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 Mcnioirc sur quelques Papijrus du Louer c. — i. Le Chapitre de la Boucle p. 1-14.

3. J'ai déjà signalé un fait identique pour les manuscrits du Rituel de l'EmhsiUmemcnt {Mémoire sur quelques Papyrus du Lourre,\^. IG).

386 I.l'. M vu H DKS MORTS

d'un clmpitro 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 appUipiant à la critique des maïuiserits égyptiens du Louvre les mêmes procédés qu'on a appliqués à celle des manuscrits grecs, on arrive h 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 prophétesses de Klionsou et de Thot, filles de membres du sacerdoce d'Amon-Râ, des prêtres et des prêtresses d'Amon-Râ ou de Montou thébain, appartenant par le sang ou par des alliances à cette grande famille des prophètes de Montou ou d'Amon^ toute-puissante à Thèbes, de l'époque saite à la fin de l'époque grecque, et dont les cercueils historiés encombrent lesmagasins du Musée de Boulaq. D'autres Papyrus, en plus petit nombre, proviennent de Saq(|arah et se rattachent à des originaux memphites; 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 Licres 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 l'on 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 XX!!"^ dynastie, la population diminua

].\-] I.IVRK DKS MORTS 387

sans cesse, et. par suite, le nombre des corporations funéraires. Quatre ou cinq compagnies et, de leur clief, quatre ou cinq exemplaires types, sulfisaient amplement aux besoins de l'industrie mortuaire. Ces exemplaires n'étaient pas renouvelés fré(|uemment, 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 saite 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 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.

IX,^ l'TI V\ SOILS AND TIIEIU A)0RL1)S'

\\'hen wc .stiidy old Egyptian books. we find in tlicm a number of words which seem to apply to thc luiman soûl and to tlie places in which it was allowed to dwell after death. Posthumous humanity is said to be hère a lia y, thcre a baï^^ or a hhnii '^^^ ail of which names sound strange and ])arbaric cnougii ; its abode is, according to sonie, even the tonib w hcrc thc l)ody lies buried, according to others a counlrv far awav to thc West, thc Ainentii fî^'? , the

X^-^^\^' ^^»G ^'^^^^^ "f Olïerings P^|l|"^©. tlie

Aufjril (j'v ' ^^'^' '''*^'^*''^ V^^^'^ *^^ ^^'*' world wliich

the Sun-god went through during the night. Egypt flourished thousands of years before its religion was supcrseded by Christianity : — no wonder its wise mon had more than once to altcr the beliefs their ancestors had entertaincd about death and a future state.

1. Publié dans la Princeton Rcvlcu:, 1888, p. 23-3G. 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 pas 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-môme aux endroits voulus .

KGVPTIAN SOILS AND TIIF.IR WORI.DS 389

The oldcst form witli wliicli tliey ondowod tlie soûl, at least tlie oldcst we know, was ihat of a sliadow. Now tliere are shadows of two différent kinds, dark sliadows sucli as are projeeted by the body upon a wall, clear sliadows such as wo see rcflected in water or upon the i)olislied surface of métal orwood. TheEgyptianshadoutlivedtheidea of the soûl being a dark shadow^ atwhat timethey wrote thcir Rituals for the dead ; the dark shadows (y kliaïbit) which we nnieet in their books are no independent beings, but always cling to the material part of tlio soûl in the other world as they did to the physical body in this. The clear shadows were called ka U or doubles, and were sometimes pictured upon the monuments. They were the exact counterpart of the man to whom they belonged, with the same features, the same stature, the same gait, even the same dress. Some of the reliefs in one of the rooms of the temple at Luxor re présent the birth of King Amenhotpou III. While the queen-mother is being tended by two goddesses acting as midwives, two goddesses more arc bringing away two figures of new-born chiklren, only one of which is supposcd to be a visible and tangible reality : the inscription engraved above their heads shows that, while the first is Amenhotpou, the second is the double, the ka LJ of Amenhotpou. As with kings and queens, so it was with common men and women. Wherever a child was born, tliere was born with him a doul)le which followed him through the varions stages of life; young while he was young, it came to maturity and declined wlien he came to maturity and declined. And not only human beings, but gods and animais, stones and trees^ natural and artificial objects, everybody and everything had its own double — the doubles of oxen or slieep were the duplicates of the original oxen or sheep, the doubles of linen or beds, of chairs or knives. retained the same appearance as the real linen and bedsj chairs and knives. The component particles of ail thèse doubles were so minute and subtile in their texture, that

