The same chapter (125) contains the con fessions of the deceased. Every one of the 42 judges whom the deceased called by their proper names had to pronounce him innocent, he emphatically affirming before each of them in turn that he did not commit any of the 42 sins. The negative confessions are very inter esting but space forbids the mentioning of more than a few of them. The judge having to consider the crime of theft was addressed by the deceased as follows: CO Devourer of Shades, coming out of the orbits . . . I have not stolen"; another was addressed: CO Eyes of Flames, coming out of the shrine . . . I have not played the hypocrite; CO Cracker of Bones, coming out of Suten Khem (Bub astis) . . . I have not told falsehoods u0 Swallower, coming out of Khnem . . . I have not blasphemed"); CO Eater of Hearts, coming out of the thirty . . . I have not made con c0 Eye in the Heart, coming out of the land of Sahu . . . I have not defiled the river? etc.
Among other sins denied are: el am not sluggish; I have not made to weep; I am not a landgrabber; I committed not adultery; I am not a slayer of man; I tamper not with the balance; I do not cheat? etc.
Howsoever absurd the Egyptian Pantheon may appear to our eyes, we must acknowledge from the evidence of these 42 confes sions, that they possessed a superior code of morality, a code which included not only our decalogue, but much of the ethical teachings and humanity of modern civilization.
The vignettes of this chapter, as we have already remarked, vary. The finer illuminated papyri made for royal personages or high priests and priestesses are exquisitely illumi nated and the texts are unabridged. For
instance, the Papyrus of Nu is more than 65 feet long. The Papyrus of Ani is 78 feet long by one foot and three inches wide.
Most copies of the Books of the Dead are defective, others betray gross ignorance on the part of the scribe or copyist. The common people who were unable to purchase a well wtitten and illuminated text for their dead had to be satisfied with a cheaply, badly written, abridged copy. The scribes must have possessed a large stock of blanks on hand, containing spaces to be filled with the deceased (Osiris') name. