Chapter CXXXIV: , line 2, says: "Homage to Khepra in its boat who every

day overthrows Apap." Comp., chapter CXXX., line 21, XLI., line 2. Apap was the evil serpent, the executioner of the gods, that is, the principal evil one; and Khepra, the scarabæus deity, overthrows the principal evil one, every day, according to this text.

"The Osiris * * * (name of the defunct was inserted in this blank,) is considered as a lord of eternity, he is considered as Khepra, he is lord of the diadem, he is in the eye of the sun," etc., says chapter XLII., lines 12, 13 _et seq._

And in chapter XVII., which is one of the oldest chapters of the _Per-em-hru_, lines 76, 77, 78, is; "O Khepra in thy boat! (i.e., as Harmakhis) the body of the gods is even thy body, or so to say, it is Eternity. Save Osiris * * * from those watching judges (i.e., Isis and Nephthys,) to whom the master of spells has entrusted, at his pleasure, the watching of his enemies--whom the executioner will strike--and from whose observation none escape. Let me not fall under their sword; let me not go into their place of torture; let me not remain supplicating in their abodes; let me not come into their place for execution; let me not sit down in their boilers; let me not do those things which are done by those whom the gods detest," etc.

Further according to the Book of the Dead, the soul of the dead man, says: "I fly among those of the divine essence, I become in it, Khepra ... I am that, which is in the bosom of the gods." (Chapter LXXXIII., lines 1, 2.)

Another text reads: "O it who establishes the mysteries which are in me, produce the transformations as Khepra, going out of the condition of the disk so as to give light (or, to enlighten.)" Chapter LXIV., line 16. (Comp. also chapter XCIII.)

Another text says: "I give vigor to the murdering sword which is in the hand of Khepra against the rebels." (Chapter XCV., line 3.)

Khepra is also called, Tum-Khepra. (Chapter CXLI., line 6.)

Reaching the eternal abode, the soul, says: "I am intact, intact as my father Osiris-Khepra, of whom the image is, the man whose body is not decomposed." (Chapter CLIV., lines 1, 2.)

On articles of furniture, on toys, on the coffins of mummies, on papyri and linen and other monuments, the scarabæus appears and sets off in a strong light, the Egyptian belief in the resurrection and re-birth of the pious dead. The very idea of the transformation is shown, by the hieroglyph of the scarab for the word _Kheper_, i.e., _to be_, to _become_, to _raise up_. One of the most urgent prayers to be found in many places, in the Book of the Dead as made by the deceased, is, that he may go out of the under-world to the higher regions of light, and have power to "go forth as a living soul, to take all the forms which may please him." Chabas says as to this: "We know that such was the principal beatitude of the elect in the Egyptian heaven; it allowed the faculty of transformation into all the universe under the form wished for." The god Khepra with folding wings symbolized these metamorphoses.

It figures continually in the sepulchral paintings on the walls of the hypogea of Thebes, and it announces the second birth of the soul to the future eternal life. Some figures have the scarab over the head, sometimes in place of the head. In the Great Temple at Edfu a scarab has been found portrayed with two heads, one of a ram, the symbol of Amen, or Ammon; the hidden or mysterious highest deity of the priesthood especially of Thebes; the other of a hawk, the symbol of Horus, holding in its claws a symbol of the universe.[75] It may symbolize by this form, the rising sun and the coming of the Spring sun of the vernal equinox in the zodiacal sign of the ram, but more likely has a much deeper religious meaning.[76] Represented with the head and legs of a man the scarab was an emblem of Ptah.

FOOTNOTES:

[63] Unless it be the XIIth. Myer.

[64] _La Galerie de l'Égypte Ancienne_, etc., by Aug. Ed. Mariette-Bey. Paris, 1878, pp. 46, 47.

[65] _Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de l'Orient_, by G. Maspero. Paris, 1886, p. 68 _et seq._

[66] Brugsch-Bey in, Egypt Under the Pharaohs. London, 1891, pp. 25, 26. As to the knowledge of the Ancient Egyptians; Comp. Egyptian Science from the Monuments and Ancient Books, treated as a general introduction to the History of Science, by N.E. Johnson, B.A., etc. London, (1891?) Ten Years Digging in Egypt, 1881-1891, by W.M. Flinders Petrie, etc. London, 1892, pub. by The Religious Tract Society.

[67] Comp. _La Morale Égyptienne_, etc., by E. Amelineau. Paris, 1892. Introd. pp. LXXXII. _et seq._, XX. _et seq. Ritual Funéraire de Pamonth_, by M. Eugène Revillout. Paris, 1889.

[68] _Le Papyrus de Neb-Qed (exemplaire hiéroglyphique du Livre des Morts,) reproduit_, etc., _par_ Théodule Devéria _avec la traduction du texte par_ Paul Pierret _conservateur-adjoint du Musée Égyptien du Louvre_. Paris, 1872, pl. III., col. 13, 14, p. 3.

[69] Comp. as to the Sphinx, Egypt Under the Pharaohs, by Heinrich Brugsch-Bey. London, 1891, pp. 37, 38, and especially p. 199 _et seq._ Also G. Maspero in his, _Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de l'Orient_. Paris, 1886, pp. 28, 50, 64, 209.

[70] Comp. _Recherches sur les monum. qu'on peut attribuer aux six premières Dynasties de Manethon_, etc., by M. Le vicomte Emmanuel de Rougé. Paris, _Imp. Imper._, 1866. _Recueil de Travaux Relatifs à la Philol. et à l'Arch. Égypt. et Assyri_, edited by Maspero, Vol. III. and IV., 1882 _et seq._

[71] Comp. Egypt Under the Pharaohs, etc., by Heinrich Brugsch-Bey. London, 1891, p. 199 _et seq._ The Nile. Notes for Travellers in Egypt by E.A. Wallis Budge. Litt. D., F.S.A. London, 1892, pp. 194-5. Hist. of the Egyptian Relig., by Dr. C.P. Tiele, trans. by James Ballingal. Boston, 1882, p. 81 _et seq._

[72] _Recueil de Travaux Relatifs à la Philol. et à l'Arch. Égypt._, etc., _publié de sous la direction de_ G. Maspero, Vol. XI., fas. I, pp. 2, 3. See also as to mention of Tumu, the Scarabæus, in the pyramid of Pepi II. (Nefer-ka-Ra) 3166 B.C. _Ibid._, Vol. XII., pp. 144, 153.

