Chapter II: Part 2

The power of the soul to incarnate itself at pleasure became one of the chief reasons for embalming the body. As we have seen, the preservation of the body was held to be necessary because the mummy was supposed to be the material form of which the Osiris was the essential reality. But this temporary need might have been met in simpler fashion, since the journey of the Soul to the Hall of Judgment was accomplished in a comparatively short time. There was, however, a further need for which provision had to be made. The soul might sometimes visit the mummy, again take up its abode in its former body, and, animating it anew, return to earth under that form and thus revisit the spots where once it had dwelt. To this end it required an earthly and tangible body, and this was supplied by the mummy. If the mummy were destroyed, then the soul not only lost one of the forms in which it might incarnate itself, but that one with which its interests were naturally most closely connected—that one which linked it to earth and best enabled it to exhort the survivors to remember the funerary offerings, and to see how it fared with those whom it had been obliged to leave behind. The destruction of the mummy did not involve the destruction of the soul, but it narrowed the soul’s circle of activity and limited its means of transmigration.

This doctrine gave rise to the necromantic theory that a soul might be compelled by means of magic formulæ to re-enter its body, and to speak through the dead lips. The magician who had brought this about could then stipulate for all kinds of favours before restoring the soul to freedom. It is true that such an attempt was reckoned highly dangerous; and, according to a tale dating from Ptolemaic times, a royal prince named Setna,[53] who had succeeded in the undertaking, paid heavily for having sought to make the spirits of the dead subject to him, when, through his own imprudence, he was overpowered by those whom he had invoked.

* * * * *

The above sketch of the eschatology of the Ancient Egyptians is drawn from their own religious texts. As to the origin of that system and the transformations which it had undergone before reaching the form under which it is known to us we are as yet entirely ignorant; but it is obvious that it must have developed gradually and assimilated many originally heterogeneous doctrines. For instance, the Ka and the Osiris must surely once have had the same significance, and not have been considered as two different factors of the dead man’s being until time had brought about the fusion of two theological systems—in one of which the KA was regarded as the spiritual _Doppelgänger_, or Double, while in the other it was named the OSIRIS. All attempts at solving these and similar problems connected with this subject are, as yet, mere hypotheses. As far back as Egyptian history has been traced the people appear to have been in possession not only of written characters, national art and institutions, but also of a complete system of religion. As in all other departments of Egyptian life and thought, so with the Egyptian religion—we cannot trace its beginnings. In the earliest glimpse of it afforded by the Egyptian texts it appears as perfect in all its essential parts; nor were after-times able to effect much change in it by the addition of new features. What greatly intensifies the deep historical interest of Egyptian eschatology is that it testifies not only to the fact that a whole nation believed in the immortality of the soul four thousand years before the birth of Christ, but also that this nation had even then succeeded in clearly picturing the future life to themselves after a fashion which may indeed often seem strange and incomprehensible to modern minds but to which we cannot deny a certain consistency and a deep spiritual connotation.

We shall not here discuss the many analogies subsisting between Egyptian belief and the religious systems of other nations and times, nor yet its great differences from them; and it is for the sciences of anthropology and comparative religion to determine to what extent the Egyptian doctrine of immortality originated in Egypt itself, and how much was brought there by the Egyptians from the common home which they had shared with the Semites and Indo-europeans.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The whole process of embalmment is briefly described in the _Rhind Papyrus_, edited by Birch, London, 1863, and by BRUGSCH, Leipzig, 1865. The procedure of the _taricheuts_ is described in a Vienna papyrus, edited by BERGMANN, Vienna, 1887, and the conclusion of their operations in a Paris papyrus and a Bûlaq papyrus, edited by MASPERO, _Pap. du Louvre_, Paris, 1875. For the transport of the mummy, see DÜMICHEN, _Kal. Insch._, pl. 35 _sqq_. The minutely ordered ritual for the ceremonies at the door of the tomb was published and investigated in SCHIAPARELLI’S admirable work, _Il Libro dei Funerali_, Turin, 1881—1890.

[2] On these component parts cf. WIEDEMANN in the _Proceedings of the Orientalist Congress at St. Etienne_, II. (1878), p. 159 _et seq._ Many parallel texts to the additional chapter of _The Book of the Dead_, there referred to, may be found in VON BERGMANN’S _Sarkophag des Panehemisis_, I., p. 22; II., p. 74 _et seq._

[3] On this account KA was sometimes used as interchangeable with REN —name.

