration of the service of "Opening the Mouth" and the performance of the ceremonies of "The Liturgy of Funerary Offerings." Under the XVIIIth dynasty, when the use of large rectangular coffins and sarcophagi fell somewhat into disuse, the scribes began to write collections of Chapters from the PER-T EM HRU on rolls of papyri instead of on coffins. At first the texts were written in hieroglyphs, the greater number of them being in black ink, and an attempt was made to ill.u.s.trate each text by a vignette drawn in black outline. The finest known example of such a codex is the Papyrus of Nebseni (Brit. Mus. No. 9900), which is 77 feet 7 1/2 inches in length and I foot I1/2 inches in breadth. Early in the XVIIIth dynasty scribes began to write the t.i.tles of the Chapters, the rubrics, and the catchwords in red ink and the text in black, and it became customary to decorate the vignettes with colours, and to increase their size and number. The oldest codex of this cla.s.s is the Papyrus of Nu (Brit. Mus. No. 10477) which is 65 feet 3 1/2 inches in length, and 1 foot 1 1/2 inches in breadth. This and many other rolls were written by their owners for their own tombs, and in each roll both text and vignettes were usually, the work of the same hand. Later, however, the scribe wrote the text only, and a skilled artist was employed to add the coloured vignettes, for which s.p.a.ces were marked out and left blank by the scribe. The finest example of this cla.s.s of roll is the Papyrus of Ani (Brit. Mus., No. 10470). which is 78 feet in length and 1 foot 3 inches in breadth. In all papyri of this cla.s.s the text is written in hieroglyphs, but under the XIXth and following dynasties many papyri are written throughout in the hieratic character; these usually lack vignettes, but have coloured frontispieces.

Under the rule of the High Priests of Amen many changes were introduced into the contents of the papyri, and the arrangement cf the texts and vignettes of the PER-T EM HRU was altered. The great confraternity of Amen-Ra, the "King of the G.o.ds," felt it to be necessary to emphasize the supremacy of their G.o.d, even in the Kingdom of Osiris, and they added many prayers, litanies and hymns to the Sun-G.o.d to every selection of the texts from the PER-T EM HRU that was copied on a roll of papyrus for funerary purposes. The greater number of the rolls of this period are short and contain only a few Chapters, e.g., the Papyrus of the Royal Mother Netchemet (Brit. Mus. No. 10541) and the Papyrus of Queen Netchemet (Brit. Mus. No. 10478). In some the text is very defective and carelessly written, but the coloured vignettes are remarkable for their size and beauty; of this cla.s.s of roll the finest example is the Papyrus of Anhai (Brit. Mus. No. 10472). The most interesting of all the rolls that were written during the rule of the Priest-Kings over Upper Egypt is the Papyrus of Princess Nesitanebtashru (Brit. Mus. No. 10554), now commonly known as the "Greenfield Papyrus." It is the longest and widest funerary papyrus [4] known, for it measures 123 feet by 1 foot 6 1/2 inches, and it contains more Chapters, Hymns, Litanies, Adorations and Homages to the G.o.ds than any other roll. The 87 Chapters from the PER-T EM HRU which it contains prove the princess's devotion to the cult of Osiris, and the Hymns to Amen-Ra show that she was able to regard this G.o.d and Osiris not as rivals but as two aspects of the same G.o.d. She believed that the "hidden" creative power which was materialized in Amen was only another form of the power of procreation, renewed birth and resurrection which was typified by Osiris. The oldest copies of the PER-T EM HRU which we have on papyrus contain a few extracts from other ancient funerary works, such as the "Book of Opening the Mouth," the "Liturgy of Funerary Offerings," and the "Book of the Two Ways." But under the rule of the Priest-Kings the scribes incorporated with the Chapters of the PER-T EM HRU extracts from the "Book of Ami-Tuat"

and the "Book of Gates," and several of the vignettes and texts that are found on the walls of the royal tombs of Thebes.

One of the most remarkable texts written at this period is found in the Papyrus of Nesi-Khensu, which is now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. This is really the copy of a contract which is declared to have been made between Nesi-Khensu and Amen-Ra, "the holy G.o.d, the lord of all the G.o.ds." As a reward for the great piety of the queen, and her devotion to the interests of Amen-Ra upon earth, the G.o.d undertakes to make her a G.o.ddess in his kingdom, to provide her with an estate there in perpetuity and a never-failing supply of offerings, and happiness of heart, soul and body, and the [daily] recital upon earth of the "Seventy Songs of Ra" for the benefit of her soul in the Khert-Neter, or Under World. The contract was drawn up in a series of paragraphs in legal phraseology by the priests of Amen, who believed they had the power of making their G.o.d do as they pleased when they pleased.

