Naville, Einlcitung, p

2. Le résultat de cette étude est demeuré presque entièrement inédit; on trouvera pourtant une édition critique du chapitre clvi dans mon Mémoire sur quelques Papyrus du Louvre. — i. Le Chapitre clc la Boucle p. 1-14.

3. J’ai déjà signalé un fait identique pour les manuscrits du Rituel de l’Embaumement {Mémoire sur quelques Papyrus du Louvre , p. 16).

LE LIVRE DES MORTS

d’un chapitre important se trouvera insérée dans tous les manuscrits qui présentent déjà l'un ou l’autre des caractères que je viens d’indiquer, aux lieu et place de la version complète. Bref, en appliquant à la critique des manuscrits égyptiens du Louvre les mêmes procédés qu’on a appliqués à celle des manuscrits grecs, on arrive à les grouper par familles, dérivées chacune d’un seul manuscrit plus ancien. Si, parcourant les inventaires du Musée pour rechercher l’origine des Papyrus, et remontant, grâce aux indications acquises de la sorte, jusqu’au premier possesseur, on finit par connaître la provenance de chacun d’eux, on s’aperçoit bientôt que beaucoup de ceux dont on peut reconstituer l’histoire ont été découverts à Thèbes. Les noms et titres des gens pour qui ils ont été écrits confirment l’exactitude des renseignements ainsi obtenus ; ce sont des propliétesses de Khonsou et de Thot, filles de membres du sacerdoce d’Amon-Râ, des prêtres et des prêtresses d’Amon-Râ ou de Moutou tliébain, appartenant par le sang ou par des alliances à cette grande famille des prophètes de Montouou d’Amon, toute-puissante à Thèbes, de l’époque saïte à la fin de l’époque grecque, et dont les cercueils historiés encombrent les magasins du Musée de Boulaq. D’autres Papyrus, en plus petit nombre, proviennent de Saqqarah et se rattachent à des originaux mempliites; mais le temps m’a manqué jusqu’à présent pour les analyser en détail. Bref, j’en suis arrivé à me convaincre que la plus grande partie des Livres des Morts, d’époque saïte et d’origine thébaine, ont été copiés sur quatre ou cinq exemplaires types, conservés dans les archives des corporations chargées de l’embaumement et de l’équipement des momies. Cela n’a rien d’étonnant si Ton songe, en premier lieu, que, même au temps de la splendeur de Thèbes, le nombre de ces corporations ne devait pas être très considérable pour une population qui, malgré tout ce qu’on en a dit, n’a peut-être jamais atteint le chiffre de cent cinquante mille âmes ; en second lieu, qu’à partir de la XXIIe dynastie, la population diminua

LE LIVRE DES MORTS

sans cesse, et, par suite, le nombre des corporations funéraires. Quatre ou cinq compagnies et, de leur chef, quatre ou cinq exemplaires types, suffisaient amplement aux besoins de l’industrie mortuaire. Ces exemplaires n’étaient pas renouvelés fréquemment, car on voit par les blancs et les omissions signalés plus haut, que l’on continuait à les prendre pour modèle, quelque temps au moins encore après qu’ils n’étaient plus en bon état. Quand ils étaient entièrement hors d’usage, on en était réduit à les remplacer par une copie, complétée aux mauvais endroits sur l’exemplaire d’une compagnie voisine.

Si les choses se sont passées de la sorte, comme je le pense, les ressemblances extraordinaires qu’on a signalées entre les Papyrus d’époque sa'ite s’expliqueront aisément. Il n’y a pas eu, vers l’avènement des Psamitik, codification voulue du Livre des Morts : l’uniformité viendrait uniquement de ce qu’on a reproduit, pendant des siècles, un petit nombre r d’exemplaires types, peut-être dérivés eux-mêmes d’un ou deux exemplaires plus ou moins corrects d’époque thébaine. L’identité serait le résultat d’un accident matériel, et l’histoire de la prétendue recension saïte ne serait plus qu’une histoire analogue à celle de la plupart des textes classiques de l’antiquité grecque et latine.

EGYPTIAN SOULS AND TIIEIll WORLDS'

When we study olcl Egyptian books, we find in tkem a number of words wliich seem to apply to the human soûl and to the places in which it was allowed to dwell after death. Postliumous humanity is said to be liere a ka U, there a haï or a khou , ail of which naines sound strange and barbarie enough ; its abode is, according to sonie, even the tomli where the body lies buried, according to otliers a country far away to the West, the Amentit Q , the

Rostaou ^ , the fields of Ialôu |1 @ (| j] Ij

(j , the fields of Offerings [j^^1 ^ ’®, the

Augrit (j"^> ® ’ ^ie Par^ wor'W which

the Sun-god went through duringthe night. Egypt flourished thousands of years before its religion was superseded by Christianity : — no wonder its wise men had more than once to alter the beliefs their ancestors liad en tertained about death and a future state.

