be protected by talismans and amulets, by magic formulas and the mystic pass-words that would open and shut the gates for him. It rested on the piety and good sense of duty of the survivors to provide all the above for the Double, if they wished and cared that in the fulness of time the same attentions should be shown to them when their turn came to be served. The entire religion of the Double depended on the strict observance of the formulary of the ritual and had no association in the least with the idea of the merits or demerits of the life lived on this, or of rewards or penalties on the other, side of the grave. If the rites were rigorously observed the Double lived and lived happily. This survival of the psychic personality, on which the good and bad of mundane experience had no influence whatever, was the sole spiritual belief of the premier dynasties. Down to the period of the Theban monarchy, the future lot of the good and the bad was precisely the same, provided the exequial rites were religiously observed. It was in this second period of history that the original idea of the future life, conserved till then with some modification, was supplemented by the dogma that transported the mundane activities of the departed man to the regions celestial. This premise being admitted, the complement of rewards and penalties in the future life followed as a necessary corollary. IV. While the Double continued to reside in the habitations of the west, the spirit was not left without work. Instructed by the magic formulas in all the secrets of the other world and preserved by talismans from all harm, the spirit passed through divers transformations in succession. When the idea of merits and demerits as influencing future life and of recompenses and penalties awarded in proportion was superimposed, the belief gained ground that the spirit, at the death of the man, flew away to report himself before Osiris and his council of forty-two assessors. His conscience, or rather his heart, to use the expression of the Book of the Dead, vouches for his conduct. But, in place of proclaiming his faults, he proceeds to protest his innocence with regard to trespasses he had not committed. The text of this negative confession is one of the best known. Every dead man took with him into the grave a copy of it. It is very curious in that it gives us an insight into the morals and manners of ancient Eygpt with a precision perfect in detail. Thus runs the text "I have not defrauded my fellowmen. I have not oppressed the widow or the orphan. I have not borne false testimony in court. I have not tasked the labourer with more work than he could fairly accomplish in a day. I was not guilty of any bad faith. I did not withhold anything from the needy. I was not callous. I was not audacious. I did not cheat. I did nothing that was of an abomination unto the gods. seduced the slave from his master. anyone. I have not given my neighbour cause to weep. I have committed no slaughter. I have not compassed the death of a fellowman by treachery. I have not turned aside the offerings from the temples. I have not purloined the provisions or fillets of the dead. I have not supplied unwholesome grain. I have not altered the measures and weights. I did not encroach on my neighbour's lands. I have not chased the sacred animals from the herbages. I have not ensnared the sacred birds. I have not fished in the sacred ponds I have not I have not inflamed I have not separated the bird from her mate in the season. I have not cut the water channel. I have not put out the sacred fire. I have not violated the law of offerings according to the cycle. I have not hindered the procession of the gods. I am pure. I am pure I am pure." The actions of the deponent were then weighed in the balance of the goddess of truth, Mat, and, according as they were approved good or bad, the jury condemned or absolved him. If found culpable, he was pushed down to the Inferum, where he was consigned to eternal gloom and the tender mercies of scorpions. and serpents, from which, after a thousand and nameless. torments, he expiates his sin only by utter annihilation If found pure by the jury, he was not quite freed from tribulation yet. He was, however, privileged to acquire a superhuman knowledge. He could assume any divine form as his taste suggested or occasion prompted him. For instance, he might assume the form of the golden sparrow-hawk or the crested crane, of the scarabæus, of the swallow, of the adder or of the lotus. In spite of all this, the agency of evil was actively on the watch to throw obstacles in his way and to hinder his further march. It was therefore necessary, in order that he might surmount these obstacles, that he should identify himself with Osiris and receive at the hands of Isis and Nephthys the good offices by which they blessed their brother. Guided by Anubis, who in the form of the jackal is the guardian of the regions of the dead,—– जम्बुकेशरः जम्बुकेशरः – he is conducted to the celestial country. There he tills the soil and throws in his lot with the spirits there who are all worshippers of the sun. If he wished, he might escape from there, and come down to have a peep into his tomb and, if he pleased, he might repose in the tranquillity of the eternal home of the Double. If he does come down like that, it is not a mere visit of ceremony to his companion of other days. In the tomb there is a book deposited in a chest which is a veritable guide for him, calculated to help him to learn the routes and pick his road in the new country. It is the Book of the Dead, comprising in its chapters a full description of all the localities which it would be necessary for him to pass, of all the routes he would have to traverse and the rites he would require to observe in order that he may not be deterred by accident or mishap. It is a sort of remembrancer and itinerary. If, in the domain of Amenti, some spirits are found distracted and forlorn, it is because they never cared to consult this book entombed with their remains. The spirit, if he cares to revisit the sepulchral shrine, will find there the text of the affidavit which he has to verify before Osiris and the jury, the invocations he has to recite, the magic spells he has to utter, the mystic words with which the evil spirits have to be conjured to submission, the pæans of praise which have to be sung in honour of the god, a route map of the other world, an astronomical table depicting the state of the heavens hour after hour, with the rise and set of the stars duly noted and, finally, a brief note about the good offices he should perform and the honours he should do after he succeeded in surmounting all his difficulties. V. With the disappearance of the Thinite dynasty and the advent of the Memphite, a radical modification was introduced into the mode of sepulture which caused a considerable complication of funeral rites. Mummification took the place of the ancient rite of dismemberment, and, if the latter was recalled to memory, it was mentioned with a feeling of horror. In this later period, the supreme care of the survivors was to take all precautions to preserve the body in its physical integrity from decay and corruption. The subsistence of the physical body was a sine qua non for the continuity of the spiritual life in the other world. The constant care of the true believer was to provide an eternal home, realising the double condition of assuring to the physical body an indefinite conservation and to the Double a continued purveyance for his wants to enable him to subsist through the long cycles. THE TOMBS OF MEMPHIS. All the Memphite tombs are modelled on one and the same pattern. Each tomb comprises two distinct parts. One is the chapel or oratory. The other is the crypt. The chapel was the sitting room of the Double, the part of the sepulchre accessible from the other world where the mourners and the priests met together at the funeral and from time to time on the sacred days. The crypt or vault was his privy chamber, the vestibule so to speak of Amenti, the threshold of which no one dared to cross. On the day of the funeral, the coffin which received the mummy was entrained to the entrance of the oratory. It was dressed without the portal; a sacrifice was offered and the priests proceeded with the supplementary ceremonies surrounded by the parents and the mourners. The coffin was next placed in the crypt, the entrance to which was then closed once and for ever. From that day forward, it depended on the piety of the survivors to provide for the subsistence of the Double, to provide offerings real or imitated either by depositing victuals in the chapel or the recitation of a prayer |