The body was always embalmed, even in the case of poor persons and malefactors, the expense varying from a few dollars to a thousand and upwards. The tombs were massive structures, made to resist flood and pillage. There is reason to suspect that the Great Pyramid, and perhaps other pyramids, were something more than tombs; that they were history, or prophecy, in stone. Certainly, the Great Pyramid has been shown to indicate profound astronomical knowledge, and some investigators find further in its dimensions a perfect system of measure and measurements. But the final verdict upon this problem has not yet been delivered.

On the inner walls of the tombs, upon the coffins or mummy-cases of wood or cartonnage, upon the linen bandages in which the body was wrapped, or upon scrolls of papyrus, were inscribed sacred writings. The entire collection was called by the Egyptians, "The Going out by Day," but by Champollion, "The Funeral Ritual," and more correctly by Lepsius, "The Book of the Dead." A critical edition was published in 1886 by the French scholar M. E. Naville. It comprises 166 separate texts or chapters, which are each in a manner independent of one another, and they are of different degrees of antiquity; some of them, probably composed at On in Lower Egypt, the chief sanctuary of the country, being among the earliest products of Egyptian civilization. The chapter numbered 130 is ascribed to the fifth king of the first dynasty (4266 B.C.), and the writing upon the coffin of Men-kau-ra, of the fourth dynasty, to 3625 B.C.

The Book of the Dead directs the soul on its journey to Amenti, the Paradise in the West. It contains prayers to the gods, charms against evil spirits, spells for opening gates and dispersing obstacles, formulas to be inscribed on amulets, and most important of all, the ritual of the judgment of the soul before Osiris. If the applicant were approved, he received back all his faculties and became himself godlike.

THE VOYAGE OF THE SOUL.

IN the 15th chapter of "The Book of the Dead" we find an account of the passage of the soul in a boat across the firmament, to the abode of the blessed.

This fable reappears in the religious writings of other nations, as, for instance, in the Greek story of Charon, ferrying departed spirits across the Styx, and in the traditions of the ancient Mexicans. The soul is called by the Egyptians Osiris, in connection with the proper name of the individual (N), to indicate that the latter already partakes of the divine nature. Ra is the sun-god, approaching the west. The following translation is by P. Le Page Renouf:

Here is the Osiris N.

Come forth into Heaven, sail across the firmament and enter into brotherhood with the stars, let salutation be made to thee in the bark, let invocation be made to thee in the morning bark. Contemplate Ra within his Ark, and do thou propitiate his orb daily. See the fish in its birth from the emerald stream, and see the tortoise and its rotations. Let the offender (the dragon) fall prostrate, when he meditates destruction for me, by blows on his backbone.

Ra springs forth with a fair wind; the evening bark speeds on and reaches the Haven. The crew of Ra are in exultation when they look upon him; the Mistress of Life, her heart is delighted at the overthrow of the adversary of her Lord.

See thou Horus at the look-out at the bow, and at his sides Thoth and Maat. All the gods are in exultation when they behold Ra coming in peace to give new life to the hearts of the Chu, and here is the Osiris N along with them.

[Litany.]

Adored be Ra, as he setteth in the land of Life.

Hail to thee, who hast come as Tmu, and hast been the creator of the cycle of the gods,

Give thou delicious breezes of the north wind to the Osiris N.
Hail to thee, who hast come as the Soul of souls, revered in

Amenta,

Hail to thee, who art above the gods, and who lightenest up Tuat

with thy glories,

Hail to thee, who comest in splendor, and goest around in thine orb,

Hail to thee, who art mightier than the gods, who art crowned in Heaven and King in Tuat,

Hail to thee, who openest the Tuat and disposest of all its doors, Hail to thee, supreme among the gods, and weigher of words in the nether world,

Hail to thee, who art in thy Nest, and stirrest the Tuat with thy

glory,

Hail to thee, the great, the mighty, whose enemies are laid prostrate at their blocks,

Hail to thee, who slaughterest the Sebau and annihilatest Apepi (the dragon).

[After each invocation, the italicized line is repeated.]

Horus openeth: the Great, the Mighty, who divideth the earths, the Great One who resteth in the Mountain of the West, and brighteneth up the Tuat with his glories and the Souls in their hidden abode, by shining into their sepulchres. By hurling harm against the foe thou hast utterly destroyed all the adversaries of the Osiris N.

THE SOUL'S DECLARATION OF INNOCENCE.

This declaration was to be made by the soul in the Judgment Hall of Osiris in the presence of the council of forty-two gods. The heart being weighed against the symbol of truth and found correct was then restored to the deceased who entered upon the life of the blessed.

"O ye Lords of Truth! I have brought you truth.

I have not privily done evil against mankind.

I have not afflicted the miserable.

I have not told falsehoods.

I have had no acquaintance with sin.

I have not made the laboring man do more than his daily task. I have not been idle.

I have not been intoxicated.

I have not been immoral.

I have not calumniated a slave to his master.

I have not caused hunger.

I have not made to weep.

I have not murdered.

I have not defrauded.

"I have not eaten the sacred bread in the temples.

I have not cheated in the weight of the balance.

I have not withheld milk from the mouths of sucklings.

I have not slandered any one.

I have not netted sacred birds.

I have not caught the fish which typify them.

I have not stopped running water.

I have not robbed the gods of their offered haunches.

I have not stopped a god from his manifestation.

I have made to the gods the offerings that were their due.

I have given food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, and clothes to the naked.

TALES OF THE MAGICIANS.

(2800 B.C.)

IN the Berlin Museum there is a manuscript, known as the Westcar papyrus, containing tales of magicians. It was probably written in the twelfth dynasty (about 2400 B.C.), but refers to a much earlier time, and represents the stories as told to King Khufu (Cheops, the builder of the Great Pyramid) by his sons. Two of these are here given, with slight modifications, from the version by W. M. Flinders Petrie, in his "Egyptian Tales." These remarkable fictions of remote antiquity are in strange contrast with other remains of Egyptian literature, yet are closely akin to Oriental stories of later times.

ONE day, when King Khufu reigned over all the land, he said to his chancellor, who stood before him, "Go call me my sons and my councillors, that I may ask of them a thing." And his sons and his councillors came and stood before him, and he said to them, "Know ye a man who can tell me tales of the deeds of the magicians?"

Then the royal son Khafra stood forth and said, "I will tell thy majesty a tale of the days of thy forefather Nebka, the blessed; of what came to pass when he went into the temple of Ptah of Ankhtaui."

THE MAGICAL CROCODILE.

His majesty was walking unto the temple of Ptah, and went unto the house of the chief reciter Uba-aner, with his train. Now when the wife of Uba-aner saw a page, among those who stood behind the king, her heart longed after him; and she sent her servant unto him, with a present of a box full of garments.