[73] Tumu or Tmu was also called Hor-em-khu, i.e., Horus on the horizon, or, the rising sun, he was the deity Harmakhis of the Greeks; his symbol, as before mentioned, was the Great Sphinx. Egypt Under the Pharaohs, by Brugsch-Bey. London, 1891, pp. 199, 201. As to Tum, see _Supra_.

[74] _Recueil_, etc., before cited, Vol. XII., p. 160 _et seq._, 189, 190. Pyramid of Pepi II. See also the Book of the Dead, Turin Mss. ch. CXLI., A. 6; _Ibid._, ch. XVII. beginning; _Ibid._, ch. LXXIX., l. 1; _Ibid._, ch. LXXVIII., l. 12.

[75] _Religions de l'Antiquité_, etc., by J.D. Guigniaut, founded on the German work of Dr. Fréd. Creuzer. Paris, 1825, Vol. I., part 2, pl. XLVIII., 187b. Compare the other curious figures of the scarabæus in this volume, also p. 948 _et seq._

[76] Comp. Wilkinson, Manners, etc., of the Ancient Egyptians, 2nd series, London, 1841, Vol. II., p. 260, Vol. I., pp. 250, 256.

VII.

IMPORTANCE OF THE HEART IN THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN RELIGION.
IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL ACCORDING TO THAT RELIGION. SYMBOLISM OF
THE SCARAB IN THEIR DOCTRINE OF SUCH IMMORTALITY. NO THING IN
THIS UNIVERSE ABSOLUTELY DESTROYED, ONLY CHANGED. THE IDEA OF
METEMPSYCHOSIS IN ANCIENT EGYPT. ELEVATED IDEAS AS TO THE DEITY.
HYMN TO AMMON-RA CITED. QUOTATIONS AS TO EGYPTIAN PHILOSOPHY,
EVOLUTION OF THE UNIVERSE AND KOSMOGONY. OF KHEPRA AND OF TUM OR
ATMU. EGYPTIAN PSYCHOLOGY AND ITS DIVISIONS.

The human heart, the first life principle of human existence and regeneration, the first apparent individuality of embryonic human life; was symbolized, in the _Per-em-Hru_, i.e., the Book of the Dead, by Khepra, the scarabæus deity; this is one reason why the texts (chapters XXX. and XXVII., see also LXIV.,) which related to the heart, were those usually inscribed on the funeral scarabæi, and consecrated to the preservation of the heart of the dead. The condition of death was described by the Egyptian expression: "The one whose heart does not beat." The resurrection or re-birth from the dead only began, according to the Egyptian idea, when this organ, so essential and necessary to all animal life, was returned to the deceased _Ba_, i.e., responsible soul, by the decree of Osiris and the judges of the dead, which Thoth registers: "To him is accorded that his heart may be in its place." Indeed most of the texts of the _Per-em-Hru_, as we have seen, are dedicated to the preservation of the heart of the dead one. The philosophic student can therefore from this, at once see, the great value of the scarabæus symbol to the whole religious thought-world of Ancient Egypt. It was the symbol, when returned to the dead, of the regenerated and resurrected life of the dead one to the heavenly regions of the blessed for all eternity, to the second birth in the regions of eternal rest and happiness.

Taking as a model the daily course of the sun, which rising in the morning as Horus; reaching the zenith at noon as Ra; setting in the evening, in the regions of darkness as Tum; and absent during the night and until the morrow as Osiris; upon which, victorious over the chaotic darkness, it arose in triumph again as Horus; the birth and journey of man on earth, was considered by the Ancient Egyptians as similar to the solar journey; and death, the end of that journey, was assimilated to the course of the sun when at night it was, according to their astronomical knowledge, supposed to be in the Lower Regions or Underworld, the abode of Osiris. When he died, the Egyptian became as Osiris, "the nocturnal sun;" resurrected, he became Horus, the new-born and rising sun; in midday, he was Ra. Horus was: "The Old One who rejuvenated himself." Such a re-birth of the dead to immortality, was the recompense promised by the Egyptian religion, to the soul of the man pious and good during this life, but the wicked were to be tortured, transformed into lower forms, or annihilated.[77] Matter, according to it, does not perish but only changes and the earth itself, was deified as Seb, Isis, Ta-nen, and Ptah-Tatunen.

What then did matter become, it was transformed, the deities were transformed. Matter was transformed,--this is explained to us through the symbolism of the scarab, the hieroglyph of the word _Kheper_, i.e., "to be," "to exist," "to become," "to create," "to emanate;" of which, as I have said, the Great Sphinx is the symbol, and has therefore the philosophical value of creator and created.[78] God and His universe, existence and change or transformation, death and dissolution, all which were only considered as regeneration and re-birth in another form. Thence becomes apparent to us, the great value and importance to the Egyptian people of the symbolism of the scarab, it was, to them, the emblematic synthesis of their religion as to-day to Christians, the Latin or the Greek cross, is the emblematic synthesis of Latin or Greek Christianity. The philosophic Egyptian, thought, the atoms and molecules of all bodies and of all matter, were never destroyed or lost, they were always in motion but were only transformed and changed, by death or the dissolution of forms. Death on this earth did not destroy the personality of the human being, that continued beyond death on our earth, and as to those who had been good and pious during their life here, their personality continued eternally; but the punishment of the wicked was, the annihilation of that personality or an immobility which was almost the same. The work entitled, Hermes Trismegistos, contains a resumé of that idea, saying, among other things: "What was composed is divided. That division is not Death, it is the analysis of a combination; but the aim of that analysis is not destruction, it is the renewment. What is in effect the energy of life? Is it not movement? What then is there in this world, immovable?"[79]

The everlasting interchange of life and death, flows throughout all the religious philosophy of the Ancient Egyptians; basing itself on the continual return of day from night and of day to night, and upon the apparent course of the sun, they seem to have formulated the idea of the immortality of the soul of man after death.

