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they were overjoyed to find that the weather conditions had somewhat improved latterly, and that His Majesty's idea of coming out to their country was not to be put off on any account. They were eager for an opportunity of giving unmistakeable proof of their loyalty to the person of their Sovereign, and that opportunity at last came to them after much show of disappointment.

When Their Majesties came in their midst and landed in Bombay the pent up feelings of the people found vent in a way which appeared surprising to many who were not intimately acquainted with their sentiments. The enthusiasm evoked by the occasion was boundless, and though they had come here once before, only six short years previous and been welcomed joyfully, yet on this occasion of their entry as actual Sovereigns they were accorded a welcome which in its cordiality was simply unsurpassed by previous manifestations of joy and affection on the part of their Indian subjects. The welcome was all the more cordial, as the people wanted to show that the doubts that had arisen in some minds about the wisdom of Their Majesties coming in their midst just then were groundless. It is no use disguising the fact that in the eyes of many people, by no means unfriendly to the natives of this country, Indian loyalty had suffered somewhat on account of recent events fresh in everyone's mind. The Indian peoples themselves felt keenly the slur cast on them owing to the misdeeds of a few, and they availed themselves of the presence of their Sovereign to vindicate beyond the possibility of cavil their loyalty and devotion to the British Throne.

Bombay was merely the first by the accident of its situation to manifest this feeling of intense devotion that animates the people of India. From Bombay all along

to Delhi and Calcutta, wherever Their Majesties went, they were greeted with the like enthusiasm, which seemed well nigh inexhaustible, by their Indian subjects everywhere. The month of December will long live in the memory of the people of India as the carnival of their loyalty to their beloved Sovereign and his It will be all the more pleasantly remembered as it afforded them an opportunity of removing any doubt that might have arisen not unnaturally in the past years as to their genuine affection for the British Rule and British Throne.

consort.

This outburst of loyalty on the part of their Indian subjects met with an equally hearty response from the Sovereign, who with consummate tact has utilised what would otherwise have been but a passing show, however brilliant, for lasting purposes of state. The royal answers to the addresses of the people everywhere showed full well the deep sympathy which united King George and his royal consort with their Indian subjects and all their acts, great as well as little, while in India, were a vivid commentary on the sympathy which they proclaimed. The boons which were graciously granted at the Delhi Durbar, especially the munificent grant of half a crore for the education of the people, showed unmistakeably the deep regard for the true welfare of the Indians. That India is the brightest Jewel in the British crown has often been said, but never were the people of India themselves so well assured that this was indeed a fact, as during this memorable Royal visit, and then too by the words and deeds of their gracious Sovereign himself. The Royal visit has done a great deal to set Indian sentiment right with England and things English. India had and has many grievances to complain of and redress; but since the visit of the

English Sovereign, she knows that she can rest quite assured that in the redress of these grievances at the hands of England, she has a most sympathetic and wholehearted advocate, of her real good in His Majesty, whose parting words of inspiriting advice, "Educate, United Hope," will for long reverberate in her ears. The Royal visit has succeeded beyond its most sanguine expectations so far. May it stand out in future years as a bright landmark, as an epoch commencing the era of peace and prosperity and contentment and, above all, of mutual good-will between England, her Empire and India!

R. P. KARKARIA,

Art. IV.-POST-MORTEM LIFE IN ANCIENT EGYPTIAN

IN

BELIEF.

N trying to find out the historic antiquity and originality of some of the beliefs of our Aryan ancestors, concerning life here and hereafter, it is well to take note of the notions which prevailed among the peoples of the Nile valley for at least two thousand years before our Aryan progenitors grew out of the nursery of lake-dwellings or learnt to cook their victuals for their precarious dinners.

A learned French scholar has recently given a very readable and excellent summary of the results achieved by Egyptology in piecing together from stone and papyrus the riddles read for the benefit of the twentiethcentury reading public.

I therefore wish to place before your readers extracts from "La Civilisation Pharaonique," so that, peradventure, they might help the reflection of the student interested in this department of knowledge, here at home.

It will be found that much of what follows would not be intelligible without an introductory knowledge of the legend of Osiris. It is therefore necessary to give a short summary of the events of his life, as handed down by tradition, for the benefit of those of your readers who are not already familiar with this subject. For a detailed account the reader is requested to turn to the pages of Lempriere's Classical Dictionary.

Osiris was the great deity of the Egyptians. He was believed to have reigned as King of Egypt and done much to civilise the races not only of that country

but of a great part of the known world. He taught men, wherever he went, the rudiments of agriculture and the useful arts of life. He had two sisters, Nephthys and Isis, who were also his spouses. Isis, the younger, was the more handsome and undoubtedly the more attached of the two. He had a brother, Set or Typhon, who was wickedly disposed. On the return of Osiris from abroad, whither he had gone on a civilising and humanising mission, he found his subjects at home incited to sedition by his wicked brother. Set or Typhon finished up with the murder of his brother. Not content with this act, he cut the body of Osiris to pieces, which he distributed among the partners of his guilt.

According to Plutarch, Typhon shut up his brother in a coffer which he threw into the Nile. Isis recovered the body of her husband but Typhon stole it and divided it among his companions, as observed above. Isis revenged her husband's death, and, with her son Horus, she defeated Typhon and his party. She recovered the mangled pieces of her husband's body. They were supposed to have been buried in the several cantons of Egypt. Shrines were raised on the localities where the rites and cult of Osiris, the national god, were developed.

I.

The primitive legends handed down by tradition among the priestcraft of Egypt, regarding the future of the dead, gave work enough to the sacred chapter in devising explanations of a myth at once pantheistic and extremely complex To the priests the idea of godhead had not, as yet, attained anything approaching distinctiveness or sharp definition. There was a vague notion of a mysterious power, regulating the course of all things

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