1. Publié dans la Princeton Rcvicw, 1888, p. 23-36. Cet article est un résumé des Mémoires précédents et renferme à peu près tout ce qu’ils contiennent, sous une forme très abrégée. Je n’ai lias cru qu’il fût nécessaire d’y joindre les renvois aux passages dont il donne la substance : cela aurait exigé plus de notes qu’il n’était nécessaire, et le lecteur qui m’aura suivi jusqu’à ce point se reportera de lui-même aux endroits voulus.

EGYPTIAN SOULS AND TIIEIR WORLDS

The oldest forai n\ itli which tliey endowed the soûl, at least the oldest we lcnow, was that of a shadow. Now tliere are shadows of two different lcinds, darlc shadows such as are projected by the body upon a wall, clear shadows such as we see reflected in water or upon the polished surface of métal orwood. TheEgyptianshad outlivedtheidea of the soûl being a darlc shadow, at wliat finie tliey wrote their Ri tuai s for the dead ; the darlc shadows (^p ^ khaïbit) which we meet in their books are no independent beings, but always cling to the material part of the soûl in the otlier world as tliey did to the physical body in tliis. The clear shadows were called ka U or doubles, and were sometimes pictured upon the monuments. Tliey were the exact counterpart of the man to wliom tliey belonged, with the sanie features, the saine stature, the sanie gait, even the saine dress. Sonie of the reliefs in one of the rooms of the temple at Luxor represent the birtli of King Amenhotpou 111. Wliile the queen-mother is being tended by two goddesses acting as midwives, two goddesses more are bringing away two figures of new-born children, only one of which is supposed to be a visible and tangible reality : the inscription engraved above their heads shows that, wliile the first is Amenhotpou, the second is the double, the ka LJ of Amenhotpou. As with lcings and queens, so it was with common men and women. Wherever a child was boni, there was boni witli liim a double which followed him through the various stages of life; young wliile lie was young, it came to maturity and declined when lie came to maturity and declined. And not only human beings, but gods and animais, stones and trees, natural and artificial objects, everybody and everytliing had its own double — the doubles of oxen or slieep were the duplicates of the original oxen or shecp, the doubles of linen or beds, of chairs or knives, retained the sanie appcarance as the real linen and beds, chairs and knives. The component particles of ail tliese doubles were so minute and subtile in their texture, that

EGYPTIAX SOULS AND THEIR WORLDS

tliey remained unperceived by ordinary people. Only certain classes of priests or seers were enablecl by natural gifts or spécial trainings to perceive tlie doubles of tlie gods, and to obtain frorn them a knowledge of past or future events. The doubles of men or objects were hidden to siglit in tlie ordinary course of life; stilb tliey sometimes flew out of tlie body, endowed with color and voice, left it in a kind of trance, and went away to manifest themselves at a distance according to tlie manner of modem gliosts. After death, tliey maintained not only tlie cliaracteristics of tlie individual man tliey had been wliile in tlie flesli, but were subjected to tlie common wants of humanity, to hunger and thirst, to beat and cold, to illness and pain, with tlie aggravation tliat, whereas tlie living hâve ways and means of protecting themselves against ail tlie evils wliicli befall them, tlie dead are utterly destitute. If left to themselves, tliey had to roam about tlie places tliey had inliabited and to feed upon tlie refuse of houses, with tlie certainty of dying out after prolonging tlieir misérable existence for a short time. If properly attended to, tliey had a fair chance, I cannot say of becoming immortal, — immortality was not a primitive notion in Egypt, — but to continue living on and on so long, tliat tlieir perpetuity would seem almost an immortality to people who believed in doubles for tlieir soûls.

Given tlie définition of wliat survived in man, the practical conséquences of it are easilv drawn. Since the double was a perfect image of the being to wliieh it had been linked at birtli, what more natural tlian tliat it sliould remain near where the corpse lay and participate in its destinies? Having grown with it, it ouglit to decay with it gradually, so that tlie natural terni of its existence after burial miglit be measured by the time it takes the human frame to désintégra te completely. Therefore, the best means of stopping the décomposition of the soûl was to stop the décomposition of the flesh, andjo this we owe probably the practice of embalming. The