Herodotus tells us,[80] that the Egyptians believed, that the soul of the departed passed into an animal, and after having gone through all the ranks of the animal world, was at the end of three thousand years reunited to the human body; but from the remains of the Egyptian religion we have to-day, next to nothing has been found that will confirm this statement, but much that shows the Greek authors were frequently in error. In the realm of the dead, according to the texts of the Book of the Dead, (chapter LXXXIX. and other places,) the responsible soul or _Ba_ of the deceased, may become a sparrow-hawk, an adder, a crocodile-headed being, etc., but only to deceive its demon enemies;[81] not until after this, is the _Khu_, the intellectual soul, which accompanies the _Ba_, which is represented under the symbolized form of a sparrow-hawk with a human head, reunited to the _Ba_. This however all occurs, not on earth, but in the realms of the dead. The Ancient Egyptian believed, that as the setting of the sun was an actual separation of the body and soul of the sun-god; and its rising, a reunion of the two; so it happened to the future of the spiritual of man, and that after man's death on this earth, his spirit, as did that of the sun-god; would arise again to life, but it would be to a life of immortality in a higher sphere. I am inclined also to think, that they believed the spiritual body of the new-born child came down from the sun-disk or from some very exalted sphere.[82]

The following quotations from Eugène Grébaut's translation in French, of the Hymn to Ammon-Ra, are important for an understanding of the positions of Khepra and of Turn during the Theban Dynasties.

"Hail to thee Ra, lord of the _maat_, (the) mysterious in his shrine. Master (i.e., father) of the gods, Khepra in its boat, (it) sending forth the word (i.e., the creative word,) the gods came into existence. Hail god Tum, maker of intelligent beings, who determines their manner of existence, artisan of their existences; (and who) distinguishes (their) colors, one from the other."[83] "Author of humanity, making the form of all things to become (or, former who produced every thing;) it is in thy name of Tum-Khepra."[84] "Khepra is father of the gods and the producer of the _maat_."[85]

The deities go out of the mouth of their father Khepra, and are nourished by the _maat_, i.e., the Harmony or Law of the universe;[86] men go out of its eyes, that is from the light of the deity, and it is this light which vivifies the entire universe. The Hymn says: "O Form, ONE, producing all things, the ONE, who art Alone; producing existences! Men come forth from Its two eyes, the gods come into existence from Its Word. Author of the green pastures, which nourish the cattle, and of the nutritious plants for the use of mankind. It who maketh that fishes live in the rivers and the winged fowl in the air; who giveth the breath of life to (the germ) in the egg. It maketh to live birds of all species, and likewise the insects which creep and also those which fly. It maketh provision for the rats in their holes, and nourisheth the birds that are on the trees. Hail to Thee, O Author of the totality of all forms. The ONE who art alone, yet numberless through Thy extended arms: watching over all humanity when it sleeps, seeking the good of Its creatures."[87] I have used the neuter It and not He, the Egyptian idea of the highest deity was, that it was androgenic not masculine. Although it would seem that this Hymn, of which I have cited but a small portion, applied to Ammon-Ra, yet it expressly says, that: Its name is also Tum (or, Atmu,)--Khepra.[88]

Another text reads: "O Bull of the western region[89] concealed in the concealed region (i.e., Amenti or the Underworld) from whom emanates all the gods (and all) the goddesses who are with him! The Osiris, the Hathor * * * (the name of the dead was inserted here) the justified (or, triumphant,) comes towards thee; the becoming which is in the becoming of all things when they become.[90] Powerful lords, beneficent, divine, judging the speech (words) of the inhabitants of the countries; lords of Truth![91] Hail to thee! gods, essence of the essences without their bodies, ruling the generations of _Ta-nen_ (i.e., of this earth) and the births (begettings) in the temple of _Mesxen_[92] (they raise the generations?) from the first essence of the divine essences, third greatness above the father of their fathers; invoking the soul from its Almightiness when are produced its Desires (Will;) adoring their Father in his glorifications; _divine Prototypes of the Types of all that exists_, Fathers and Mothers of the solar disk, Forms, Great Ancients, Divine Essences, first from Atum (i.e., chaos,) emanating humanity; causing to emerge the forms of all forms; lords of the divine sustenance; homage to thee! Lords from everlasting, possessing eternity," etc.[93] "All that is done and said upon earth has its source in the heights, from whence the essences are dispensed to us with measure and equilibrium; and there is not anything, which does not emanate from on high and which does not return thereto."[94]

The verb _Kheper_ usually translated "to be," "to exist," "to become," also has the meaning of "to roll" or "revolve." The sun apparently rolled or revolved around the earth. In the British Museum, in a hieratic papyrus (No. 10,188,) Khepera is identified with the deity Neb-er'-ter, and the latter says, in it:--"I am He (It?) who evolved Himself (Itself?) under the form of the god Khepera. I, the evolver of evolutions, evolved Myself, the evolver of all evolutions, after a multitude of evolutions and developments which came forth from My mouth.[95] There was not any heaven, earth was not, animals which move upon the earth and reptiles existed not in that place. I constructed their forms out of the inert mass of watery matter. I did not find any place upon which I could stand. By the power which was in My Will I laid the foundation (of things) in the form of the god Shu[96] and I created (emanated?) for them every attribute which they have. I alone existed, for I had not, as yet, made Shu emanate from Me, and I had not ejected the spittle which became Tefnut (i.e., the deity or personification of, moisture.) There did not exist any other to work with Me. By My own Will I laid the foundation of all things, and the evolutions of things, and the evolutions which took place from the evolutions of their births, which took place through the evolutions of their offspring, became multiplied. My shadow[97] was united with Me, and produced Shu and Tefnut from the emanation of Myself, * * * thus from one deity I became three deities * * * I gathered together My members and wept over them, and from the tears which fell from My eye, men and women sprung into existence."

The duplicate copy of this chapter reads: "I developed Myself from the primeval matter which I made. My name is Osiris, the germ of primeval matter. I have worked My Will to its full extent in this earth, I have spread abroad (or, expanded Myself,) and fitted it * * * I uttered My Name as a Word of Power, from My own mouth, and I straightway developed Myself by evolution. I evolved Myself under the form of the evolutions of the god Khepera, and I developed Myself out of the primeval matter which has evolved multitudes of evolutions from the beginning of time. No-thing existed on this earth (before Me,) I made all things. There was none other who worked with Me at that time. I made all evolutions by means of that soul, which I raised up there from inertness out of the watery matter."[98] This is a most important papyrus for a knowledge of Ancient Egyptian philosophy.

"'In the beginning: When there was not yet heaven, when there was not yet earth, when there were not yet men, when the gods were not yet born, when there was not yet death.'[99] Nu alone was existing, the water (or humid) principle of all things, and in that primordial water, Tumu, the father of the gods.[100] The day of creation came, Shu raised the waters upon the staircase which is in Khmunu.[101] The earth was made even under his feet, as a long united table; heaven appeared above his head as a ceiling of iron (or steel) upon which rolled the divine Ocean. Hor (Horus) and his sons Hapi, Amsit (or Mestha,) Tuamautef and Qebhsennuf, the gods of the four cardinal points, went out at once and posted themselves at the four corners of the inferior table, and received the four angles of the firmament upon the point of their sceptres; the sun appeared and the voice of the god, the first day is arisen and the world was thereafter constituted, such as it ought to ever remain!"[102]

"Glory of all things, God, the divine and the divine nature. Principles of the beings; God, the Intelligence, nature and matter. Wisdom manifests the universe, of which the divine is the principle, the nature, energy, necessity, the end and the renewing.

There was darkness without limit over the abyss and the water, and a subtle and intelligent spirit, contained in chaos by the divine power. Then gushed forth the holy light, and under the sand (i.e., the atomic dryness) the elements went forth from the humid essence, and all the gods distributed the fecundity of nature. The universe being in confusion and disorder, the buoyant elements ascended, and the heavier were established as a foundation under the damp sand, (and) everything became separated by fire and suspended, so as to be raised by the spirit."[103]

The Ancient Egyptians made many more statements which undoubtedly referred to an unknown, all-powerful, ideal deity of the highest order, I have a great number of such, but will not bring them forward in this writing; I refer the reader for some quotations on this subject, to the valuable writings of Mr. P. Le Page Renouf, especially to his; Religion of Ancient Egypt (Hibbert Lectures for 1879), which I have already cited in several places.

It will be seen from these quotations, that Khepra, the scarabæus deity, especially as Tum-Khepra; occupied a most elevated position, I might say the most elevated, of all the religious conceptions of the Ancient Egyptians, for beyond it, was the unknown ideal deity whom none could form a conception of. Khepra was asserted to have generated and caused to come into existence, itself through itself, it united in itself, the male and female principles of life. It was androgenic. The scarabæus was the hieroglyph of the _creator_, the _to be_, _to become_, to _exist_, the _eternal_, the _coming into being from chaotic non-being_, also the _itself transforming_ or _becoming_, the _emanating_ or _creating power_, also, the _universe_. Khepra was "Father of the gods," connected with the idea of the rising of the sun from the darkness of night, Khepra was used to typify the resurrection from the dead of the spirits of men. It represented the active and positive in antithesis to Atmu, or Tum. With Atmu as Atmu (or, Tum)-Khepra, it represented the positive and negative united, spirit and matter.

Atmu, Tum or Tmu, was the symbol of the eternal night or darkness of Chaos, which preceded the emanation of light, it was the type of senility and absolute death, the negative and end. It was the nocturnal or hidden sun, as Horus was the rising sun, and Ra the risen sun, proceeding in its course each day through the firmament. Tum was not however considered as absolutely inert, it was the precursor of the rising sun, and the point of departure of the setting sun, and was the nocturnal sun, and was also a point of departure into existence, of all the created and emanated in the universe. It, as well as Khepra, in some of the texts is called "Father of the gods."[104]

This deity was the unknown and inaccessible, primordial deity of chaos, "existing alone in the abyss," before the appearance of Light. One of the texts reads:

"Homage to thee, sun at its setting, Tum-Harmakhis, god renewing and forming itself in itself, double essence. * * Hail to thee author of the gods, who hast suspended heaven for the circulation of thy two eyes, author of the earth in its extent, and from whom the light is, so as to give to all men the sensation of the sight of his fellow creature."[105]

It is of the greatest importance to an understanding of the Egyptian religion and philosophy, and especially of the _Per-em-hru_, the so-called, Book of the Dead; that the Egyptian psychology be comprehended; in order to enable the reader to do this, I have prepared the following condensed statement of the same.

I. The Body was called _Khat_. This was embalmed and then placed
in the tomb.

II. The Soul was called, _Ba_ or _Bai_, plur. _Baiu_. This was
the part of the spiritual which was thought to contain the
elements necessary for the world-life of a man, such as
judgment, conscience, etc. It seems to be the same termed
_psuke_ or _psyche_ by the Greeks. This _Ba_ performed the
pilgrimage in the underworld, and was judged for the conduct of
the man it inhabited in this world, by Osiris and the Forty-two
judges. It was usually represented as a bird, especially as a
human-headed sparrow-hawk. It fluttered to and fro between this
world and the next, sometimes visiting the mummy in its tomb. It
was sometimes represented as a crane, at others as a lapwing. It
is paralleled by the _Rua'h_ of the Hebrew Qabbalah.

III. The Intellectual part of man's spirit was called, _Xu_ or
_Khu_. It was considered as part of the flame detached from the
upper divine fire. Freed from mortality it wandered through
space and had the power of keeping company with or haunting
humanity, and even of entering into and taking possession of the
body of a living man. The Egyptians spoke of being possessed
with a _khu_ as we would say of a being possessed by a
spirit.[106] It was considered as a luminous spirit. It was the
Intelligence and answers to the _Nous_ of the Greeks and the
_Neshamah_ of the Hebrew Qabbalah.