[4] There is no modern word which exactly expresses the Egyptian idea of the KA; Maspero’s translation of “DOUBLE, _Doppelgänger_” is the best hitherto proposed; Meyer’s translation of “_Ghost_” (_Gesch. Æg._, p. 83) is altogether misleading.

[5] The illustration is taken from LEPSIUS, _Denkmäler_, III. 21. Here the solar cartouche, or throne-name, of Thothmes II., and his Horus-: or Ka-name, are palimpsests effacing the names of Queen Hatshepsû Rāmaka, the builder of the temple. The figures in this scene originally represented the Queen and her KA; but as she is always portrayed in male attire throughout the temple, it was only necessary to change her names in order to appropriate her figure as that of a king. The first satisfactory explanation of the Horus-or KA-name was given by PETRIE in _A Season in Egypt_, pp. 21, 22; cf. MASPERO, _Études Égyptologiques_ II., p. 273 _et seq._ He shows that the rectangular parallelogram in which the Horus-name is written is the exact equivalent of the square panel over the false door in the tomb, by which the KA was supposed to pass from the sepulchral vault into the upper chamber, or tomb-chapel, where offerings were provided for it. A private person had but one name, which was also the name of his KA. But, on ascending the throne, the king took four new names in addition to the one which he had hitherto borne, and among them a name for his KA.

[6] We have a crude representation of this KA sign, dating from the reign of Amenemhat I., of the Twelfth Dynasty; see PETRIE, _Tanis I._ (Second Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund), pl. I., No. 3.

[7] LEPSIUS, _Denkmäler_, III. 186. The hands of the KA-staff have doubtless a common origin with those of the KA-sign—.

[8] LEPSIUS, _Denkmäler_, III. 87.

[9] In the course of his excavations at Dêr el Bahri, for the Egypt Exploration Fund, M. Naville discovered the originals of these scenes in a series of bas-reliefs representing the birth of Queen Hatshepsû which were plagiarised by Amenophis III.

[10] LEPSIUS, _Denkmäler_, III. 21, 129.

[11] LEPSIUS, _Denkmäler_, III., pl. 75.

[12] Such prayers were also inscribed on funerary stelæ in order that passers-by might repeat them for the benefit of the dead. These inscriptions vary but little. The prayer on the funerary tablet of Khemnekht (now in the Agram Museum) dates from the Thirteenth Dynasty, and runs as follows: “O every scribe, every Kherheb (lector, priestly reciter), all ye who pass by this stele, who love and honour your gods, and would have your offices to flourish (shine) for your children, say ye: ‘Let royal offerings be brought unto Osiris for the Ka of the priest Khemnekht’”: For an account of the development of the formulæ on funerary stelæ, see WIEDEMANN, _Observations sur quelques stèles funéraires égyptiennes, Le Muséon X._, 42, 199 _et seq._

[13] The particulars above summarised may be verified from contracts which a prince (_erpā-hā_) of Siût concluded with the priests of Anubis under the Tenth or Eleventh Dynasty (discussed by MASPERO, _Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archæology_ VII., p. 6 _et seq._, _Études de Mythologie_, I., p. 62 _et seq._, and ERMAN, _Æg. Zeitschr._, 1882, p. 159 ff., the best publication of these inscriptions being that by GRIFFITH, _Inscriptions of Siût and Dêr Rîfeh_, London, 1889. Similar contracts were made even in the times of the pyramid-building kings: cf. _e.g._ LEPSIUS, _Denkmäler_, II. 3-7; DE ROUGÉ, _Inscriptions hiéroglyphiques_, pl. I.; MARIETTE, _Les Mastabahs_, p. 316 _et seq._)

[14] As in the case of statues found in the temple of Ptah at Memphis (MARIETTE, _Mon. div._, pl. 27 b), and in that of Amon at Karnak (MARIETTE, _Karnak_, pl. 8 f; cf. LEPSIUS, _Auswahl_, pl. 11).

[15] This striking theory was first broached by MASPERO, _Rec. de Trav._, I., p. 154; _Études de Mythologie_, I., p. 80.

[16] We find occasional mention of the Ka of the East and the Ka of the West (Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, 2nd ed., III., pp. 200, 201), which are to be considered as being the Kas of the deities of the East and of the West, and not as Kas of the abstract conceptions of East and West.

