History Of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Vol. 1 — 20 - Vol. 01, Ch. 03: The Legendary History of Egypt, pt. 4

The moiety of Horus, added to that of Sît, formed the kingdom which Sibû had inherited; but his children failed to keep it together, though it was afterwards reunited under Pharaohs of human race.

The three gods who preceded Osiris upon the throne had ceased to reign, but not to live.

Râ had taken refuge in heaven, disgusted with his own creatures; Shû had disappeared in the midst of a tempest; and Sibû had quietly retired within his palace when the time of his sojourning upon earth had been fulfilled.

Not that there was no death, for death, too, together with all other things and beings, had come into existence in the beginning, but while cruelly persecuting both man and beast, had for a while respected the gods.

Osiris was the first among them to be struck down, and hence to require funeral rites.

He also was the first for whom family piety sought to provide a happy life beyond the tomb.

Though he was king of the living and the dead at Mendes by virtue of the rights of all the feudal gods in their own principalities, his sovereignty after death exempted him no more than the meanest of his subjects from that painful torpor into which all mortals fell on breathing their last.

But popular imagination could not resign itself to his remaining in that miserable state for ever.

What would it have profited him to have Isis the great Sorceress for his wife, the wise Horus for his son, two master-magicians--Thot the Ibis and the jackal Anubis--for his servants, if their skill had not availed to ensure him a less gloomy and less lamentable after-life than that of men.

Anubis had long before invented the art of mummifying, and his mysterious science had secured the everlasting existence of the flesh; but at what a price!

[Illustration: 256. jpg THE OSIRIAN MUMMY PREPARED AND LAID UPON THE FUNERARY COUCH BY THE JACKAL ANUBIS.

1] 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Rosellint, _Monumenti Civili_, pl.

cxxxiv.

2. While Anubis is stretching out his hands to lay out the mummy on its couch, the soul is hovering above its breast, and holding to its nostrils the sceptre, and the wind-filled sail which is the emblem of breath and of the new life.

For the breathing, warm, fresh-coloured body, spontaneous in movement and function, was substituted an immobile, cold and blackish mass, a sufficient basis for the mechanical continuity of the double, but which that double could neither raise nor guide; whose weight paralysed and whose inertness condemned it to vegetate in darkness, without pleasure and almost without consciousness of existence.

Thot, Isis, and Horus applied themselves in the case of Osiris to ameliorating the discomfort and constraint entailed by the more primitive embalmment.

[Illustration: 257. jpg THE RECEPTION OP THE MUMMY BY ANUBIS AT THE DOOR OP THE TOMB, AND THE OPENING OF THE MOUTH.

1] 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a painting in the tomb of a king in the Theban necropolis.

They did not dispense with the manipulations instituted by Anubis, but endued them with new power by means of magic.

They inscribed the principal bandages with protective figures and formulas; they decorated the body with various amulets of specific efficacy for its different parts; they drew numerous scenes of earthly existence and of the life beyond the tomb upon the boards of the coffin and upon the walls of the sepulchral chamber.

When the body had been made imperishable, they sought to restore one by one all the faculties of which their previous operations had deprived it.

The mummy was set up at the entrance to the vault; the statue representing the living person was placed beside it, and semblance was made of opening the mouth, eyes, and ears, of loosing the arms and legs, of restoring breath to the throat and movement to the heart.

The incantations by which these acts were severally accompanied were so powerful that the god spoke and ate, lived and heard, and could use his limbs as freely as though he had never been steeped in the bath of the embalmer.

He might have returned to his place among men, and various legends prove that he did occasionally appear to his faithful adherents.

But, as his ancestors before him, he preferred to leave their towns and withdraw into his own domain.

The cemeteries of the inhabitants of Busiris and of Mendes were called _Sokhît Ialû_, the Meadow of Reeds, and _Sokhît Hotpû_, the Meadow of Best.

They were secluded amid the marshes, in small archipelagoes of sandy islets where the dead bodies, piled together, rested in safety from the inundations.

This was the first kingdom of the dead Osiris, but it was soon placed elsewhere, as the nature of the surrounding districts and the geography of the adjacent countries became better known; at first perhaps on the Phoenician shore beyond the sea, and then in the sky, in the Milky Way, between the North and the East, but nearer to the North than to the East.

This kingdom was not gloomy and mournful like that of the other dead gods, Sokaris or Khontamentît, but was lighted by sun and moon;

the heat of the day was tempered by the steady breath of the north wind, and its crops grew and throve abundantly.

[Illustration: 259. jpg OSIKIS IN HADES, ACCOMPANIED BY ISIS, AMENTÎT, AND NEPHTHYS, RECEIVES THE HOMAGE OF TRUTH.

1] 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Daniel Héron, taken in 1881 in the temple of Seti I. at Abydos.

Thick walls served as fortifications against the attacks of Sit and evil genii; a palace like that of the Pharaohs stood in the midst of delightful gardens; and there, among his own people, Osiris led a tranquil existence, enjoying in succession all the pleasures of earthly life without any of its pains.

The goodness which had gained him the title of Onnophris while he sojourned here below, inspired him with the desire and suggested the means of opening the gates of his paradise to the souls of his former subjects.

Souls did not enter into it unexamined, nor without trial.

Each of them had first to prove that during its earthly life it had belonged to a friend, or, as the Egyptian texts have it, to a vassal of Osiris--_amakhû khir Osiri_--one of those who had served Horus in his exile and had rallied to his banner from the very beginning of the Typhonian wars.

[Illustration: 260. jpg THE DECEASED CLIMBING THE SLOPE OF THE MOUNTAIN OF THE WEST,2]

2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Naville Bas Ægyptische Todtenbuch, vol. i.

pl.

cxxviii.

Ai.

These were those followers of Horus--_Shosûû Horû_--so often referred to in the literature of historic times.

[*] * Cf, p. 252. The _Followers of Horns_, i. e. those who had followed Horus during the Typhonian wars, are mentioned in a Turin fragment of the Canon of the Kings, in which the author summarizes the chronology of the divine period.

Like the reign of Râ, the time in which the followers of Horus were supposed to have lived was for the Egyptians of classic times the ultimate point beyond which history did not reach.

Horus, their master, having loaded them with favours during life, decided to extend to them after death the same privileges which he had conferred upon his father.

He convoked around the corpse the gods who had worked with him at the embalmment of Osiris: Anubis and Thot, Isis and Nephthys, and his four children--Hâpi, Qabhsonûf, Amsît, and Tiûmaûtf--to whom he had entrusted the charge of the heart and viscera.

They all performed their functions exactly as before, repeated the same ceremonies, and recited the same formulas at the same stages of the operations, and so effectively that the dead man became a real Osiris under their hands, having a true voice, and henceforth combining the name of the god with his own.

[Illustration: 261. jpg THE MUMMY OF SÛTIMOSÛ CLASPING HIS SOUL INTO HIS ARMS.

1] 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Guieysse-Lefébure, _Le Papyrus de Soutimès_, pl.

viii.

The outlines of the original have unfortunately been restored and enfeebled by the copyist.

He had been Sakhomka or Menkaûrî; he became the Osiris Sakhomka, or the Osiris Menkaûrî, true of voice.

Horus and his companions then celebrated the rites consecrated to the "Opening of the Mouth and the Eyes:" animated the statue of the deceased, and placed the mummy in the tomb, where Anubis received it in his arms.

Recalled to life and movement, the double reassumed, one by one, all the functions of being, came and went and took part in the ceremonies of the worship which was rendered to him in his tomb.

There he might be seen accepting the homage of his kindred, and clasping to his breast his soul under the form of a great human-headed bird with features the counterpart of his own.

After being equipped with the formulas and amulets wherewith his prototype, Osiris, had been furnished, he set forth to seek the "Field of Reeds."

The way was long and arduous, strewn with perils to which he must have succumbed at the very first stages had he not been carefully warned beforehand and armed against them.

[Illustration: 262. jpg CYNOCEPHALI DRAWING THE NET IN WHICH SOULS ARE CAUGHT.

1] 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a facsimile by Dévèria (E. de Rougé, _Études sur le Rituel Funéraire_, pl.

iv.

No. 4).

Ignorant souls fished for by the cynocephali are here represented as fish; but the soul of Nofirûbnû, instructed in the protective formulas, preserves its human form.

A papyrus placed with the mummy in its coffin contained the needful topo-graphical directions and passwords, in order that he might neither stray nor perish by the way.

The wiser Egyptians copied out the principal chapters for themselves, or learned them by heart while yet in life, in order to be prepared for the life beyond.

Those who had not taken this precaution studied after death the copy with which they were provided; and since few Egyptians could read, a priest, or relative of the deceased, preferably his son, recited the prayers in the mummy's ear, that he might learn them before he was carried away to the cemetery.

If the double obeyed the prescriptions of the "Book of the Dead" to the letter, he reached his goal without fail.

[*] On leaving the tomb he turned his back on the valley, and staff in hand climbed the hills which bounded it on the west, plunging boldly into the desert, where some bird, or even a kindly insect such as a praying mantis, a grasshopper, or a butterfly, served as his guide.

Soon he came to one of those sycamores which grow in the sand far away from the Nile, and are regarded as magic trees by the fellahîn. Out of the foliage a goddess--Nûît, ïïâthor, or Nît--half emerged, and offered him a dish of fruit, loaves of bread, and a jar of water.

* Manuscripts of this work represent about nine-tenths of the papyri hitherto discovered.

They are not all equally full; complete copies are still relatively scarce, and most of those found with mummies contain nothing but extracts of varying length.

The book itself was studied by Champollion, who called it the _Funerary Ritual_; Lepsius afterwards gave it the less definite name of _Book of the Dead_, which seems likely to prevail.

It has been chiefly known from the hieroglyphic copy at Turin, which Lepsius traced and had lithographed in 1841, under the title of _Das Todtenbuch der Ægypter_.

In 1865, E. du Rougé began to publish a hieratic copy in the Louvre, but since 1886 there has been a critical edition of manuscripts of the Theban period most carefully collated by E. Naville, _Das Mgyptische Todtenbuch der XVIII bis XX Dynastie_, Berlin, 1886, 2 vols, of plates in folio, and 1 vol. of Introduction in 4to.

On this edition see Maspero, _Études de Mythologie et d'Archéologie Égyptiennes_, vol. i.

pp. 325-387. By accepting these gifts he became the guest of the goddess, and could never more retrace his steps[*] without special permission.

Beyond the sycamore were lands of terror, infested by serpents and ferocious beasts, furrowed by torrents of boiling water, intersected by ponds and marshes where gigantic monkeys cast their nets.

* Maspero, _Études de Mythologie et d'Archéologie Égyptiennes_, vol. ii.

pp. 224-227. It was not in Egypt alone that the fact of accepting food offered by a god of the dead constituted a recognition of suzerainty, and prevented the human soul from returning to the world of the living.

Traces of this belief are found everywhere, in modern as in ancient times, and E. B.

Tylob, has collected numerous examples of the same in Primitive Culture, 2nd edit.

, vol. ii.

pp. 47, 51, 52. [Illustration: 264. jpg THE DECEASED AND HIS WIFE SEATED IN FRONT OF THE SYCAMORE OF NÛÎT AND RECEIVING THE BREAD AND WATER OF THE NEXT WORLD.

2] 2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coloured plate in Rosellini, _Monumenti civili.

_,pl.

cxxxiv.

3. Ignorant souls, or those ill prepared for the struggle, had no easy work before them when they imprudently entered upon it.

Those who were not overcome by hunger and thirst at the outset were bitten by a urasus, or horned viper, hidden with evil intent below the sand, and perished in convulsions from the poison; or crocodiles seized as many of them as they could lay hold of at the fords of rivers; or cynocephali netted and devoured them indiscriminately along with the fish into which the partisans of Typhon were transformed.

They came safe and sound out of one peril only to fall into another, and infallibly succumbed before they were half through their journey.

But, on the other hand, the double who was equipped and instructed, and armed with the true voice, confronted each foe with the phylactery and the incantation by which his enemy was held in check.

As soon as he caught sight of one of them he recited the appropriate chapter from his book, he loudly proclaimed himself Râ, Tûmû, Horus, or Khopri--that god whose name and attributes were best fitted to repel the immediate danger--and flames withdrew at his voice, monsters fled or sank paralysed, the most cruel of genii drew in their claws and lowered their arms before him.

He compelled crocodiles to turn away their heads; he transfixed serpents with his lance; he supplied himself at pleasure with all the provisions that he needed, and gradually ascended the mountains which surround the world, sometimes alone, and fighting his way step by step, sometimes escorted by beneficent divinities.

Halfway up the slope was the good cow Hâfchor, the lady of the West, in meadows of tall plants where every evening she received the sun at his setting.

If the dead man knew how to ask it according to the prescribed rite, she would take him upon her shoulders[*] and carry him across the accursed countries at full speed.

* Coffins of the XXth and XXIst dynasties, with a yellow ground, often display this scene.

Generally the scene is found beneath the feet of the dead, at the lower end of the cartonage, and the cow is represented as carrying off at a gallop the mummy who is lying on her back.

[Illustration: 266. jpg THE DECEASED PIERCING A SERPENT WITH HIS LANCE.

2] 2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Naville (_Das Ægyptische Todtenbuch_, vol. i.

pl.

iii.

P b).

The commonest enemies of the dead were various kinds of serpents.

Having reached the North, he paused at the edge of an immense lake, the lake of Kha, and saw in the far distance the outline of the Islands of the Blest.

One tradition, so old as to have been almost forgotten in Rames-side times, told how Thot the ibis there awaited him, and bore him away on his wings;[***] another, no less ancient but of more lasting popularity, declared that a ferry-boat plied regularly between the solid earth and the shores of paradise.

*** It is often mentioned in the Pyramid texts, and inspired one of the most obscure chapters among them (_Teti_, 11. 185-200; cf.

_Recueil de Travaux_, vol. v.

pp. 22, 23).

It seems that the ibis had to fight with Sit for right of passage.

The god who directed it questioned the dead, and the bark itself proceeded to examine them before they were admitted on board; for it was a magic bark.

"Tell me my name," cried the mast; and the travellers replied: "He who guides the great goddess on her way is thy name."

"Tell me my name," repeated the braces.

"The Spine of the Jackal Ûapûaîtû is thy name."

"Tell me my name," proceeded the mast-head.

[Illustration: 267. jpg THE GOOD COW HÂTHOR CARRYING THE DEAD MAN AND HIS SOUL.

1] 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coloured facsimile published by Leemans, _Monuments Égyptiens du Musée d' Antiquités des Pays-Bas à Leyden_, part iii.

pl.

xii.

"The Neck of Amsît is thy name."

"Tell me my name," asked the sail.

"Nûît is thy name."

Each part of the hull and of the rigging spoke in turn and questioned the applicant regarding its name, this being generally a mystic phrase by which it was identified either with some divinity as a whole, or else with some part of his body.

When the double had established his right of passage by the correctness of his answers, the bark consented to receive him and to carry him to the further shore.

There he was met by the gods and goddesses of the court of Osiris: by Anubis, by Hathor the lady of the cemetery, by Nît, by the two Màîts who preside over justice and truth, and by the four children of Horus stiff-sheathed in their mummy wrappings.

They formed as it were a guard of honour to introduce him and his winged guide into an immense hall, the ceiling of which rested on light graceful columns of painted wood.

[Illustration: 268. jpg ANUBIS AND THOT WEIGHING THE HEART OF THE DECEASED IN THE SCALES OF TRUTH.

1] 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from pl.

cxxxvi.

Ag of Naville's _Das Thebanische Todtenbuch_.

At the further end of the hall Osiris was seated in mysterious twilight within a shrine through whose open doors he might be seen wearing a red necklace over his close-fitting case of white bandaging, his green face surmounted by the tall white diadem flanked by two plumes, his slender hands grasping flail and crook, the emblems of his power.