Chapter 3

19This prayer is contained in that part ofThe Book of the Dead, chap,CV., entitledChapter whereby theKaof a person is satisfied in the Nether world: “Hail to thee who wast myKaduring 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, myKaflourishes even as they, my duration of life flourishes even as they, myKahas 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 myKais 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 theKa?). I am pure, the Osiris is justified against his enemies.” The accompanying vignette for this chapter shows the deceased as worshipping or sacrificing before theKa-sign on a standard. Occasionally we find theKasign represented as enclosing pictures of offerings, a form explained by the common double meaning of the wordKa, which signifies both “Double” andfood.

20In the religious texts the heart is called bothabábhatihāti. Sometimes, as inThe Book of the Dead, chap.XXVI.et seq., the two were differentiated; but, generally speaking, the two terms appear to have been synonymous.

22Plutarch,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.”

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.”

23It 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.

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

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

26The possession of the formula in chap, cxlviii. ofThe Book of the Dead, from line 8, ensured abundance (of food) to theBaof the dead.

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

28SeeThe Book of the Dead,Naville'sedition, pls. 4, 97, 101, 104;Lepsius'edition, pls. 33, etc., etc.

29See,e.g., illustration and Orcagna's fresco of the Triumph of Death, in the Campo Santo of Pisa.

30Seep. 10.

31Von Bergmann,Sarkophag des Panehemisis, I., pp. 11, 15, 24;Pierret,Insc. du Louvre, II., p. 23;Mariette,Dendérah, iv., 62a.

32The Book of the Dead, lxxxix. 6.

33Von Bergmann,Sarkophag des Panehemisis, I., p. 37, where the translation is not quite accurately given.

34InTransactions of the Society of Biblical Archæology, VIII., p. 386et seq., Birch has collected passages bearing on this point.

35On primitive beliefs as to a man’s shadow being a vital part of himself, seeFrazer,The Golden Bough, Vol. I., pp. 141-44.

36SeeMaspero,Recueil de Travaux relatifs à Égypt, III., p. 105et seq.; andHistoire Ancienne des Peuples de l’Orient, Vol. I., p. 114. InThe Book of the Dead, chap. lxxxix., 3, theKhûis mentioned in connection with theBa; in chap. cxlix., 40, with theKhaïb; and in chap. xcii., 5, with both.

37Seep. 30.

38A 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 seeProceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology, Vol. VI., p. 52, and plate.

39See Ebers,Æg. Zeitschr., 1867, p. 108; 1871, p. 48;Wiedemann,Proceedings of the Orientalist Congress at St. Etienne, II., p. 155.

40The “Negative Confession” forms chap. cxxv. ofThe 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 (seeThe 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.”

41On the Egyptian Goddess of Truth, seeWiedemann, LaDéesse Maā, in theAnnales du Musée Guimet, x., pp. 561et seq.With regard to the meaning of the Egyptian name and wordMaāt, 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. Thisregularity, which is the constitutive character of the Egyptian divinity, was calledMaatMaāt. The gods were said to be nebû maāt, ‘possessors ofmaāt.’ orānchiû em maāt, ‘subsisting by or throughmaāt.’Maātis in fact the Law and Order by which the universe exists. Truth and justice are but forms ofMaātas applied to human action.”—Papyrus of Ani, Introduction, p. 2.

42This prayer is contained in chap. xxx. ofThe Book of the Dead:—“Chapter whereby the heart of a person is not kept back fromhim 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 myKha-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.

42This prayer is contained in chap. xxx. ofThe Book of the Dead:—

“Chapter whereby the heart of a person is not kept back fromhim 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 myKha-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.

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 myKha-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.

43As stated on the mummy case of Panehemisis, ed.Von Bergmann, I., p. 29.

44The conception of a kind of hell is certainly found in the bookAm 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.

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

46Seep. 19.

47From 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. SeeMaspero,Mémoires de la Mission Archéologique du Caire, V., p. 452; cf.Wiedemann, inLe Muséon, XIII., p. 457et seq.; see alsoGriffith,The Tomb of Paheri, pp. 20, 21, in the Eleventh Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund.

48Chapter vi. ofThe Book of the Deadconsists 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.

49The frontispiece represents one of 399Ûshabtiûmade for a priest named Horût’a, who lived during the Twenty-sixth Dynasty. TheseÛshabtiûwere found at Hawara by Petrie: seeKahun, Gurob, and Hawara, pp. 9, 19.

50Professor 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 theKasof the builders, like the models placed in tombs for theKasof the deceased. Whether each building had aKa, 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 byMariette,Mon. Div., pl. 63 b).

51The 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. SeeWiedemann,Herodots Zweites Buch, p. 457et seq.

53For the “Story of Setna” see Vol. II. of Professor Petrie’sEgyptian Tales.

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