Little is known of the history of the PER-T EM HRU after the downfall of the priests of Amen, and during the period of the rule of the Nubians, but under the kings of the XXVIth dynasty the Book enjoyed a great vogue. Many funerary rolls were written both in hieroglyphs and hieratic, and were decorated with vignettes drawn in black outline; and about this time the scribes began to write funerary texts in the demotic character. But men no longer copied long selections from the PER-T EM HRU as they had done under the XVIIIth, XIXth and XXth dynasties, partly because the religious views of the Egyptians had undergone a great change, and partly because a number of Books of the Dead of a more popular character had appeared. The cult of Osiris was triumphant everywhere, and men preferred the hymns and litanies which dealt with his sufferings, death and resurrection to the compositions in which the absolute supremacy of Ra and his solar cycle of G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses was a.s.sumed or proclaimed. Thus, in the "Lamentations of Isis" and the "Festival Songs of Isis and Nephthys,"

and the "Litanies of Seker," and the "Book of Honouring Osiris," etc., the central figure is Osiris, and he alone is regarded as the giver of everlasting life. The dead were no longer buried with large rolls of papyrus filled with Chapters of the PER-T EM HRU laid in their coffins, but with small sheets or strips of papyrus, on which were inscribed the above compositions, or the shorter texts of the "Book of Breathings," or the "Book of Traversing Eternity," or the "Book of May my name flourish," or a part of the "Chapter of the Last Judgment."

Ancient Egyptian tradition a.s.serts that the Book PER-T EM HRU was used early in the Ist dynasty, and the papyri and coffins of the Roman Period afford evidence that the native Egyptians still accepted all the essential beliefs and doctrines contained in it. During the four thousand years of its existence many additions were made to it, but nothing of importance seems to have been taken away from it. In the s.p.a.ce here available it is impossible to describe in detail the various Recensions of this work, viz., (1) the Heliopolitan, (2) the Theban and its various forms, and (3) the Sate; but it is proposed to sketch briefly the main facts of the Egyptian Religion which may be deduced from them generally, and especially from the Theban Recension, and to indicate the contents of the princ.i.p.al Chapters. No one papyrus can be cited as a final authority, for no payprus contains all the Chapters, 190 in number, of the Theban Recension, and in no two papyri are the selection and sequence of the Chapters identical, or is the treatment of the vignettes the same.

CHAPTER IV

Thoth, the Author of the Book of the Dead.

Thoth, in Egyptian Tchehuti or Tehuti, who has already been mentioned as the author of the texts that form the PER-T EM HRU, or Book of the Dead, was believed by the Egyptians to have been the heart and mind of the Creator, who was in very early times in Egypt called by the natives "Pautti," and by foreigners "Ra." Thoth was also the "tongue" of the Creator, and he at all times voiced the will of the great G.o.d, and spoke the words which commanded every being and thing in heaven and in earth to come into existence. His words were almighty and once uttered never remained without effect. He framed the laws by which heaven, earth and all the heavenly bodies are maintained; he ordered the courses of the sun, moon, and stars; he invented drawing and design and the arts, the letters of the alphabet and the art of writing, and the science of mathematics. At a very early period he was called the "scribe (or secretary) of the Great Company of the G.o.ds,"

and as he kept the celestial register of the words and deeds of men, he was regarded by many generations of Egyptians as the "Recording Angel." He was the inventor of physical and moral Law and became the personification of JUSTICE; and as the Companies of the G.o.ds of Heaven, and Earth, and the Other World appointed him to "weigh the words and deeds" of men, and his verdicts were unalterable, he became more powerful in the Other World than Osiris himself. Osiris owed his triumph over Set in the Great Judgment Hall of the G.o.ds entirely to the skill of Thoth of the "wise mouth" as an Advocate, and to his influence with the G.o.ds in heaven. And every follower of Osiris relied upon the advocacy of Thoth to secure his acquittal on the Day of Judgment, and to procure for him an everlasting habitation in the Kingdom of Osiris.

CHAPTER V

Thoth and Osiris.