EGYPTIAN SOULS AND TIIEIR WORLDS

drying up and hardcning of the mummy enabled it to last centuries, cluring which it served as a kind of stay for its former double. Still, mummies cannot keep on subsisting forever; even if not destroyed by man and beast, or dissolved by rain and beat, a time arrives wlien tliey must fade and wear ont, and then y liât would l)ecome of the double? The only way the Egyptians found ont of this difliculty was to provide it witli stone or wooden bodies, against the possibility of the mummy mouldering away. Most of the statues which we discover in a tomb were only bodies for the double of the man vho wasburied in it. To prevent them from being broken to pièces or carried awav they walled them up in clark cells. Some are standing, some sitting, some squat ting; ail were as likc the model as art could make them, (liât the soûl might the easier adapt itself to them. There was no limit to tlieir number but the piety of the children and the wealth of the family; the more numerous they were, the better it was for the dead. One statue was, aftcr ail, only one chance of perpetuity : two, three, tcn, twenty statues, gave the double so many chances more. Wliat was true of the statues in the tombs, was true also of the statues in the temples, even wlien they represented kings or gods : the double of kings or gods, not the wliole but a particle of it, was fixed upon them by prayers and consécration, and animated them. Tlius it was that they were able to move head or arms, to answer questions which were put to them according to rite, to give forth oracles in private or public matters. Statues were not mere works of art, they were things alive, and are even to this day; only the double of old lias turned into a djinn or an a fri te in modem Egypt, and haunts, abad spirit, the spot where it was revered âges ago, a saintly soûl or a god. It is wont to frighten men out of their wits, to send them raving macl, and sometimes to kill them, but loses its power wlien the body of stone witli which it consorts lias been mutilated. That is the reason why so many statues

EGYPTIAN SOULS AND TH El R WORLDS

in our muséums display a broken nose or a battered clieek : tbe fellaheen who found thern defaced tliem to lame the double in tliem and prevent it from doing any liarm.

So mucli for the body of the double. The tomb was its house everlasting , — P* z°t°u, — a house with more

or less rooms, some of which stood open to visitors, as the mandara of modem Egyptian habitations. Tliere the dead was presented with its first dinner, on the day of the funeral. While the priests, assisted by the son, introduced the mummy to its vault, servants brought into the réception hall oxen and gazelles, geese and doves, fisli, loaves, beer, veine, everything that a man might need in those times to live comfortably. Bread, cakes of varions kinds, vegetables, méat, botli roasted and boiled, fresh water, mille, liquors, oilwere thrown upon the ground near the sarcopliagus; the friends and the members of the family took their part of ail the good things which had been dished up for their host, players of the flûte, the harp, or the guitar played for tliem, dancers and buiïoons danced before tliem, until the night came when they went away leaving the double in possession of its new abode. The same ceremonv was formally repeated several times a year, on days prescribed by law, « at the feast of the beo'inning of the seasons, at the feast of Thot, on the first day of the year, at the feast of Uaga, at the great feast of Sothis, on the day of the procession of the god Minou, at the feast of shewbread, at the feasts of the months and half-months, at ail the feasts of the Dead. » Men who called themselves honou-ka ^ — priests or slaves of the double — received wagestokeep the tomb inorder andto make thenecessary sacrifices in duetime. Pièces oflands, orrents imposed upon the domains of the family, were given to neighbouring temples, that the priests might corne and perform the rites at stated times. The double was supposed at first to feed on what was left for it in the hall, upon a low, fiat slab of limestone, gra-

EGYPTIAN SOULS AND TH KIR WORLDS

nite, sandstone, or even terracotta, wliich Egyptologists are

accustomed to terni an offering-table ; it came out of its

own rooms and gnawed tlie bones or drank tlie wine. Ils conditionnas, lherefore, acceptable, as long as its living servants continued to provide for it; but a day must corne, even for princes and kings, wlien, the générations of the dead accumulating, the doubles of past centuries were neglected for the benefit of more recent doubles. In order to supply them withthe necessities of life, the Egyptians conceived the idea of representing on the walls of the open rooms in the tomb tlie ofïerings wliich used to be bodily consecrated on the feast days.The painted or carved image of tliings insured the reality of tlie same to the man on whose account they wereexecuted; the double saw itself depicted upon the walls of its house in the actof eating and drinking, and lie ate and drank. Prayers were added to the pictures, wliich strengthcned their magical powers and even permitted the dead to dispense witli them. The most frequent of tliese was in the form of an adoration to Osiris, Sokaris, Anubis, or to anyofthe gods; thev were adjured to présent the douille of sucli or sucli a man « witli ail tlie good tliings wliich heaven gives, wliich eartli produces, and wliich the Nile brings out of its unknown retreat. » Such was the process by witli Egypt’s theologians evolved, from the notion of the double feeding upon material objects, the conception of the double living upon figures of objects and formulas devoid of reality.