3rK) EGYFTIAN SOILS ANO TIll'.IIl WOUI.DS

tliey roinained iinporcoivod l)y ordinnry pco])lo. Only certain classes of priests or scers were enabled by iiatural gifts or spécial trainiiiiifs to porccivc the doul)les of the gods, and to obtain from them a knowlcdge of past or future events. The doubles of men or objects were hidden to sight in the ordinary course of life ; stilb tliey sometimes Hew out of the body, cndowed with color and voice, left it in a kind of trance, and went away to manifest themselves at a distance according to llie nianner of modem gliosts. After death, they maintaincd not only the characteristics of the individiial man they had been while in the flesh, but were subjected to the common wants of humanity, to hunger and thirst, to beat and cold, to illness and pain, with the aggravation that, whereas the living bave ways and means of protecting themselves against ail the evils which befall them, the dead are utterly destitute. If left to themselves, they had to roam al)out the phices they had inhabited and to feed upon the refuse of bouses, with the certainty of dying out after prolonging their misérable existence for a short time. If properly attended to, they 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, that their pcrpetuity would seem almost an immortality to people who believed in doubles for their soûls.

Given the définition of what survived in man^ the practical conséquences of it are easily drawn. Since the double was a pcrfect image of the being to wliich it had been Hnked at birth, what more natural than that it should remain ncar where the corpse lay and participate in its destinies? Having grown with it, it ought to decay with it gradually, so that the natural term of its existence after burial might be measured by the time it takes the human frame to dcsintegrate completely. Therefore, the best means of stopping the décomposition of the soûl was to stop the décomposition of the flesh^ andjothis we owc probably the practiceof embalming. The

EGYPTIAN SOULS AND TlIi:iR WORLDS 301

(Irying up and liardcning of llie mummy enal^lcd il to la.st centuries, during wliich it served as a kind of stay for its former double. Still, mummies cannot kccp on subsisting forcver; cven if not destroyed Ijy man and beast, or dissolved by rain and beat, a tinie arrives wbcn they must fade and woar ont, and then \\\vM would ])ecome of tbe double? The only way thc Egyptians found out of tliis dilTiculty was to provide it witli stone or wooden bodies, against the possibility of the mummy mouldering away. Most of the statues whicli we discover in a tomb were only bodies for the double of the man Mho was buried in it. To prevcnt Ihem from being broken to pièces or carried away they walled them up in dark cells. Some are standing, some sitting, some squatting; ail were as likc the model as art could make them, tliat the soûl' might the easier adapt itself to them. Thcre was no limit to their number but the piety of the children and thc wealtli of the family; the more numerous they were, the better it was for the dead. One statue was, after ail, only one chance of perpetuity : two, three, ten^ twenty statues, gave the double so many chances more. What was true of the statues in the tombs, was true also of the statues in the temples, even wlien they rcpresented kings or gods : the double of kings or gods, not the whole but a particle of it, was fixed upon them by prayers and consécration, and animated them. Thus it was that they were able to move head or arms, to answer questions whicli were put to them according to rite, to give forth oracles in private or public matters. Statues were not mère works of art, they were things alivc, and are even to tins day; only the double of old lias turned into a cljinn or an qfn'te in modem Egypt, and haunts. a Ijad 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 mad, and sometimes to kill them, but loses its power when the body of stone with which it consorts has been mutilated. Tiiat is the reason whv so manv statues

31)2 EGYPTIAN !?OL'LS AND THKIH WORLDS

in our niuseums display a brokcii nose or a battercd cheek : tlie fellahecn w ho foiind tlicin defaoed tliem to lame tlie double in tluMii and j^revent it froni doinjj; any jiarm.