The Egyptians were not satisfied with the mere possession of the texts of Thoth, when their souls were being weighed in the Great Scales in the Judgment Hall of Osiris, but they also wished Thoth to act as their Advocate on this dread occasion and to prove their innocence as he had proved that of Osiris before the great G.o.ds in prehistoric times. According to a very ancient Egyptian tradition, the G.o.d Osiris, who was originally the G.o.d of the principle of the fertility of the Nile, became incarnate on earth as the son of Geb, the Earth-G.o.d, and Nut, the Sky-G.o.ddess. He had two sisters, Isis and Nephthys, and one brother, Set; he married Isis and Set married Nephthys. Geb set Osiris on the throne of Egypt, and his rule was beneficent and the nation was happy and prosperous. Set marked this and became very jealous of his brother, and wished to slay him so that he might seize his throne and take possession of Isis, whose reputation as a devoted and loving wife and able manager filled the country. By some means or other Set did contrive to kill Osiris: according to one story he killed him by the side of a ca.n.a.l at Netat, near Abydos, and according to another he caused him to be drowned. Isis, accompanied by her sister Nephthys, went to Netat and rescued the body of her lord, and the two sisters, with the help of Anpu, a son of Ra the Sun-G.o.d, embalmed it. They then laid the body in a tomb, and a sycamore tree grew round it and flourished over the grave. A tradition which is found in the Pyramid Texts states that before Osiris was laid in his tomb, his wife Isis, by means of her magical powers, succeeded in restoring him to life temporarily, and made him beget of her an heir, who was called Horus. After the burial of Osiris, Isis retreated to the marshes in the Delta, and there she brought forth Horus. In order to avoid the persecution of Set, who on one occasion succeeded in killing Horus by the sting of a scorpion, she fled from place to place in the Delta, and lived a very unhappy life for some years. But Thoth helped her in all her difficulties and provided her with the words of power which restored Horus to life, and enabled her to pa.s.s unharmed among the crocodiles and other evil beasts that infested the waters of the Delta at that time.

When Horus arrived at years of maturity, he set out to find Set and to wage war against his father's murderer. At length they met and a fierce fight ensued, and though Set was defeated before he was finally hurled to the ground, he succeeded in tearing out the right eye of Horus and keeping it. Even after this fight Set was able to persecute Isis, and Horus was powerless to prevent it until Thoth made Set give him the right eye of Horus which he had carried off. Thoth then brought the eye to Horus, and replaced it in his face, and restored sight to it by spitting upon it. Horus then sought out the body of Osiris in order to raise it up to life, and when he found it he untied the bandages so that Osiris might move his limbs, and rise up. Under the direction of Thoth Horus recited a series of formulas as he presented offerings to Osiris, and he and his sons and Anubis performed the ceremonies which opened the mouth, and nostrils, and the eyes and the ears of Osiris. He embraced Osiris and so transferred to him his ka, i.e., his own living personality and virility, and gave him his eye which Thoth had rescued from Set and had replaced in his face. As soon as Osiris had eaten the eye of Horus he became endowed with a soul and vital power, and recovered thereby the complete use of all his mental faculties, which death had suspended. Straightway he rose up from his bier and became the Lord of the Dead and King of the Under World. Osiris became the type and symbol of resurrection among the Egyptians of all periods, because he was a G.o.d who had been originally a mortal and had risen from the dead.

But before Osiris became King of the Under World he suffered further persecution from Set. Piecing together a number of disconnected hints and brief statements in the texts, it seems pretty clear either that Osiris appealed to the "Great G.o.ds" to take notice that Set had murdered him, or that Set brought a series of charges against Osiris. At all events the "Great G.o.ds" determined to investigate the matter. The Greater and the Lesser Companies of the G.o.ds a.s.sembled in the celestial Anu, or Heliopolis, and ordered Osiris to stand up and defend himself against the charges brought against him by Set. Isis and Nephthys brought him before the G.o.ds, and Horus, "the avenger of his father," came to watch the case on behalf of his father, Osiris. Thoth appeared in the Hall of Judgment in his official capacity as "scribe,"

i.e., secretary to the G.o.ds, and the hearing of the evidence began. Set seems to have pleaded his own cause, and to have repeated the charges which he had made against Osiris. The defence of Osiris was undertaken by Thoth, who proved to the G.o.ds that the charges brought against Osiris by Set were unfounded, that the statements of Set were lies, and that therefore Set was a liar. The G.o.ds accepted Thoth's proof of the innocence of Osiris and the guilt of Set, and ordered that Osiris was to be considered a Great G.o.d and to have rule over the Kingdom of the Under World, and that Set was to be punished. Thoth convinced them that Osiris was "MAA KHERU," "true of word," i.e., that he had spoken the truth when he gave his evidence, and in texts of all periods Thoth is frequently described as S-MAA KHERU ASAR, i.e., he who proved Osiris to be "true of word." As for Set the Liar, he was seized by the ministers of the Great G.o.ds, who threw him down on his hands and face and made Osiris mount upon his back as a mark of his victory and superiority. After this Set was bound with cords like a beast for sacrifice, and in the presence of Thoth was hacked in pieces.