Tlius far 1 hâve considered only the doctrine wliich made what remained of man a double, and t liât double settled forever near the place where the corpse had been buried. According to another creed, the soûl was not attached to the tomb ; it was obliged to leave the part of the world wliich had been prepared from the first for the réception of the living, and to go to lands wliich had been selected for the dead to dwell in, under tlie rule of specialgods. Tliese countrieslay, most of them, in the direction of the sunset, wlience their name of

EGYPTIAN SOULS AND THEIR WORLDS

Amentit y , the West, but some of tliem stretched, as we shall see, from North toEast. It seems as if eaeli nomeof Egypt liad in the beginning its own Hades and god or goddess of the Dead ; but tliese were superseded by Sokaris, Khontamentit, Osiris, Hathor, Anubis, and a few more, whose myths, originally distinct, were mixed up together in the course of time. Sokaris dwelt in the western parts of Middle and Lower Egypt, from Fayum to the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, and reigned over the Memphite dead.

To-Sokari, the land of Soka-

His kingdom, —

ris it was called, — was in the Libyan desert : dark passages,

I v\ staou, whicli ran underground like the galleries I Q m n ni ° °

of a mine, and the reunion of whick was termed the grotto,

ammâ/ut, or the divine quarry,

Khri-

noutri. The dwellers in this région were no mere doubles, faithfully holding to tlie corpse they liad once animated. Some said they liad the figure of a bird, a hawk with a hu-

man head

or a sort of crâne,

haï, for îe common

which reason the word crâne ba, became t name of the soûls. Otkers believed that they retained the human shape, and that they shone, b itou, with a

pale bluish light ; hence people called tliem khouou, the luminous, the shilling ones. After deatli the Shilling One went in searcli of Sokaris. A drawing in the Book of the Dead shows it, a human figure dressed in wliite, ascending, staff in hand, the sandy slope of the Libyan liills. The entrance to the Land of Sokaris was not easy of access. During the journey the soûl incurred ail the risks of travelling in the desert : it was exposed to hunger and tliirst , assaulted by bad spirits, surrounded by snakes, scorpions, and venomous beetles, whose bite would bave been death for it, liad it not been protected against tliem by magical formulas and amulets of sovereign virtue. Wlien

EGYPTIAN SOULS AND TH El R WORLDS

it had reaclied the Door of the Passages, Ro-staouou, it was led before the god and made free of the place and its rights.

The kingdom of Sokaris was no pleasant abode for tliose wlio were admitted to it. a The West is a land of sleep and darkness lieavv, a place wliere tliose who settle in it, slumbering in their forms, never wake to see tlieir brethren ; they never look anymore on their fatlier and tlieir mother, their heart leaves liold of their wives and their children. The living water whicb Earth lias for every one there, is foui liere wliere I ani ; through it rnns for every on who is on earth, foui is for me the water wliich is witli me. I do not know any spot wliere I would like to be, since I reaclied tliis Valley! Give me water wliich runs towards me, saying to me, « Let thy jug never be without water » ; bring me to the North-wind, on the brink of water, tliat it may fan me, t h a t my heart may cool from its pain. The god whose naine is Let Complété Death Corne, when lie lias summoned anybody to him, they corne to him, their liearts disturbed by the fear of him; for there is nobody dares look up at him from amongst gods and men, the great are to liirn the sanie as the small and lie spares not who loves him, but tears the nursling from the mother as lie does the old man, and everybody v\ ho meets him is fi lied witli affright. Ail the men who bescech before him, lie never attends to tliem; nobody goes to implore him, for lie never listens to tliose who implore him, and lie never looks to tliose who bring him présents of ail sorts of things. »

Sokaris, being a dead form of Plitah, was often known under the name of Plitah-Sokaris. The northern and eastern districts of the Delta belonged to Osiris, king of Busiris and Mondes. Osiris, son of Sibou, the Earth-god, and of Nouit, the Heaven-goddess, was a personification of man. His terrestrial life was spent in teaching his people the arts of civilization, and served as a model to ail kings of Egypt; after death, lie continued his good work among the dead, and insured tliem happiness in the other world. Two different

EGYPTIAN SOULS AND THEIR WORLDS

traditions were estant about bis character as lord of Hades. The oldest one describes bis dominion as being laid in darkness, like the land of Sokaris of wkick I bave just spoken; the soûls devoted to bim assembled round bis slirine, and dragged out tbere tbe saine dreary life wbicli was promised to tbe believers in Sokaris. Tbe similarity of conception between both tbe kingdoms of deatb led to tbe identification of both the kings; Sokaris and Pbtab-Sokaris became mixed up with Osiris, and out of tbe three divinities tbere proceeded a complex being who had tbe attributes of tbem ail, and bore tbe triple name of Phtahsokarosiris. Tbe second tradition, wbich spread very early ail over Egypt, took a more cbeerful view of tbe conditions of disembodied soûls. It lield tbat tbe Land of Osiris was no underground site, swallowed up in a despairing intensity of darkness. It consisted of several islands, bidden away in tbe marsbes of tbe Delta, and made inaccessible to tbe living by mud, and quicksands, and tangled tbickets ofgiant bulrushes. Thedead, previously instructed by priests of wbat tbey had to do, went up to a spot wbere a ferry-boat, f\ mâkhonit. waited to

A/WWA

take tbem across. Tbey bad to be examined by the ferryman ; when tbeir answers proved tbem to bave been true followers of Osiris, tbey were allowed to cross over. On landing, tbey confronted tbe god and bis assessor-judges, to whom tbey made a full confession of tbeir deeds and who tried them accordingly. This boat tbeory was not a matter of universal belief ; sonie people thought tliat soûls coming to tbe brink of tbe water found tbere Tbot, tbe Ibis-god, wbo took tbem upon bis wings and delivered tbem over to Osiris. Tbe reasons wbich tbe Egyptians proffered, for putting tbeir earthly paradise in sucli an unlikely place, were of tbe purely mythical order. Old legends said tliat, Osiris baving been treacherously murdered by bis brother Sît, bis wife Isis flew to tbe marsbes near Buto, and gave birth to Horus. Sbe kept bim concealed tbere until be was grown to man’s estate;

EGYPTIAN SOULS AND TI1EIR WORLDS

then slie gathered around him the old servants of lier husband who h a d remained fait liful to lier, and sent liim to war against lus uncle. Wlien lie came back victorions after a protracted struggle, lie bronght the muniniy of bis fatberto tbe place where lie bad been boni, and performed upon it sucli powerful incantations tirât it suddenly revived; and from tliat time there were two kings in tbe world, Horus in Egypt for tbe living, Osiris in tbe marsbes for such of tbe dead as bad been during tbeir life followers of Horus, ^b^)P3ï*' ^hosoii-Horou, bad received burial according to tbe rites instituted by Horus, and tlius bad become identified with Osiris. Eacli of tbe islands liad its own naine, whicli was preserved in tbe Book of the Dead; tbe wliole was known in tbe sacred literature of Egypt as P ° DD D Sohhit Ialou (or Iarou), tbe Field

of Aspliodel. Tliere tbe soûls lived tbe days and nights of tbeir second existence in tbe ligbtof sun and moon, working and resting alternatelv AYhen called to they corvée, they bad to tend tbe cattle, to till tbe ground, to sow, to reap, to sliip the liarvest home, under tbe supervision of Tliot and otlier minor gods, to keep watcb upon tbe waters and figlit against Sit and bis troops, if tbese dared assault tbe realm of Osiris. Wlien not on duty, tliey fisbed or bunted at tbeir leisure, made love to feniale soûls, or sat in painted kiosks drinking fresh water, enjoying tbe cool breeze, playing gaines of cliess, or even reading books. The produce of tbeir labors was not ail tbeir own ; it was divided between tliein and tbe god, as it bad been on eartli between tlieni and tbe reigning king, but wliat was left tlieni was reputed to be probably large enougli for tbeir maintenance. Moreover tliey bad tbe sanie riglit as tbe doubles to receive gifts from earthly friends. Ail ofïerings, made for tbe benefit of tbe dead, accumulated daily in a spécial district of tbe Ialou, which was called fl °

© Sohhit hotpou, Field of OfEering. Tbe

EGYPTIAN SOULS AND THEIR WORLDS

divinities wlio had been intrusted by the living Avitli the transmission, kept part for tlieir own use, as a percentage for the oflice tliey had been asked to perforai ; the rest was handed over to the person or persons designated by name in the dedicatory formula of tlie sacrifice. The realm of Osiris was at its best but a counterfeit of the realm of Pharaoh, and that will seem to many, who know wliat Egypt was, a poor idéal of a paradise; sucli as it was, it must hâve looked the perfection of happiness, to people wliose notions of future life had been previously confined to the Land of Sokaris.

Whatever themerits of this conception, it had at least one fault : the site allotted to it was not secluded enough to prevent intrusion. kVhen the islands in the marshes became accessible to living men, the Field of Ialou departed from them, leaving beliind its name, which stock to one of the small districts of the northern Delta till the time of the Ptolemies, and a few legends, some of which were collected by Greek dragomans thousands of years afterwards, and supplied Herodotus, among others, with the story of the blind king Anysis. There is some reason to suppose that it landed first upon the coast of Phœnicia, in a place which we know to hâve been very closely connectecl witli Egyptian myths. It was said that the chest containing the corpse of Osiris had been carried away to Bvblos by the waves of the sea, and « there gently lodged in the branches of a tamarisk bush, which in a short time shot up into a large tree, growing round the chest, and enclosing it on every side, so that it could not be seen; and the king of the country, having eut down the tree, had made the part of the trunk wherein the chest was concealed, a pillar to support the roof of liis house ». I do not know whether Osiris and his kingdom passed from Phœnicia to tlie more remote coast of Cilicia, and thence to lieaven. It is enough to say that, even in the inscriptions of the fifth dynasty, we find them out of our world, settled, islands and ail, in the neighbourhood of the Great Bear, in the

KGYPTIAN SOULS AND THEIR WORLDS

northern part o£ tbe Milky Way. I hâve not been able to discover as yet when, wliere, and by what associations of mytlis or itleas, the Osirian fainily was converted into stargods. Suflice it, to say that Osiris, Isis, and Horus were considered as being, respectively, the saine as Sahou, who presided in Orion, as Sopdit, the rider of Sotliis, and as Tiou-noutir, the morning star. The islands in the marshes became islands in the firmament, and the water wliich had surrounded thern on earth was transformed into a heavenly océan, rolling its waves in the northern sky. At first it must hâve been no easy matter for the Egyptians to contrive means of lifting so liigh soûls endowed with a more or less lieavy body ; but, being practical people, tliey dcvised several ways of elïecting it. Sucli of them as believecl the soûl tobeabird, affirmed that it took to its wings after death or burial, and flew upward to the door of heaven. Those who had been tauglit it was a kliou } a slnning liuman shape, were no less ready than the others with their explanation. Earth was not to the Egyptians what it is to us, a globe carried safely through space by the laws of gravitation ; every body in Egypt knew that it was a fiat, oblong, quadrangular slab, = , more like the upper board of a table than anything tliey could imagine. It was surmounted by a Hat, iron roof F=q stretching at some distance from it, and supported by four strong pillars |||| wliich prevented it from falling and crushing what was underneath. Tlius the world was like a two-storied bouse, the varions parts of wliich might bc connectcd, as tliey are in our bouses, by a staircase, or by a ladder. The Egyptians supposed that there was somewhere in the West a tall ladder j||, wliich went up straight from earth to heaven. Gods and goddesses watched it day and niglit, Sibou and Nouit, Horus and Sit, Tafnouit and Shou, Hathor, and a few more. Nobody was allowed to climb it unless lie knew the password, and, even after giving it,

EGYPTIAN SOULS AND THEIR WORLDS

tliose poor soûls were in danger of never reaching tlie top wbo were not kelped by tbe band of some piteous divinity. Once on tbe solid floor of tbe firmament, tbey travelled nortbward unt.il tbey came to tbe brink of tbe boréal océan ; tbere tbey found tbe ferry-boat or tbe ibis of Tbot, tbe judge Osiris and bis assessors, tbe islands of tbe Happy, wliere tbey settled forever and ever amongst tbe indestructible stars, (j ® ^ akhimou-sokou, as indes¬

tructible as anv of tbem.

Osiris could not remain long in heaven without meeting Khontamentit. Tliis god, originally of Tbinite extraction, was tbe dead form, tlie dead side of a solar divinity, Anbouri, or of a solar divinity coupled witb a cosmic one, Anbouri- Sbou. Now tlie life of a sun is sometbing very like tlie life of a man. Tbe mother of tbe sun, Nouit, tbe Heaven-goddess, brings ber son fortli in tbe East every morning, in tbe same way tbat men are boni of women. Tbe sun-cbild grows up liour after bour, as tlie buman cliild does year after year, and culminâtes at noon in mid-beaven, a strong and all-powerful warrior; tlien lie begins to décliné, a gradually decaying being, wliom mytbological pictures represent, witb lieavy liead and bent body, leaning on a staff more and more until lie sinks in tbe West and slowly fades away. Tlius, tbe day of a sun reproduces ail tbe changes wbicli are perceptible in tbe life of a man, from birtli to deatb; but wbereas tbe man, once passed from tliis our world, is never seen in it anymore, tbe sun returns to it every morning witb fresli youtli and renovated vigor. Sonie tbougbt tbat tbe sun of to-day was not yesterday ’s sun, and would never be. Tbe body of tbe god remained in tbe West, bis soûl only revived, and tlie sun wliom Nouit brought fortb every morning was a new sun vivified and moved by tlie soûl of ail departed suns. Otbers believed tbat eacli new-born sun was essentially tbe sanie as tbe preceding suns, body and soûl. According to tlie

EGYPTIAN SOULS AND THEIR WORLDS

first theory, Khontamentit had in the West a similar kingdom to the Lands of Sokaris and Osiris, where lie ruled over the dead in darkness and sleep. According to the second, lie knew how to escape the coramon fate of ail living beings. After plunging into darkness in the West, lie came out into liglit in the East, and continued subsisting in régulai’ exchanges from lifeto deathand from death to life. The Egyptians wlio had first likened the life of the sun to the life of man, now reversed the comparison; they likened the life of man to the life of the sun, and asked themselves whetlier it were not possible for man to do as the sun did. The place where the sun passed from the living world into the world of the dead was known to be west of Abydos, in the liills of the Libyan desert; they described it as a deep

□'An <=> □ <- —

and narrow gully, a kind of slit, \y\ nokait or -rx ^ pokarit , in the mountain, tlirough whieli theperennial stream that surged and ran in lieaven, floating the golden barges of the gods, flowed from liglit into darkness. The ark of the sun, coming up to it, was liailed by the divine apes and the jackal-lieaded deities who kept watcli upon the entrance, and was swallowed every evening by the Moutli of the Slit. It met there crowds of soûls who had been sent to Abydos, during the day, from ail the parts of Egypt ; sucli of tliem as had been faithful to the god were allowed to join his train, to embark with him, and even to help the minor gods row liirn safely in the dark. The way they had to follow to reacli the eastern parts led tliem in or near the régions of tlie sky which were occupied by Osiris and by his Field of Ialou. The Egyptians fancied that earth was surrounded on every side by a liigli mountainous wall which bore the four pillars of which I hâve spoken. The sun-boat, after disappearing in the Mouth of the Slit, altered its course, ran up to the Nortli, outside that wall which hid it from our world, tlien changed its direction once more and came down to the eastern door

EGYPTIAN SOULS AND TIIEIR WORLDS

of lieaven. Khontamentit had, tlierefore, to pass in sight of Osiris, and the affinity between tlie two gods was great enough to promote first a connection, soon an identification between tliem. Osiris and Khontamentit were addressed as the god Osiri-Khontamentit, or Osiris, lord of Mendes , Khontamentit, lord of Aby dos. When we remember that Osiris was already mixed up in Sokaris, we need not be surprised if we find on fanerai monuments a Sokarosiris Khontamentit , wlio United in himself the soûls and powers of Sokaris, Osiris and Khontamentit.

This absorption of the three gods in one resulted in the confusion of tlieir several creeds. Imagine for yourself an Egyptian adoring Sokarosiris Khontamentit, and see what this threefold divinity ordered him to believe about liis future condition. What remains of man after deatli is either a double or a soûl. Being a double ^ it must needs live in h is tomb, on the offerings whicli are presented to him on feast days. At the saine time, being a soûl 1^*, it wanders away to the Libyan hills to sleep in the land of Sokaris, it rises up to heaven wliere it works for Osiris in the Field of Ialou, it catches the boat of the sun at the Mouth of the Slit and follows Khontamentit. 1 do not tliink that most Egyptians were troubled in tlieir minds by the contradictions whicli are involved in theabove statements. Everytliing that bore a relation to the other life was not so mucli a matter of reason for tliem as a matter of failli : they believed in Sokarosiris Khontamentit without trying to analyze their creed, and adopted ail the notions whicli were embodied in him, liowever conflicting or irréconciliable the one witli the other. Take, for instance, this formula, wliich occurs frequently on the funerary steles of the XVIII11' and XIXth dynasties : « Adoration to Ouapouaîtou and to Anubis that they allow me to be a glorious soûl in lieaven, rich upon earth, truevoiced ^ ^ in the underground ( Khri-noutri ), to go in and corne out of my tomb and to enjoy the coolness ofits sliade, to

EGYPTIAN SOULS AND THEIR WORLDS

drink ont of my own well every day, to be flourishing in ail mv members; tliat the Nile may bring to me ail cakes, ail offerings, ail annual plants, eacdi in its season; that I may walk on the brink of my tank every day, that my soûl may aliglit upon the boughs of the garden I bave made for myself, that I may cool myself under my sycamore trees and eat fromtheir fruit; tliat my moutli may exist for me to speak witli, as the Followers of Horusare wont to do ; that I may go out to heaven or corne down b) earth without being repulsed on the way, with no detaining of my double, nor prisoning of my soûl; that I may be admitted to the circle of the friends, amongst the devoted to Osiris ; that I may till my own field in the Land of Ialou, tliat I may reacli the Field of Offerings, to be presented with a jar of beer and cakes from the cakes of the Lords of Eternity ; that I may receive my dinner from the quantity of méat whicli is put upon the altar of the great god Osiris. »

Here we hâve the saine man speaking of his double and of his soûl, but this is no difficult thing to explain : Egyptians of his time had divided the liuman person into two parts, one of which, corresponding to the old double, remained in the tomb with the body, while the soûl went away to the otlier world. The allusions to the myth of Sokaris are frequent in the beginning of the formula, wlien the dead speaks about being true-voiced in the underground; tlien the text brings us from earth to heaven and the Fields of lalou. Tlius we see tliat nobody doubted that it was possible for a soûl to cnjoy at the same time ail the privilèges which were insured to the devotees of Sokaris and Osiris. We know from otlier formulas that otlier people fourni no difficulty in wishing for tliemselves a perpétuai résidence in the fields of Osiris, at the same time wlien they asked admittance into the boat of Khontamentit. They were taught to believe in contradictory dogmas from their childhood, and believe they did, with never a scruple or a q uer y.

EGYPTIAN SOULS AND THEIR WORLDS

But there were others who thought about them and sought to harmonize the various conceptions of a postliumous life, or, where tliis was not possible, to tone down and even to suppress completely such of them as were irreducible to their own creed. They lived under the great Theban dynasties, at what time the worship of Amonrâ had nearly succeeded in establishing ail over the land the belief in one single God, and tliis a solar one. They were persuaded tliat the only way for a soûl to enjoy perpétuai bliss was to become as one witli the sun, and tliis conviction was so strong in them, tliat, instead of giving the dead the name of Osiris, which had been until then reserved for them, they identified them with Rà, the Sun-god : for a wliile, dead Ramsès or Amenhotpou was no more the Osiris Ramsès or the Osiris Amenhotpou, but the Râ Ramsès and the Râ Amenhotpou. Their Systems hâve been preserved to us in books, several of which are inscribed upon the walls in the Tombs of the Kings, at Tliebes. They described the t.ravels of the dead sun, Aoufou — the hesli, the corpse of Râ, — in the

liidden part of the world, Daït . The Daït was a kingdom of niglit, not unlike the kingdom of Egypt. It was divided into twelve districts, one for eacli of the black hours. The districts were called pylons in one of the books, mansions, cir clés, or cities in theother. They answered to the cities and to the nomes of Egypt, only they were inhabited by divinities and liuman soûls, and ruled by gods who recognized the supremacy of the sun, as readily as the princes of the nomes acknowledged the sovereignty of Pharaoh. Aoufou inspected them every niglit. He floated down the stream of tlie dark river in them, as ceremoniously as any Pharaoh did ever navigate the Nile; he stopped in each of them to address the inhabitants and be addressed by them, to invest them with lands of their own or rents of ofïerings, to infuse them with new life. Tliese cities of Daït constituted as arti-

EGYPTIAN SOULS AND THEIR WORLDS

ficial a division as tlie real nomes of Egypt. In one of the books, wliicli is entitled A Book of Lectrning what there is in the Other World, tliey were described as combining together to form subordinate kingdoms for the old gods of the Dead. The Sungod, after disappearing west of Thebes, went through an cmpty country for tlie space of one liour, till lie came to tlie Land of Khontamentit. The Land of Khontamentit stretclied over two liours, from Abydos to Unes, and was bounded by the Land of Sokaris, which occupied two liours more. The sixtli, seventli, eightli, and ninth liours belonged to Osiris, and the A ugrit (j^> ® ,where the soûls went from the eastern part of the Delta, was in the tentli and eleventh liours; the twelfth hour prepared the birtli of the Sun-child and was reserved for the gods of Dawn. Tliis distribution of the dead alongside the borders of Egypt from west to east, passing through the nortliern régions, was a natural resuit of the répartition of creeds at the time of the Theban dynasties. Most of the Egyptians remained true to tlieir local dogmas and tlieir soûls went to their respective gods after deatli, Memphite soûls to Sokaris, Osirian soûls to Osiris, and so on. Only a few persons in the Theban circles were intelligent enougli to perceive the superiority of the tlieory tliat identified the soûl of man with the soûl of the sun, and were willing to follow Aoufou by night and Amonrâ by day. Wliile the devotees of the old gods subsided eacli into liis own land under lus own ruler, to iive there in darkness except for one brief hour out of the twenty-four, wlien Aoufou came to the city tliey dwelt in, the soûls of the ini— tiated enjoyed perpétuai light in the boat of Rà.

Thesearesomeofthe spéculations in which old Egypt indulged for centuries; there were others the exposition of which it would be imprudent to try, such small traces hâve tliey left in tlie monumental records. The System which I hâve endeavored to sum up here, in a few pages, is tlie resuit of a

EGYPTIAN SOULS AND THEIR WORLDS

long course of Lectures on Egyptian religion. Wliether tbe conclusions to wliich I bave corne are true or not, I cannot say, as yet; I am too full of mv subject to be a good judge of what I am doing. This I am able to affirm, that every proposition I bave put forward is founded upon original texts, most of wbicb hâve been discovered in tbe Pyramids of tbe Memphite kings, many of wbicb are probably older than tbe beginning of tbe Egyptian monarchy.