[17] LEPSIUS, _Denkmäler_, III. 194, l. 13; DÜMICHEN, _Tempelinschriften_, I., pl. 29; VON BERGMANN, _Hierogl. Insch._, pl. 33 pl. 61, col. 2; RENOUF, _Transactions of the Society of Biblical_ _Archæology_, VI., pp. 504 _et seq._; BRUGSCH, _Dictionary, Supplt._, pp. 997 _et seq._, 1230.

[18] Cf. 1 Chron. XXIX. 11, 12; Isa. XI. 2.

[19] This prayer is contained in that part of _The Book of the Dead_, chap, CV., entitled _Chapter whereby the KA of a person is satisfied in the Nether world_: “Hail to thee who wast my KA during life! Lo! I come unto thee, I arise resplendent, I labour, I am strong, I am hale (_var._, I pass on), I bring grains of incense, I am purified thereby, I purify thereby that which goeth forth from thee. This conjuration of evil which I say; this warding off of evil which I perform; (this conjuration) is not made against me (?)” The conjuration runs as follows: “I am that amulet of green felspar, the necklace of the god Rā, which is given (_var._, which I gave) unto them who are upon the horizon. They flourish, I flourish, my KA flourishes even as they, my duration of life flourishes even as they, my KA has abundance of food even as they. The scale of the balance rises, Truth rises high to the nose of the god Rā in that day on which my KA is where I am (?) My head and my arm are made (?) to where I am (?) I am he whose eye seeth, whose ears hear; I am not a beast of sacrifice. The sacrificial formulæ proceed where I am, for the upper ones”—otherwise said, “for the upper ones of heaven.” The funerary papyrus of Sûtimes (NAVILLE, _Todtenbuch_, I., pl. 117) contains the following addition at the end of this chapter: “I enter (?) unto thee (to the _Ka_?). I am pure, the Osiris is justified against his enemies.” The accompanying vignette for this chapter shows the deceased as worshipping or sacrificing before the KA-sign on a standard. Occasionally we find the KA sign represented as enclosing pictures of offerings, a form explained by the common double meaning of the word KA, which signifies both “_Double_” and _food_.

[20] In the religious texts the heart is called both {H} _áb_ and {H} _hāti_. Sometimes, as in _The Book of the Dead_, chap. XXVI. _et seq._, the two were differentiated; but, generally speaking, the two terms appear to have been synonymous.

[22] PLUTARCH, _Septem sap. conviv._, p. 159 B: “We then, said I” (Diales), “render these tributes to the belly (τῇ γαστρί). But if Solon or any one else has any allegation to make we will listen.” “By all means,” said Solon, “lest we should appear more senseless than the Egyptians, who cutting up the dead body showed [the entrails] to the sun, then cast them into the river, but of the rest of the body, as now become pure, they took care. For in reality this [the belly] is the pollution of our flesh, and the Hell, as in Hades,—full of dire streams, and of wind and fire confused together, and of dead things.”

PLUTARCH, _De esu carnium orat._, ii., p. 996, 38: “As the Egyptians, taking out from the dead the belly (τὴν κοιλίαν) and cutting it up before the sun, cast it away, as the cause of all the sins which the man has committed; in like manner that we ourselves, cutting out gluttony and bloodthirstiness, should purify the rest of our life.”

PORPHYRY, _De abst._, iv., 10: “When they embalm those of the noble that have died, together with their other treatment of the dead body, they take out the belly (τὴν κοιλίαν), and put it into a coffer, and holding the coffer to the sun they protest, one of the embalmers making a speech on behalf of the dead. This speech, which Euphantus translated from his native language, is as follows: “O Lord, the Sun, and all ye gods who give life to men, receive me and make me a companion to the eternal gods. For the gods, whom my parents made known to me, as long time as I have had my life in this world I have continued to reverence, and those who gave birth to my body I have ever honoured. And for the rest of men, I have neither slain any, nor defrauded any of anything entrusted to me, nor committed any other wicked act, but if I haply in my life have sinned at all,: by either eating or drinking what was unlawful, not on my own account did I sin, but on account of these (showing the coffer in which the belly [ἡ γαστήρ] lay).” And having said these things he throws it into the river; but the rest of the body, as pure, he embalms. Thus they thought that they needed to excuse themselves to the Deity on account of what they had eaten and drunk, and therefore to reproach the belly.”

[23] It was in this sense that the Egyptians regarded the heart as the seat of the feelings, and spoke of the heart as rejoicing, as mourning, as weeping.

[24] The illustration is taken from photographs of a scarab in the Edwards collection at University College, London.

[25] For the translation of chap, xxx b. of The Book of the Dead, which formed the usual inscriptions on heart scarabs, see p. 53.

[26] The possession of the formula in chap, cxlviii. of _The Book of the Dead_, from line 8, ensured abundance (of food) to the BA of the dead.

[27] Illustrations 7 and 8 are taken from photographs of objects in the Edwards Museum at University College.

[28] _See The Book of the Dead_, NAVILLE’S edition, pls. 4, 97, 101, 104; LEPSIUS’ edition, pls. 33, etc., etc.

[29] See, _e.g._, illustration and Orcagna’s fresco of the Triumph of Death, in the Campo Santo of Pisa.

[30] See p. 10.

[31] VON BERGMANN, _Sarkophag des Panehemisis_, I., pp. 11, 15, 24; PIERRET, _Insc. du Louvre_, II., p. 23; MARIETTE, _Dendérah_, iv., 62a.

[32] _The Book of the Dead_, lxxxix. 6.

[33] VON BERGMANN, _Sarkophag des Panehemisis_, I., p. 37, where the translation is not quite accurately given.

[34] In _Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archæology_, VIII., p. 386 _et seq._, Birch has collected passages bearing on this point.

[35] On primitive beliefs as to a man’s shadow being a vital part of himself, see FRAZER, _The Golden Bough_, Vol. I., pp. 141-44.

[36] See MASPERO, _Recueil de Travaux relatifs à Égypt_, III., p. 105 _et seq._; and _Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de l’Orient_, Vol. I., p. 114. In _The Book of the Dead_, chap. lxxxix., 3, the KHÛ is mentioned in connection with the BA; in chap. cxlix., 40, with the KHAÏB; and in chap. xcii., 5, with both.

[37] See p. 30.

[38] A certain part in the religious life of our own time has been played by a similar “Hypocephalus,” viz., the Mormon Scriptures (cf.: Joseph Smith, _A Pearl of Great Price_, 1851, p. 7). For particulars of the Hypocephalus of the illustration see _Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology_, Vol. VI., p. 52, and plate.

[39] See Ebers, _Æg. Zeitschr._, 1867, p. 108; 1871, p. 48; WIEDEMANN, _Proceedings of the Orientalist Congress at St. Etienne_, II., p. 155.

[40] The “Negative Confession” forms chap. cxxv. of _The Book of the Dead_, and varies slightly in different copies. The following is Renouf’s translation of the chapter as it appears in a Nineteenth Dynasty papyrus (see _The Papyrus of Ani_, London, 1890):—“I am not a doer of what is wrong. I am not a plunderer. I am not a robber. I am not a slayer of men. I do not stint the quantity of corn. I am not a niggard. I do not seize the property of the gods. I am not a teller of lies. I am not a monopoliser of food. I am no extortioner. I am not unchaste. I am not the cause of others’ tears. I am not a dissembler. I am not a doer of violence. I am not of domineering character. I do not pillage cultivated land. I am not an eavesdropper. I am not a chatterer. I do not dismiss a case through self-interest. I am not unchaste with women or men. I am not obscene. I am not an exciter of alarms. I am not hot in speech. I do not turn a deaf ear to the words of righteousness. I am not foul-mouthed. I am not a striker. I am not a quarreller. I do not revoke my purpose, I do not multiply clamour in reply to words. I am not evil-minded or a doer of evil. I am not a reviler of the king. I put no obstruction upon the water. I am not a bawler. I am not a reviler of the God. I am not fraudulent. I am not sparing in offerings to the gods. I do not deprive the dead of the funeral cakes. I do not take away the cakes of the child, or profane the god of my locality. I do not kill sacred animals.”

[41] On the Egyptian Goddess of Truth, see WIEDEMANN, La _Déesse Maā_, in the _Annales du Musée Guimet_, x., pp. 561 _et seq._ With regard to the meaning of the Egyptian name and word _Maāt_, which is generally translated “truth, or justice,” Renouf has said: “The Egyptians recognised a divinity in those cases only where they perceived the presence of a fixed Law, either of permanence or change. The earth abides for ever, and so do the heavens. Day and night, months, seasons, and years succeed each other with unfailing regularity; the stars are not less constant in their course, some of them rising and setting at fixed intervals, and others eternally circling round the pole in an order which never is disturbed. This _regularity_, which is the constitutive character of the Egyptian divinity, was called _Maāt_. The gods were said to be nebû maāt, ‘possessors of _maāt_.’ or _ānchiû em maāt_, ‘subsisting by or through _maāt_.’ _Maāt_ is in fact the Law and Order by which the universe exists. Truth and justice are but forms of _Maāt_ as applied to human action.”—_Papyrus of Ani, Introduction_, p. 2.