So much for tlie bodv of thc double. The tomb was its

house ererlasting, — n ^!1 pi zotou, — a house with more or less rooms, some of which stood open to visitors, as the mandara of modem E.Lry])tian habitations. There the dcad was presented with its tirst dinner, on the day of the funeral. \Vhile the priests, assisted by the son, introduced the niununy to its vault, servants brought into the réception hall oxcn and gazelles, geese and doves, fish, loaves, béer, \vine, everything that a man niight necd in thosc times to live comfortably. Bread, cakes of varions kinds, vegetables, méat, both roasted and boiled. fresh water, milk, liquors, oil were thrown upon the ground near the sarcophagus ; 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 thera, dancers and bulToons danced before them, until the night came wlien they went away leaving the double in possession of its new abode. The same ceremony was formally repeatod several times a year, on days prescribed by law, « at the feast of the beginning of the seasons, atthe 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 tiie 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-ha A. — priests or slaves of the double — received wagestokoep the tomb inorder andto make thenecessary sacriMcesin duetime. Piecesoflands, or rents imposed upon the domains of the family, were given to neighbouring temples, that the priests migiit come 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, flat slab of Umestone, gra-

F.r.YI'TIAN SOULS AND lIllilK WOIM.DS 303

nite, sandstoue, orcven terracotta, wliich Egyptologists arc accustonied to term an offering-tablc ; it came ont of its

own rooms and gnawed tlie bones or drank tlie winc. Its condilion was, llicrefore, acceptal)le, as long as its living servants continuod to provide for it; but a day must come, cven for princes and kings, wlien, the générations of the dead accumulating, the doubles of i)ast centuries were neglected for the benefît of more récent doubles. In order to supply tliem Avitli the neccssities of life, the Egyptians conceived the idca of representing on the walls of the open rooms in the tomb the ofïerings which used to be bodily consecrated on the feast days.The painted or carvcd image of things insured the realily of the same to the man on whose account they were executed; the double saw itself depicted upon the walls of its house in theactof eatinganddrinking, and lie ate and drank. Prayers were added to the picturcs, which strengthened their magical powers and evcn pcrmittcd the dead to dispense witli them. The most fréquent of thèse was in the form of an adoration to Osiris, Sokaris, Anubis, or to any of the gods; they were adjured to présent the double of such or such a man « with ail the good things which heaven gives, which earth produces, and which the Nile brings out of its unknowui retreat. » Such was the process by with Egypt's theologians evolved, from the notion of the double feeding upon niaterial objects, the conception of the douljJo living upon figures of objects and formulas devoid of reality.

Thus far I hâve considered only the doctrine wliieli made what remained of man a double, and that 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 which had been prepared from the first for the réception of the living, and to go to lands which had been selected for the dead to dwell in, under the rule of specialgods. Thèse countrieslay, most of them, in the direction of the sunset, whence their name of

304 KGYPTIAN S0L:1.S AM) tiikir worlds

Amcntit \ ^ . llie Wcs;t, but some of them stretclicd, as we shall see, from Nortli toEast. It seems as if cacli nomeof Egypt liad in tlie beginning its own lîadcs and god or goddcss of the Dcad ; but thèse were superseded by Sokaris, Khontamentit, Osiris, Hatlior, Anubis, and a few more, Avhose mytlis, originally distinct, Avcre mixed up togetlier in tlie course of timc. Solcaris 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. His kingdom, — ^"^"^^^(^/l To-Sokari, the land of Soka-

ris it was called, — was in the Libvan désert : dark passages, staou, which ran underground hke the galleries

I D .^n III

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

'] ^v Q ammâhit, or the divine quarry, j <rr> K/trinoutri. The dwellers in this région were no mère doubles, faitlifuUy holding to the corpse they had once animated. Some said they had the figure of a bird, a hawk with a human liead Tv , or a sort of crâne, J'(^'^^(l(l haï, for which reason the word crâne ^^^ ba, became the common name of the soûls. Others believed that they retained the human shape, and that they shone, '^^ v\ m kJioa. with a pale bluish light ; hence people called them '^^'^^ ''^, khouou, the luminous, the shining ones. After dealh the Shining One went in search of Sokaris. A drawing in the Rook of the Dead shows it, a human figure dressed in whito, ascending, staff in hand, the sandy slope of the Libyan hills. 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 désert : it was exposed to hunger and thirst, assaulted by bad spirits, surrounded by snakcs, scorpions, and venomous beetles^ whose bite would hâve been death for it, had it not been protected against them Ijy magical formulas and amulets of sovereign virtue. When

