EGYPTIANS, RELIGION OF ANCIENT.
(1) Nature and Destiny of the Soul. in the basis of all religion, the nature of the soul, the Egyptians showed the same aptitude for holding several different views that we notice also in their theology. The presence of entirely contradictory notions side by side, points to their having been devised by different tribes or races; each of these divergent views has probably descended from some different element of the population.
The most complete account recognized many different parts of the personality. The re was: a, The body, which became a mummy, sahu b, the double or ghost, the ka, which was exactly like the body, w as born it, but was mortal and wandered about at will after the death of the body; c. the ka carries with it the khaib or shadow symbolized by a shade. 'These arc the elements of the ma torid tcrtion immaterial parts are: Ka Stators or Ka-hotep and Iris a', The la, or soul syni Sasler-Wire. :sfret.
boli/vd as a human headed bird, w Inch tiles in and out of the tomb, and visits the mummy; the king's w as a ha wk ; e, the khu, or glory, symbolized by .1 crested bird; f, the tilt, or will, symbolized by the heart ; g, the sekhem, or strength ; h, the ran, or name.
a people given to scoffing, with a specialty for satire. One of the most sneering invectives which they had used against the prince of a despotic country was found in the satirical papyrus of Turin. It represents a war between cats and mice, in other parts it is highly obscene, and scathes the dissolute life of Ramese: II. Besides that, it shows us the highel priests of the land with the head of a buck. an as and a crocodile, and puts before our eyes a completely reversed world, by placing the rhinoceros in the crown of a tree, and showing the crow mounting a ladder. From this it may he seen that the fable of the animals was known to the Eg.Yptians, for many of their mytho logical narratives can be classed directly with the fables.
The fable of the Lion and the Moue. was also completely preserved, though only in a demotic papyrus of Lyden, but the form is so truly Egyp tian that it could well be taken for a genuine Egyptian production, and one might suppose the The simplest, and apparently earliest, notion of the soul after death was that it hovered about the tomb and required food and drink, an idea which is usual among many other races; hence the offer ings of food which are found placed in the tombs of all periods. Later, however, these offerings
were changed from being corruptible food into the incorruptible images of the food, and of the serv ants who prepared it ; and these again were changed into mere surface sculptures, and lastly into paintings of the objects. All of these changes took place before 400o B. C., and through out the historical period all of these modes of offering existed side by side. Failing the pro vision by human care, the soul was reduced to rely on the tree-goddess, who lived in the thick shady sycamore trees that overshadowed the cemeteries. The starving ka, or ghost, and the ba, or soul, came to adore the goddess, who from her mysterious haunt poured out the drink and gave them the bread. The ba, or soul, easily wandered about, and was provided (in some cases) with a narrow opening which led from the outer air down the shaft in the rock into the funeral chamber. Thus it could rest with the body or fly out to receive its nourishment.
Another notion, which is entirely inconsistent with the above, is that the dead, after attesting his righteousness to Osiris, was permitted to enter the fields of Aalu in the kingdom of Osiris, and there to cultivate the ground, to plow, to sow, and to reap the gigantic and glorified maize which rewarded his Elysian labors. The natural result of believing that the dead had to work after death was that their labors should be lightened as in life by having many servants to do their bidding. Probably servants were actually sacrificed at first, and at about 250o and 1500 B. C. we find repre sentations of human sacrifice which was probably then in image and not in reality. But from about 160o B. C. down to about 400 B. C. images of the servants were buried in the tombs ; at first only a few large and important figures, but afterwards many hundreds, degraded to mere lumps of mud about loo B. C., but starting again with fine statuettes at about 600 B. C. These are known as ushabtis, or "answerers," as they had to answer for the dead when his name was called out from the roll of the coroee to work in Aalu.