CHAPTER VI

Osiris as Judge of the Dead and King of the Under World.

When Set was destroyed Osiris departed from this world to the kingdom which the G.o.ds had given him and began to reign over the dead. He was absolute king of this realm, just as Ra the Sun-G.o.d was absolute king of the sky. This region of the dead, or Dead-land, is called "Tat,"

or "Tuat," but where the Egyptians thought it was situated is not quite clear. The original home of the cult of Osiris was in the Delta, in a city which in historic times was called Tetu by the Egyptians and Busiris by the Greeks, and it is reasonable to a.s.sume that the Tuat, over which Osiris ruled, was situated near this place. Wherever it was it was not underground, and it was not originally in the sky or even on its confines; but it was located on the borders of the visible world, in the Outer Darkness. The Tuat was not a place of happiness, judging from the description of it in the PER-T EM HRU, or Book of the Dead. When Ani the scribe arrived there he said, "What is this to which I have come? There is neither water nor air here, its depth is unfathomable, it is as dark as the darkest night, and men wander about here helplessly. A man cannot live here and be satisfied, and he cannot gratify the cravings of affection" (Chapter CLXXV). In the Tuat there was neither tree nor plant, for it was the "land where nothing grew"; and in primitive times it was a region of destruction and death, a place where the dead rotted and decayed, a place of abomination, and horror and terror, and annihilation. But in very early times, certainly in the Neolithic Period, the Egyptians believed in some kind of a future life, and they dimly conceived that the attainment of that life might possibly depend upon the manner of life which those who hoped to enjoy it led here. The Egyptians "hated death and loved life," and when the belief gained ground among them that Osiris, the G.o.d of the Dead, had himself risen from the dead, and had been acquitted by the G.o.ds of heaven after a searching trial, and had the power to "make men and women to be born again," and "to renew life" because of his truth and righteousness, they came to regard him as the Judge as well as the G.o.d of the Dead. As time went on, and moral and religious ideas developed among the Egyptians, it became certain to them that only those who had satisfied Osiris as to their truth-speaking and honest dealing upon earth could hope for admission into his kingdom.

When the power of Osiris became predominant in the Under World, and his fame as a just and righteous judge became well established among the natives of Lower and Upper Egypt, it was universally believed that after death all men would appear before him in his dread Hall of Judgment to receive their reward or their sentence of doom. The writers of the Pyramid Texts, more than fifty-five centuries ago, dreamed of a time when heaven and earth and men did not exist, when the G.o.ds had not yet been born, when death had not been created, and when anger, speech (?), cursing and rebellion were unknown. [5] But that time was very remote, and long before the great fight took place between Horus and Set, when the former lost his eye and the latter was wounded in a vital part of his body. Meanwhile death had come into the world, and since the religion of Osiris gave man a hope of escape from death, and the promise of everlasting life of the peculiar kind that appealed to the great ma.s.s of the Egyptian people, the spread of the cult of Osiris and its ultimate triumph over all forms of religion in Egypt were a.s.sured. Under the early dynasties the priesthood of Anu (the On of the Bible) strove to make their Sun-G.o.d Ra pre-eminent in Egypt, but the cult of this G.o.d never appealed to the people as a whole. It was embraced by the Pharaohs, and their high officials, and some of the n.o.bles, and the official priesthood, but the reward which its doctrine offered was not popular with the materialistic Egyptians. A life pa.s.sed in the Boat of Ra with the G.o.ds, being arrayed in light and fed upon light, made no appeal to the ordinary folk since Osiris offered them as a reward a life in the Field of Reeds, and the Field of Offerings of Food, and the Field of the Gra.s.shoppers, and everlasting existence in a trans.m.u.ted and beautified body among the resurrected bodies of father and mother, wife and children, kinsfolk and friends.

But, as according to the cult of Ra, the wicked, the rebels, and the blasphemers of the Sun-G.o.d suffered swift and final punishment, so also all those who had sinned against the stern moral Law of Osiris, and who had failed to satisfy its demands, paid the penalty without delay. The Judgment of Ra was held at sunrise, and the wicked were thrown into deep pits filled with fire, and their bodies, souls, shadows and hearts were consumed forthwith. The Judgment of Osiris took place near Abydos, probably at midnight, and a decree of swift annihilation was pa.s.sed by him on the d.a.m.ned. Their heads were cut off by the headsman of Osiris, who was called Shesmu, and their bodies dismembered and destroyed in pits of fire. There was no eternal punishment for men, for the wicked were annihilated quickly and completely; but inasmuch as Osiris sat in judgment and doomed the wicked to destruction daily, the infliction of punishment never ceased.

CHAPTER VII

The Judgment of Osiris.

The oldest religious texts suggest that the Egyptians always a.s.sociated the Last Judgment with the weighing of the heart in a pair of scales, and in the ill.u.s.trated papyri of the Book of the Dead great prominence is always given to the vignettes in which this weighing is being carried out. The heart, ab, was taken as the symbol of all the emotions, desires, and pa.s.sions, both good and evil, and out of it proceeded the issues of life. It was intimately connected with the ka, i.e., the double or personality of a man, and several short spells in the Book PER-T EM HRU were composed to ensure its preservation (Chapters XXVI-x.x.xB*). The great Chapter of the Judgment of Osiris, the CXXVth, is divided into three parts, which are sometimes (as in the Papyrus of Ani) prefaced by a Hymn to Osiris. The first part contains the following, which was said by the deceased when he entered the Hall of Maati, in which Osiris sat in judgment:

"Homage to thee, O Great G.o.d, Lord of Maati, [6] I have come to thee, O my Lord, that I may behold thy beneficence. I know thee, and I know thy name, and the names of the Forty-Two who live with thee in the Hall of Maati, who keep ward over sinners, and feed upon their blood on the day of estimating characters before Un-Nefer [7] ... Behold, I have come to thee, and I have brought maat (i.e., truth, integrity) to thee. I have destroyed sin for thee. I have not sinned against men. I have not oppressed [my] kinsfolk. I have done no wrong in the place of truth. I have not known worthless folk. I have not wrought evil. I have not defrauded the oppressed one of his goods. I have not done the things that the G.o.ds abominate. I have not vilified a servant to his master. I have not caused pain. I have not let any man hunger. I have made no one to weep. I have not committed murder. I have not commanded any to commit murder for me. I have inflicted pain on no man. I have not defrauded the temples of their oblations. I have not purloined the cakes of the G.o.ds. I have not stolen the offerings to the spirits (i.e., the dead). I have not committed fornication. I have not polluted myself in the holy places of the G.o.d of my city. I have not diminished from the bushel. I did not take from or add to the acre-measure. I did not encroach on the fields [of others]. I have not added to the weights of the scales. I have not misread the pointer of the scales. I have not taken milk from the mouths of children. I have not driven cattle from their pastures. I have not snared the birds of the G.o.ds. I have not caught fish with fish of their kind. I have not stopped water [when it should flow]. I have not cut the dam of a ca.n.a.l. I have not extinguished a fire when it should burn. I have not altered the times of the chosen meat offerings. I have not turned away the cattle [intended for] offerings. I have not repulsed the G.o.d at his appearances. I am pure. I am pure. I am pure. I am pure...."

In the second part of Chapter CXXV Osiris is seen seated at one end of the Hall of Maati accompanied by the two G.o.ddesses of Law and Truth, and the Forty-Two G.o.ds who are there to a.s.sist him. Each of the Forty-Two G.o.ds represents one of the nomes of Egypt and has a symbolic name. When the deceased had repeated the magical names of the doors of the Hall, he entered it and saw these G.o.ds arranged in two rows, twenty-one on each side of the Hall. At the end, near Osiris, were the Great Scales, under the charge of Anpu (Anubis), and the monster Amemit, the Eater of the Dead, i.e., of the hearts of the wicked who were condemned in the Judgment of Osiris. The deceased advanced along the Hall and, addressing each of the Forty-Two G.o.ds by his name, declared that he had not committed a certain sin, thus:

"O Usekh-nemmit, comer forth from Anu, I have not committed sin.

"O Fenti, comer forth from Khemenu, I have not robbed.

"O Neha-hau, comer forth from Re-stau, I have not killed men.

"O Neba, comer forth in retreating, I have not plundered the property of G.o.d.

"O Set-qesu, comer forth from Hensu, I have not lied.

"O Uammti, comer forth from Khebt, I have not defiled any man's wife.