K(;VI'TIAN SOLI.S AND rillilK WOIILDS 395

itluid reaclicd tho Door of llie Passages, Ro-staouou, it was led before the god and made free of the place and its rights.

Tlie kingdom of Sokaris was no pleasant abode for those \\\w were admitled to it. « The West is a land of sleep and darkness heavy, a place wliere those who settle in it, sluinbering in their forms, never wake to see their brethren ; they ncvcr look anymore on their father and thoir mother, their lieart leaves hold of their wives and thoir cliildren. The living water which Earth has for every one there, is foui hère where I am ; through it riins for every on who is on earth, foui is for me the water which is with me. I do not know any spot where I would like to be, since I reached this Valley ! Give me water which runs towards me, saying to me, « Let thy jug never be without water » ; bringme to thcNorth-windj on the brink of water, tliat it may fan me, that my heart may cool from its pain. The god whose name is Let Complète Death Corne, when he lias summoned anybody to him, they come to him, their hearts disturbed by the fear of him ; for there is nobody dares look up at him from amongst gods and men, the great are to him the same as the small and he spares not who loves him. but tears the nursling from the mother as he does the old man, and everybody who meets him is filled with affright. AU the men who beseech before him, he never attends to them; nobody goes to implore him, for he never listons to those who implore him, and he never looks to those who bring him présents of ail sorts of things. »

Sokaris, being a dead form of Phtah, was often known under the name of Phtali-Sokaris. The northern and eastern districts of the Delta l)elonged 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, he continuod his good work among the dead, and insured them happiness in tlic otlier world. Two différent

396 EGYPTIAN ïSOLLS AND Tllinil WORLDS

traditions wcreextant about liis character as lord of Ilades. The oldcst one describes his dominion as being laid in darkness, likc the land of Sokaris of which I bave just spoken ; tbe soûls devoted to liim assembled round bis slirinc, and dragged eut tbere tbe samo dreary life wbicb was promised to tbe believers in Sokaris. Tbe siniilarity of conception between botb tbe kingdomsof deatli led to tbe identification of botb tbe kings; Sokaris and Pbtab-Sokaris became mixed up -svitb Osiris, and out of tbe tbree divinities tbere proceeded a complcx being wbo bad tbe attributes of tbem ail. and bore tbe triple name of Pbtalisokarosiris. Tbe second tradition, wbicb spread very early ail over Egypt, took a more cbeerful vicw of tbe conditions ofdisembodied soûls. It beld 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 the living by mud, and quicksands, and tangled thickets of giant bulrusbes. Thedead, previously instructed by priests of wbat tbey had to do, went up to a spot where a ferry-boat, ^v )^ ^^ màklionit, waited to take tbem across. Tbey bad to be examined by tbe fcrryman ; wben tbeir answers proved tbem to bave bcen true followers of Osiris, tbey were allowed to cross over. On landing, tbey confronted tbe god and bis assessor-judges, to wbom tbey made a fuU confession of tbeir deeds and wbo tried tbem accordingly. Tbis boat tbeory was not a matter of uni versai belief ; some pcople tbougbt tbat soûls comingto tbe brink of tbe water found tbere Thot, tbe Ibis-god, wbo took tbem upon bis wings and delivered tbem over to Osiris. Tbe reasons which the Egyptians proflfered, for putting tbeir eartbly paradise in sucb an unlikely place, were of tbepurely mytbical order. Old legends said tbat, Osiris having been treacherously murdered by his brother Sît, his wifelsisflew to tbe marsbes near Buto, and gave birth to Horus. Sbe kept bim concealed tbere until be was grown to man's estâtes