[42] This prayer is contained in chap. xxx. of _The Book of the Dead_:—

“_Chapter whereby the heart of a person is not kept back from
him in the Netherworld_.

Heart mine which is that of my mother,
Whole heart mine which is that of my birth,
Let there be no estoppel against me through evidence, let no
hindrance be made to me by the divine Circle; fall thou
not against me in presence of him who is at the Balance.
Thou art my genius (KA), who art by me (in my KHA-T), the
Artist who givest soundness to my limbs.
Come forth to the bliss towards which we are bound;
Let not those Ministrants who deal with a man according to
the course of his life give a bad odour to my name.
Pleasant for us, pleasant for the listener, is the joy of the
Weighing of the Words.
Let not lies be uttered in presence of the great god, Lord of
the Amenti.
Lo! how great art thou (as the triumphant one).”

—_Renouf’s translation_.

[43] As stated on the mummy case of Panehemisis, ed. VON BERGMANN, I., p. 29.

[44] The conception of a kind of hell is certainly found in the book _Am Dûat_ (cf. JÉQUIER, _Le livre de ce qu’il y a dans l’Hadès_, Paris, 1894, p. 127); such allusions are, however, exceptional, and Egyptian belief in a hell appears to have existed at times only, and to have been confined to certain classes of society.

[45] The “fields of Aalû”; cf. the “Elysian fields” of the Greeks.

[46] See p. 19.

[47] From scenes in the tomb of Mentûherkhepeshf at Thebes, dating from the beginning of the Nineteenth Dynasty, we have evidence that Egyptian funeral ceremonies occasionally included human sacrifice at the gate of the tomb, the object of such sacrifice being doubtless that of sending servants to the dead. But the practice would seem to have been very exceptional, at any rate after Egypt had entered upon her long period of greatness. See MASPERO, _Mémoires de la Mission Archéologique du Caire_, V., p. 452; cf. WIEDEMANN, in _Le Muséon_, XIII., p. 457 _et seq._; see also GRIFFITH, _The Tomb of Paheri_, pp. 20, 21, in the Eleventh Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund.

[48] Chapter vi. of _The Book of the Dead_ consists of this formula, which there reads: “O Ûshabti there! Should I be called and appointed to do any of the labours that are done in the Netherworld by a person according to his abilities, lo! all obstacles have been beaten down for thee; be thou counted for me at every moment, for planting the fields, for watering the soil, for conveying the sands of East and West, Here am I, whithersoever thou callest me!”—_Renouf’s Translation_.

[49] The frontispiece represents one of 399 ÛSHABTIÛ made for a priest named Horût’a, who lived during the Twenty-sixth Dynasty. These ÛSHABTIÛ were found at Hawara by Petrie: see _Kahun, Gurob, and Hawara_, pp. 9, 19.

[50] Professor Petrie, speaking of his discovery that it was the Egyptian custom to place masonic deposits of miniature model tools, etc., underneath the foundations of temples, and giving an account of the foundation deposits which he found beneath the pyramid temple of Ûsertesen II., at Illahûn, says: “The reason for burying such objects is yet unexplained; but it seems not unlikely that they were intended for the use of the KAS of the builders, like the models placed in tombs for the KAS of the deceased. Whether each building had a KA, which needed ghostly repair by the builders’ KAS, is also to be considered” (_Kahun, Gurob, and Hawara_, p. 22). We know that each building had its guardian spirit in the form of a serpent (cf. the representation of one dating from the time of Amenophis III, in Ghizeh, No. 217, published by MARIETTE, _Mon. Div._, pl. 63 b).

[51] _The Book of the Dead_, chaps. lxxvi.-lxxxviii.

[52] “The Egyptians were also the first to broach the opinion that the soul of man is immortal, and that when the body dies it enters into an animal which is born at the same moment, thence passing on (from one animal into another) until it has circled through all creatures of the earth, the water, and the air, after which it enters again into a new-born human frame. The whole period of the transmigration is (they say) three thousand years. There are Greek writers, some of an earlier, some of a later date, who have borrowed this doctrine from the Egyptians, and put it forward as their own.”—HERODOTUS, II., 123. See WIEDEMANN, _Herodots Zweites Buch_, p. 457 _et seq._

[53] For the “Story of Setna” see Vol. II. of Professor Petrie’s _Egyptian Tales_.

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