IV. The Shadow or Shade was called, _Khaibit_. This created the
Individuality, and was an important part of the personality.
There was a valley in which the Shades were, in the Underworld.
It was restored to the soul in the second life. They are
frequently mentioned in the _Per-em-hru_. His shadow, would
early attract the attention of the primitive man.

V. The Name was called, _Ren_. This was the Personality, that
something, which continued to know itself as a distinct
individual, through every change of the atoms and appearances of
the body. In the _Per-em-hru_ was written: "The Osiris (then the
name of the dead was inserted.)" It was restored eternally to
the soul in the second life. The _Ba_ retained the _Ren_ in its
journey through the Underworld.

VI. The life or Double was called, _Ka_, plur. _Kau_. This was
the vital principle, necessary to the existence of man as an
animal being on this earth. It was a spiritual double, a second
perfect exemplar or copy, of his flesh, blood, etc., body; but
of a matter less dense than corporeal matter, but having all its
shape and features, being child, man, or woman, as the living
had been. It dwelt with the mummy in the tomb and had a
semi-material form and substance, and I am inclined to think,
from the texts, it had power to leave the tomb when it pleased
but always returned. Its emblem was the _ankh_ or _crux ansata_.
It was something like the higher _Nephesh_ of the Hebrew
Qabbalah. The sacrificial food left in the tombs and the
pictures on their walls were for the benefit of the _Ka_. The
_Ka_ corresponded to the Latin, _genius_. Its original meaning
may have been _image_;[107] it was like the Greek _eidolon_,
i.e., ghost. The funeral oblations were made to the image or
_Ka_. The _Ka_ was a spiritual double of the man, a kind of
prototype in the Upper World, of the man in the Lower World, our
earth.[108]

VII. The Mummy or the Husk was called, _Sahu_. It was the body
after embalmment. "His body is in the condition of being true;
it will not perish."[109] The _Sahu_ was considered a true being
as it was assumed that it would always remain the same. It was
like the lower form of the _Nephesh_ of the Hebrew Qabbalah. The
atoms of the mummy-body were still intact held together by the
_cohesion_ of the particles. This cohesion was looked upon as a
spiritual energy keeping the particles together, in the form of
the mummy. The word _Sahu_ may sometimes refer to this living
personality.

VIII. The Heart was called _Ab_. This was thought to be the seat
of life, the life being in the blood, and the embryonic life
starting with the pulsations of the heart. See, Appendix A.

The _Ba_, performed the journey through the Underworld accompanied by the Name and Shadow, until it reached the Hall of Judgment; if pronounced pure, the Heart was then given it. The Name, Shadow and Heart, then awaited reunion with the _Khu_ and _Ka_ for the condition of final immortality and the power to make the transformations. The body was embalmed and the _Ka_ dwelt in the sepulchre with it, but went in and out of the tomb. The _Khu_ also accompanied the _Ba_ in its journey through the Underworld and assisted it, but in case of an adverse judgment in the Hall of Osiris and the decree of annihilation; the _Khu_ fled back to its immortal source of life and light.

Not any of these, by its own nature, could exist for any length of time entirely separated from the others; if left to itself, that so separated, would in time dissolve into new elements and if it were the soul, it would die a second time, the personality and individuality would then perish and become annihilated; this was the much feared, second death. This however might be prevented by the piety of the survivors, in repeating the prayers and litanies and performing the lustrations and sacrifices, for the dead. The lot to do this usually fell to the eldest son and in default of sons, to the daughters, etc., no relations existing, the dead persons' slaves could perform it. The priests were also left annuities to perform perpetually, the sacred duties to the dead. Embalmment preventing for centuries, decomposition; continued prayers, devotions and offerings would save, it was believed, the _Ka_, the _Ba_, and the _Khu_, from the second death, and procure for them what was necessary to prolong their existence. The _Ka_, they thought, never quitted the place where the mummy was except at some time to return. The _Ba_, and the _Khu_ went away from it to follow the gods, but they continually returned as would a traveler who re-entered his house after an absence. The tomb was the defunct's "eternal dwelling house" on earth, the houses of the living were only as inns or stopping places. In case of a judgment in favor of the _Ba_ in the Hall of Osiris, the _Khu_ united to the _Ba_, _Khaibet_, _Ab_, _Ka_, etc., rose up to the Egyptian heaven, and the whole united was able to make whatever transformations pleased it.

FOOTNOTES:

[77] Comp. Hist. of the Egypt. Relig., by Dr. C.P. Tiele. London, 1892, pp. 89, 127, 139.

[78] Most likely the Egyptian idea was "to emanate" more than "to create."

[79] Louis Ménard's edition. Paris, 1867, p. 89.

[80] Book II., ch. 123.

[81] Hist. of the Egypt. Relig., by C.P. Tiele, pp. 47, 71.

[82] Comp. Hist, of the Egypt. Relig., by C.P. Tiele. London, 1890, p. 127. The Book of the Dead. Fac-simile of the Papyrus of Ani, etc., notes by P. Le Page Renouf. London, 1890, p. 16, note. See also _supra_ reference to the _Mesxen_. A similar idea is in the Zohar, compare Qabbalah, etc., by Isaac Myer. Philadelphia, 1888, pp. 397, 388, 389, 108 _et seq._, 190, 196, 418, and many other places.

[83] _Hymne à Ammon-Ra des papyrus Égyptiens du Musée de Boulaq, traduit et commenté_, by Eugène Grébaut, etc. Paris, 1874, p. 11.

[84] _Ibid._, p. 28. See also, pp. 115, 120-122, 295.

[85] _Ibid._, pp. 112, 115.

[86] As to the meaning of the important word _maat_, see, Religion of Ancient Egypt, by P. Le Page Renouf--Hibbert Lectures for 1879. New York, pp. 73 _et seq._; 123 _et seq._ _Hymne à Ammon-Ra_, last before cited, notes p. 110 _et seq._

[87] _Hymne à Ammon-Ra_, p. 16 _et seq._

[88] _Ibid._, pp. 27, 28.

[89] Comp. _Hymne à Ammon-Ra_, by E. Grébaut, pp. 3, 4, and notes to same, p. 39 _et seq._

[90] Or, "the changing which is in the changing of all things when they change."

[91] That is: "Lords of _maat_," i.e., of the harmony of the universe.

[92] Place of the soul's birth. This refers to the upper prototypic world. The same idea is in the Zohar.

[93] _Catalogue des Manuscrits Égyptiens_, etc., _au Musée Égypt. du Louvre, par Feu Théodule Devéria_. Paris, 1881, No. 3283; pp. 143, 144. Comp. _Hermès Trismégiste_, par Louis Ménard, second ed. Paris, 1867, pp. 188, 190, 117 _et seq._; 147.

[94] _Hermès Trismégiste_, edition last cited, p. 218.

[95] By the Word or Logos. The Logos occupied an important position in the Ancient Egyptian religion. See my Article on the subject in, The Oriental Review, January-February, 1893, p. 20 _et seq._

[96] Shu corresponds to the Makrokosm, the primordial Adam or androgenic Adam Qadmon, of the first chapter of the Hebrew Book of Genesis. As to Shu, see: History of the Egypt. Relig., by Dr. C.P. Tiele. Boston, 1882, pp. 84, 85, 155, 156.

[97] The Hebrew _She-kheen-ah_, or Glory?

[98] The Nile. Notes for Travellers in Egypt, by E.A. Wallis Budge, Litt. D., F.S.A., etc., second ed. London, 1892, p. 165 _et seq._

[99] Inscriptions in the pyramid of Pepi I., l. 664 (_circa_ 3233-3200 B.C.,) in the _Recueil de Travaux Relatifs à la Philol., et à l'Arch. Égypt._, etc., Vol. VIII., p. 104.

[100] Comp. The _Per-em-hru_ or, Book of the Dead, edition of Ed. Naville, ch. XVII., l. 3, 4. In the passage cited from Pepi, I. 664 _et seq._, Tumu is also a primordial deity and its female _sakti_ or principle, is Nu or Nut, the sky.

[101] It is from this action that the deity was named Shu from the root, _Shu_ to lift up, to raise. Later, through a pun, he obtained the meaning of Luminous. Comp. also Naville's ed. of the _Per-em-hru_ last cited, l. 4 _et seq._

[102] G. Maspero in the _Revue de l'Hist. des Religions. Le Livre des Morts_, Vol. XV., pp. 269, 270.

[103] Hermès Trismégistos, second ed., by Louis Ménard. Paris, 1867. pp. 27, 28. _Hermetis Trismegisti Poemander; ad fidem codicum manu scriptorum recognovit_, by Gustavus Parthey. Berolini, 1854, p. 31. The word "sand" is used to symbolize the positive or atomic dryness, and "damp sand," the atomic humidity, or the negative.

[104] Book of the Dead, ch. XVII., l. 1-4; XV., l. 28, 29, 43, 47; LXXIX., l. 1, 2; LXXVIII., l. 12. _Hymne à Ammon-Ra_, by Eugène Grébaut. Paris, 1874, pp. 11, 28, 112, 115, 120-122, 295.

[105] Paul Pierret, _Études Égyptol._, I., 81.

[106] F. Chabas, _l'Égyptologie_. Paris, 1878, Vol. II., p. 103.

[107] Comp. Trans. Soc. Biblical Literature, Vol. VI., pp. 494-508.

[108] Comp. Religion of Ancient Egypt by P. Le Page Renouf, p. 153 _et seq._

[109] _Mythe d' Horus_, by E. Naville.

VIII.

FORGERY OF SCARABS IN MODERN TIMES. DIFFICULTY OF DETECTING
SUCH. OTHER EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES ALSO COUNTERFEITED BY THE
PRESENT INHABITANTS OF EGYPT.

M. Prisse says:[110] "Most of the fellahs who inhabit the land, formerly Memphis and Thebes, live only from the products of their finds. Constrained to cease from their lucrative researches, they are reduced to the counterfeiting of figurines, amulets and the other objects of art which they formerly found in the earth. Necessity the mother of industry has caused them in a short time to make wonderful progress. Without any practice in the arts, and with the rudest tools, some of the peasants have carved scarabs and beautiful statuettes and ornamented them with hieroglyphic legends. They very well know that cartouches add much value to the antiquities, and they are never in want of copies of them either from the great monuments or the original scarabs. They use in making the copies a limestone of fine and compact grain, soapstone, serpentine and alabaster. The objects made of limestone are daubed with bitumen taken from the mummies, or from the colors taken away from the paintings in the hypogea, finally some are covered uniformly with a brilliant pottery glaze which renders, it is true, the forms rather blurred and not easy to see, but which resembles in a surprising manner, antiquities which the action of fire or of earth, impregnated with saltpetre, have slightly damaged. The feigned hieroglyphs therein are mistaken for those as to which the work has been neglected. Their statuettes recall the figurines of poor ware, which the Ancient Egyptians placed in so great a number in their tombs. In spite of their imperfections, the fellahs have been perfectly successful in deceiving most of the travelers, generally grossly ignorant of antiquities. Hard stones, such as basalt, green jasper, burnt serpentine, green feldspar, chalcedony, cornelian, etc., upon which the rude tools of the fellahs would not have worked, would have become, for the amateurs in antiquities, the only pieces of authentic origin; but the Jews of Cairo, also as rapacious and more able than the Arabs, have engraved with the wheel, scarabs and amulets denuded of legends; and finally have entirely counterfeited them, so that all these little objects are now very much suspected, and their appreciation to-day, demands understanding of the text much more than knowledge of Egyptian art.

Not only the tourists, the people of leisure from Europe, who bring back from all the classic lands some antiquities, in place of observation and study, which are not sold; purchase these falsified antiquities, but also people who pride themselves upon having a knowledge of archæology, often buy them. Most of the collections of the Museums of Europe contain, more or less, objects fabricated in our day in Egypt. 'Luxor' says M. Mariette, 'is a centre for fabrications in which scarabs, statuettes and even steles, are imitated with an address which often leads astray the most instructed antiquary.'"