KGVI'IIAN SOULS AM> ÏWVAH WnlM.DS 397

then slie gatliored around liim tlic old servants of lier husband wlio liad remaiiiod faitliful to hcr, and sent liim to war against liis uncle. When he came back victorious after a protracted struggle, he brouglit tlie mummy of liis fatherto tlic place Avhere he liad been born, and performed upon it sucli powerful incantations that it siiddcnly revived; and from that tinie there were two kings in the world, Horus in Egypt for the living, Osiris in the marshes for such of Ihe dead as had been during their life followers of Horus, ^^nfl v\i Shosou-Horou , had received burial according

to the rites instituted by Horus, and tlius liad become identified with Osiris. Each of the islands had its own name, which was preserved in the Book of the Dead; the whole was known in the sacred literature of Egypt as n^|||(]'^.^^%^'^5o/v/»Y Mou (or larou). the Field

of Asphodel. There the soûls lived the days and nights of their second existence in the lightof sun and moon, working and restingalternatelyAVliGn called to they corvée, they had to tend the cattle, to till the ground, to sow, to reap, to ship the harvest home, under the supervision of Thot and other minor gods, to keep watcli upon the waters and tight against Sit and his troops, if thèse dared assault the realm of Osiris. When not on duty, they fîshed or hunted at their leisure, made love to female soûls, or sat in painted kiosks drinking fresli water, enjoying the cool breeze, playing games of chess, or even reading books. The produce of their labors was not ail their own; it was divided between them and the god^ as it had been on earth between tliem and the reigning king, but what was left them was reputed to be probably large enough for their maintenance. Moreover they had the saine rightas the doubles to reçoive gifts from earthly friends. AU oiïcrings, made for the bencfit of the dead, accumulatcd daily in a spécial district of the lalou, which was called n^ Mfl'^© •S'oA7»ï hotpou, Field of Offering. The

3U8 HGYI'TIAN SOULS AND TlllilR WOllLDS

divinitics who liad bccn intriisted l)v tlic living witli the transmission, kopt part for their own use, as a pcrceniage for tlie onice thoy liad I)eon asked to perform ; tlie rcst was liandod ovcr to tlie person or pcrsons designated l)y name in tlic dedicatory formula of the sacrifice. The realm of Osiris was at its best but a counterfeit of the realm of Pharaoli, and that will seem to many, who know what Egypt was, a poor idéal of a paradise; such as it was, it must hâve looked the perfection of happiness, to people whose notions of future life had been previously confined to the Land of Sokaris.

Whateverthemerits of this conception, it had at least one fault : the site allottcd to it was not secludcd enough to prcvent intrusion. When the islands in the marshes became accessible to living men, the Field of lalou departed from them, leaving behind its name, which stuck to one of the small districts of the northern Delta till the timc of the Ptolemies, and a few legends, some of which were collected by Greek dragomans thousandsof 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 connected with Egyptian myths. It was said that the chest containing the corpse of Osiris had been carried away to Byblos 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 his house ». I do not know whether Osiris and his kingdom passed from Phœnicia to the more remote coast of Cilicia, and thence to heaven. 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

HGYPTIAN SOULS AND THMIH WORI.DS 399

northern part of thc Milky Way. 1 hâve not becn able to discover as yet when, wliere, and by what associations of myths or idcas, thc Osirian family was convcrted into stargods. Sufllcc it to say that Osiris, Isis, and Horus were considcred as being, respectively, thc same as Saliou, who prcsided in Orion, as Sopdit, thc ruler of Sothis, and as Tiou-noutir, tlie morning star. Tlic islands in thc marshes bceamc ishinds in thc firmament, and tlic water whicli liad surroundcd them on earth was transformed into a heavcnly océan, roUing its waves in the northern sky. At first it must hâve been no easy matter for the Egyptians to contrive means of lifting so high soûls endowed witli a more or less heavy body ; but, being practical people, they devised several ways of effecting it. Such of them as believed the soûl tobeabird, affîrmed that it took to its wings after deatli or burial, and flew upward to the door of heavcn. Those who had been taught it was a khou, a shining Imman shape, were no less ready than the others witli tlieir 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 flat, oblong, quadrangular slab, ==, more like the upper board of a table than anything they could imagine. It was surmounted by a flat, iron roof f=^ stretching at some distance from it, and supported by four strong pillars TT I ] wliich prevented it from falling and crushing what was underneath. Thus the world was likc a two-storied house, the varions parts of which might be connected, as they are in our houses, by a staircase, or by a ladder. Thc Egyptians supposed that there was somewhere in the West a tall ladder H, which went up straight from earth to heavcn. Gods and goddcsses watched it day and night, Sibou and Nouit, Horus and Sit, Tafnouit and Shou, Hathor, and a few more. Nobody was allowed to climb it unless he knew the password, and, even after giving it,

4(11) K(iYPTIAN sori.s AND lill'.lH WORl.DS

Ihosc poor soûls weiv in danger of novor roacliiiiL,' llio top wlio werc net liclped by Ihc luiiid of somo i)il('oiis divinity. Once on thc solid lloor of tlie firmament, they travellcd northward until tlicy came to tlie brink of thc borcal occan; tliere tlicy foiind the ferry-boat or the ibis of Tliot, the judgc Osiris and his assessors, tlie islands of the Happy, wlierc they scttlcd forcvcr and evcr amongst thc indestructible stars. (|o^\ ^ ''^^ f?/vA//«o«-so/toa^ as indestructible as any ot them.

Osiris could iiot remain long in lieaven without meeting Khontamentit. Tliis god. originally of Thinite extraction, was the dcad form, the dead side of a solar divinity, Anliouri, or of a solar divinity coupled with a cosmic one, Anhouri- Shou. Now the life of a sun is somcthing very like the life of a man. The inotherof the sun, Nouit, the Heaven-goddess, brings lier son forth in the East every morning, in the same way that men are born of women. The sun-child grows up hour after hour, as the human cliilddoes yearafter year, and culminâtes at noon in mid-hcaven, a strong and all-powerful warrior; tlien lie begins to décline, a gradually decaying being, whom mythological pictures represent, with heavy liead and bent body, leaning on a stafï more and more until he sinks in the West and slowly fades away. Thus, the day of a Sun reproduces ail the changes wliich are perce])tible in the life of a man, from birth to death; but whcreas thc man, once passed from tins our world, is never seen in it anymore, the sun returns to it every morning with fresh youth and renovated vigor. Some thought that thc sun of to-day was not yesterday 's sun, and would never be. The body of the god remained in the West, his soûl only revived, and the sun whom Nouit brought forth every morning was a new sun vivified and moved by the soûl of ail departcd suns. Others believed that each new-born sun was essentially the same as the preceding suns, body and soûl. According to the

EGYPTIAN SOULS AND THKIR WORLDS 401

first tlieorv, Klionlamcntit liad in thc West a similar kin^dom to tlie Lauds of Sokaris and Osiris, wlicrc 1(0 ruled over the dead in darkncss and sleep. According to the second, lie knew how to escape the common fate of ail living beings. After plunginp: into darkness in the West, he came out into light in the East, and continiied subsisting in regular exchanges from life to deatli and from death to life. The Egyptians who had first likened the life of the son to the life of man, now reversed the comparison; tliey likened thc life of man to the life of the sun, and asked themselves whether it were not possible for man to do as the sun did. The place where the snn passed from the living world into the world of the dead was known to be west of Abydos, in the hills of the Liljvan désert ; they described it as a deep and narrow guUy, a kind of slit, -r\ \^ pokaït or tt ^ pokarit, in the mountain , through which the perennial stream that surged and ran in heaven, floating the golden barges of the gods, flowed from light into darkness. The ark of the sun, coming up to it, was liailed by the divine apes and the jackal-headed deities who kept watch upon the outrance, and was swallowcd every evening by the Mouth ofthe Slit. It met there crowds of soûls who had been sent to Abydos, during the day, from ail thc parts of Egypt; such of tliem as had been faithful to the god were allowedto join his train, to embark with him, and even to help the minor gods row him safely in the dark. The way they had to foUow to reach the eastern parts led them in or near the régions of the sky which were occupied by Osiris and by his Field of lalou. The Egyptians fancied that earth was surrounded on every side by a high mountainous wall which l)ore the four pillars of which I hâve spoken. The sun-boat, after disappcaring in the Mouth ofthe Slit, altered its course, ran up to the North, outside that wall which hid it from our world, then changed its direction once more and came down to the eastern door

402 KGYPTIAN i^Ori.S AND TIIKIR WORLDS

of licavcn. Klionlanicnlit liad. thcreforc, to pass in sight of Osiris, and thc allinity l^etwccn tlie two gods was great enough to promote first a connection, soon an identification between them. Osiris and Kliontamentit were addressed as the god Osiri-K/io/itamc/itit, or Osi/is, lord of Metides, Khontamentit, lord of Abydos.When ^ve remember that Osiris was already mixed up in Sokaris, we need not besurprised if Ave find on funeral monuments a Sokarosiris Khontamentit , \\\\o united in himself the soûls and powers of Sokaris, Osiris and Kliontamentit.

Tiiis absorption of the tiiree gods in one resulted in the confusion of tlieir several creeds. Imagine for yourself an Egyptian adoring Sokarosiris Khontamentit, and see wliat tliis tliroefohl divinily ordered liim tobelieveabout liis future condition. What remains of mnn after death is cilhcr a double or a soul. Being a double ^ il must needs livein liis toml^ on the ofïerings N\hicli are presented to him on feast days. At the same time, being a soul ^^^. it wanders away to the Libyan hills to sleep in tlie land of Sokaris, it rises up to heaven where it works for Osiris in the Field of lalou, it catches the beat of the sun at the Alouth of tlie Slit and follows Khontamentit. I do not think that most Egyptians were troubled in tlieir minds by the contradictions which are involved in theabove statements. Everything that bore a relation to the other life was not so much a matter of reason for them as a matter of faith ; they believed in Sokarosiris Khontamentit without trying to analyze their creed, and adopted ail the notions which were embodied in him, lîowever conflicting or irréconciliable the one with the other. Take, for instance, this formula, which occurs frequently on the funerary stèles of the XYIIP*" and XIX^*" dynasties : « Adoration to Ouapouaitou and to Anubis that they allow me to be a glorious soul in heaven, rich upon earth, truevoiced ^^^^ in the underground {Khri-noutri) , to go in and come out of my tomb and to enjoy the coolness of its shade, to

EGYPTIAN SOULS AND THKIR WORLDS 403

drink ont of my own well cveiy day, to bc nouii.'^hing in ail my mcmbcis; that thc Nilc may bring to me ail cakes, ail ofïerings, ail annual plants, each in its season ; that I may walk on the brink of my tank every day, that my soûl may alight upon the boiighs of the garden I hâve made for myself, that I may cool myself under my sycamore trees and eat from tlieir fruit; that my mouth may exist for me to speak with, as the Followers of Horusare wont to do ; that I may go out to heaven or come down to eartli 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 Ofeiris; that I may till my own field in the Land of lalou, that I may reach the Field of Oiîerings, to be presented with a jar of béer and cakes from the cakes of the Lords of Eternity ; that I may reçoive my dinner from the quantity of méat which is put upon the altar of the great god Osiris. »

Hère we hâve the same man speaking of his double and of his soûl, but this is no difRcult thing to explain : Egyptians of his time had divided the human 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 other world. The allusions to the mytli of Sokaris are freciuent in the beginning of the formula, when the dead speaks about being true-voiced in the underground; then the text brings us from earth to heaven and the Fields of lalou. Thus we see that nobody doubted that it was possible for a soûl to enjoy at the same time ail the privilèges which were insured to the devotees of Sokaris and Osiris. We know from other formulas that other people found no difliculty in wishing for themselves a perpétuai résidence in the fields of Osiris, at the same time when they asked admittance into the beat of Khontamentit. They M'ere taught to believe in contradictory dogmas from their childhood, and believe they did, with never a scruple or a query.