Mr. Henry A. Rhind[111] writing in 1862 says: "There is now at Thebes an arch-forger of scarabæi--a certain Ali Gamooni, whose endeavors, in the manufacture of these much sought after relics, have been crowned with the greatest success. * * Scarabæi of elegant and well finished descriptions, are not beyond the range of this curious counterfeiter. These he makes of the same material as the ancients used--a close-grained, easily cut limestone--which, after it is cut into shape and lettered, receives a greenish glaze by being baked on a shovel with brass filings. Ali not content with closely imitating, has even aspired to the creative; so antiquarians must be on their guard lest they waste their time and learning, on antiquities of a very modern date."[112]

FOOTNOTES:

[110] _Collections d'Antiquités Égypt. au Caire_, p. 1 _et seq._

[111] Thebes; its Tombs and their Tenants, ancient and modern. London, 1862.

[112] _Ibid._, pp. 253-255. Comp. Gliddon, Indigenous Races, p. 192 note.

IX.

PHOENICIAN SCARABS. MANUFACTURED MOSTLY AS ARTICLE OF TRADE.
USED INSCRIBED SCARABS AS SEALS IN COMMERCIAL AND OTHER
TRANSACTIONS. MANY SCARABS FOUND IN SARDINIA.

Archæologists frequently find in lands bordering on the shores of the Mediterranean sea, scarabs and scarabeoids, on which are engraved subjects which are Egyptian, Chaldean, Assyrian, Hittite or Persian; they were intended apparently to be used as signets, and were incised with short inscriptions in Phoenician, and sometimes, in Aramaic or in Hebrew, giving the name of the owner of the signet.

These had been mostly manufactured in their entirety, as articles of trade, for sale by the ancient merchants of Tyre and Sidon, or they were Egyptian, Assyrian or other originals upon which, Phoenician lapidaries had engraved the name of the later Phoenician owner. In spite of not being an artistic people producing works of originality, this people, the great mariners and merchants of antiquity, had in an eminent degree the genius of assimilation or adaptation, and manufactured cylinders, cones, spheroids, scarabs and signets of all kinds, at first for themselves, and afterwards as an article of sale to the people with whom they traded.

They also used seals in their commercial and maritime transactions, which they surrounded with the same formalities which we find in Assyria, Babylonia and Chaldea. When they dealt with these last mentioned peoples, the Phoenicians came into contact with nations, whose most unimportant transactions were put into writing by a scribe, and sealed in the presence of witnesses, with the seal of the contracting parties. They therefore in dealing with these people were obliged to have and use signets.[113][114] Such contracts have been found dating between 745-729 B.C.

In the island of Sardinia have been found numerous intaglios under the form of scarabs, they were apparently used as signets. The under parts are incised with Egyptian, Assyro-Chaldean or Persian subjects. In the necropolis of Tharros, an early Phoenician colony situated near the present Torre di San Giovanni di Sinis, have been found more than 600 scarabs ornamented with Egyptian, Assyrian and Persian subjects;[115] and one might believe a colony which came from Egypt or Assyria settled there. These scarabs are usually cut in dark green jasper, some are made of cornelian, others of a glass-paste, rarely in amethyst or sardonyx. The work is variable sometimes carefully done, but none of the scarabs have the clearness of those found in Egypt, nor of the Assyro-Chaldean of Asia. Most of these scarabs, which are always made in nearly the same form, were mounted, some in gold and others in silver; also sometimes in other metals which the corrosions from age had already caused to disappear when they were found.

These intaglios can be divided from the nature of the subjects into three varieties. The first those imitating the Egyptian; the second, the Assyro-Chaldean; and the third, the Persian. All these scarabs are of Phoenician manufacture, but they were probably made in Sardinia, as the remains of the workshops and materials used in making them, have been found there. They do not go back of 500 B.C. The Phoenicians in their colonies, showed no more originality in their work than they did in the mother country, and have been only the intermediary agents between the civilization of the Orient and that of the Occident. This people even counterfeited Egyptian manufactures and antiquities in order to sell them, and the borrowings in their own religion show, they were governed more by the gains of trade than the desires or depths of piety. There are a number in the Cesnola collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

There is a magnificent scarab in green jasper in the British Museum, but where it was produced is not known. It appears to be from the chisel of an Egyptian artist. The base however has been engraved by another; its subject is clearly Assyrian, in the style of work done with the drill, by the artists of Calah. In the field of the signet is a symbol unknown to Assyria or Egypt, below this is evidently the Egyptian _ankh_ or _crux ansata_ and below this is the inscription: "(Signet) of Hodo, the Scribe." This a beautiful specimen of the intelligent work of the Phoenicians.

FOOTNOTES:

[113] Such contracts written on terra cotta, have been found sealed with impressions of the finger nails on the margin of the terra cotta before it was baked; others have had something as to the act done, referred to on the margins, written in Phoenician letters. There has been found an example of this as early as 783 B.C.

[114] Menant. _Les Pierres Gravées de la Haute-Asie_, p. 211 _et seq._

[115] Crespi, _Catalogo_, p. 138, No. 1.

X.

ETRUSCAN SCARABS. ORIGIN OF AND WHERE FOUND. COPIED FROM
EGYPTIAN BUT WITH CHANGES IN SUBJECTS, SIZE AND ORNAMENTATION.
THE ENGRAVING OF. WHERE USUALLY FOUND. USES BY THE ETRUSCANS.
GREEK AND ROMAN SCARABS. GNOSTIC, OF THE BASILIDIANS.

The archaic people of ancient Etruria did not make cameos, their gems were intaglios and were incised on the under side, on forms shaped in the model of the scarabæus or beetle. The use of the form therefore was most likely derived from those used in the valley of the Nile. The Etruscan scarabs were however not correct representations; they were conventional and exaggerated resemblances of the insect.

The Etruscan scarabæus is found in different parts of Italy, quite frequently at Chiusi, in Tuscany, which was formerly ancient Etruria; from whence, the name Etruscan for those found in this part of Italy, has been derived.

They were usually manufactured of common red sard, such as is now often met with in the beds of Italian torrents, but Etruscan scarabs have also been found made of sardonyx, cornelian, onyx and agate, also, but rarely, of chalcedony.

The ancient inhabitants of Italy followed the Egyptian form in making the representation except, that the back and the wing cases of the scarab are set much higher than the Egyptian, and there is usually a raised ridge running along the junction, also the legs are cut out on the side, and a slight difference exists in the ornamentation and engraving of the wing cases. The stones have been rubbed into shape apparently by corundum. Few exceed an inch, and most are not over half an inch in length, whereas the Egyptian were from the size of our ordinary house fly to those a number of feet across. The material of the Etruscan is also always semi-transparent, except those burned which has made the sard opaque. The flat side or base was engraved with intaglio. This engraving though in early examples rude and done with the drill, was in later times, improved by the use of the wheel, diamond dust and the diamond point, and by the polishing of both the surface and the incised parts, and also, by the addition, both at the sides and around the engraved base, of an ornamental border of small strokes following each other closely, resembling in some specimens, the milling of a coin; in others, it is like a widely linked chain or string of beads, or a loosely twisted cable, and in others like the ornamentation known as "egg moulding."

In Egyptian scarabs the flat or under part of the stone, which is the side engraved in intaglio, has representations of deities or hieroglyphs; in the Etruscan, the subjects engraved in intaglio on the base, are representations of animals, wild or domestic, or are those derived from Egyptian, Assyrian or Babylonian sources, and after acquaintance with the Greeks, subjects derived from early Greek myths, especially the deeds of Herakles and of the heroes of the Trojan War, of those of Thebes and the sports of the Palæstra.

Sometimes the name of the subject was engraved on one side of it, and occasionally the wearer's name or a word of mystic meaning, rarely symbols or figures of the Etruscan gods or chimæras. The engraving is of great service to the historian and student of the glyptic art, as the subjects show the transition from Assyrian, Egyptian, and Persian forms and figures, to the archaic Greek and the best period of stone engraving.

Many of the Etruscan examples have been found at Præneste, the modern Palestrina, and in the necropolis of Clusium; some of those found there, have engraved on the base the lotus flower with four-winged figures of archaic Etruscan form, the kynokephallos ape, the sacred asp or uræus of Egypt, the winged sun of Thebes and the bull Apis; on others are figures copied from Assyrian originals; on others are Herakles fighting the lion, Herakles stealing the tripod of Apollo and discovered by the latter; Ajax and Cassandra, a Harpy, etc. Some of these have been found in tombs and other places with the color changed to an opaque white by the action of fire. These have been burned with the body of their owner when he was cremated.

The Etruscans have evidently borrowed the form without caring for the cult; there does not appear with them any mysterious, religious or astronomical meaning, nor the veneration for it, which existed among the old Egyptians; but no doubt, the representation was considered as a talisman or preservative amulet and was worn as such, but in many instances likely, only as a matter of ornament in dress.

They were pierced like those of Egypt longitudinally, and one method of wearing them, was, by stringing them, intermingled with beads, as a necklace, but they were also worn as a signet stone in a ring with a swivel, so they could be turned and the incised part used as a seal by the owner.

I think it likely that the Etruscans at first, purchased the scarabs from the Phoenician traders whose merchant ships, as I have said in the preceding chapter, trafficked in ornaments and jewelry at an early period, and who likely, at first, may have brought some from Egypt and afterwards manufactured scarabs as an article of barter.

There is one peculiarity to be noted in the glyptography of the Etruscans, the absence of a transitional period between the extremely rude designs of the early style, made almost entirely by the use of the drill, and the intaglios of the most beautiful finish in low relief. Mr. King, in his work on Antique Gems, says: "While the first class offers caricatures of men and animals, the favorite subjects being figures throwing the discus, fawns with amphora, cows with sucking calves, or the latter alone, the second gives us subjects from the Greek mythology, especially scenes from Homer and the tragedians, among which, the stories of Philoctetes and Bellerophon occur with remarkable frequency." I think the rudely made are likely of Etruscan or Phoenician manufacture, the finely executed of Greek.

The inscriptions on Etruscan stones are nearly always the names of the persons represented on them. There are but few exceptions to this. We may therefore divide Etruscan glyptography into:

I. Etruscan scarabs, with Etruscan or Assyrian subjects.

II. Etruscan scarabs, with archaic Greek subjects.

There are many more of the latter than the former. The Greek subjects most frequently met with, refer to actions by Herakles, Perseus, Tydeus, Theseus, Peleus, Ulysses, Achilles and Ajax.

The time of manufacture and use by the Etruscans was most probably before the IIIrd century B.C., at which time, Etruria was conquered by the Romans, its manufactures destroyed and its artists taken to Rome.

The Greeks borrowed the form from the Egyptians, but improved on the engraving, which they made more natural and artistic; finally they suppressed the insect but preserved the oval form of the base. The Romans also adopted, it may be surmised from the Etruscans, the scarab signet and retained its form until the later days of the Republic. Winckelmann, says: Those with the figures or heads of Serapis or Anubis incised upon them are of this period.[116] I think it likely, that those with this deity upon them may go back to the period of the Ptolemys.

At the end of the Ist or beginning of the IInd century A.D., arose the gnostic Egyptian sect called the Basilidians. They introduced an amulet or talisman. It was made oval in the form of the base of the Egyptian scarab. Such talisman were usually made of black Egyptian basalt, sometimes of sard or other hard stones. Upon them were engraved mysterious hieroglyphs and figures, called Abraxas, and they are known as Abraxoides. Among the figures engraved was frequently that of the scarabæus. Montfaucon has given a number of them in his Antiquities.[117] Chifflet has also given several.[118]

FOOTNOTES:

[116] Winckelmann, Art. 2, c. 1.

[117] Vol. II., part 2, p. 339. Ed. of Paris.

[118] Comp. Fosbrooke Encyc. of Antiq. London, 1825, part I., p. 208.