404 EGYPTIAN SOULS AND THl'.lR WORLDS

But llicre werc otliers who tliouglit about tlicm and sourrlit to liarinonize the varions conceptions of a postliunious lifo, or, where tliis was not possible, to tone down and even to suppress com])letely such of tlicm as were irredncible to tlieir own creed. They lived under the great Thel)an dynasties, at what time the worship of Amonrà liad nearly succeeded in establishing ail over the land the belief in one single God, and this a solar one. They were pcrsuaded that the only way for a soûl to enjoy perpétuai bliss was to become as one with the sun, and this conviction was so strong in theni. that, instead of Ljiving the dead the name of Osiris, whicli had Ijeen until then reserved for Ihcm, they idcntified them with Râ, the Sun-god : for a while, dead Ramses or Amenhotpou was no more the Osiris Ramses or the Osiris Amenhotpou, but the Râ Ramses and the Râ Amenhotpou. Their Systems hâve been preserved to us in books, several of which are inscribed npon the walls in the Tombs of the Kings, at Thebes. They described the travels of the dead sun, Aoufou (1 p , — the flesh, the corpse of Râ, — in the hidden part of the world, Daït "R '^ . The Dait was a kingdom of night, not unlike the kingdom of Egypt. It was divided into twelve districts, one for eacli of the black hours. The districts were called/)?//o/2S in one of the books, mansions,circles, or cities in tlieother. They answered tothe 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 night. He floated down the stream of the dark river in them, as ceremoniously as any Pharaoh did ever navigate the Nile; he stoppcd in each of them to address the inhabitants and Ije addressed by them, to invest them with lands of their own or rents of offerings, to infuse them with new life. Thèse cities of Dait constituted as arti-

EGYPTIAN SOULS AND THI-IR WORLDS 405

ficial a division as Ihc roal nomes of E^^ypt. In onc of tlic books, wliicli is enlitled A Dook of Learninrj wliat ihere is in tlie Otiier World, tlicy were describcd as combining together to form subordinate kingdoms for the old gods of thc Dead. The Sungod, after disappearing west of Tliebes, went through an cmply country for the space of one hour, till he came to the Land of Khontamentit. The Land of Khontamcntit stretchcd over two liours, from Abydos to Hnes, and was bounded by tlie Land of Sokaris, wliicli occiipied two hours more. The sixth, seventh, eightli, and ninth hours belonged to Osiris, and {\\QAugrit (] v\ '^ ,M'liere

the soûls went from the eastern part of the Delta, was in the tenth and eleventh hours; the twelfth liour prepared tlie birth of the Sun-child and was reserved for the gods of Dawn. This distribution of the dead alongside the borders of Egypt from west to east, passing througli the northern régions, was a natural resuit of the repartition of creeds at the time of the Theban dynasties. Most of the Egyptians remaincd true to their local dogmas and their soûls went to their respective gods after dcath, Memphite soûls to Sokaris, Osirian soûls to Osiris, and so on. Only a few persons in tlie Theban circles were intelligent enougli to perceive the superiority of the theory that idcntified the soûl of man with the soûl of the sun, and were willing to follow Aoufou by night and Amonrâ by day. While the devotees of the old gods subsidcd eacli into bis own land under his own ruler, to live there in darkness except for one brief hour eut of tlie twenty-four, when Aoufou came to the city they dwelt in, tiic soûls of the initiated enjoyed perpétuai liglit in the boat of Râ.

Thesearesomeofthe spéculations in whicli old Egypt indulged for centuries; there were otliers the exposition of which it would be imprudent to try, such small traces hâve they left in the monumental records. Tlie System which I havo endeavorcd to sum up licre, in a few pages, is the resuit of a

400 KGYPTIAN SOULS AND Tllllllî WOIM.DS

loiiix course of Lectures on Egyptian rcliiiion. \Vhether tlie conclusions (o wliich I hâve corne are truc or not, I cannot say. as yet : I am toc full of my subject to be a good judge of what I am doing. Tliis I am able to allirm, tliat every proposition I liave put forward is founded upon original texts, most of wliicli hâve becn discovered in the Pyramids of the Mempliite kings, many of which are probably older than the beginning of the Egyptian monarchy.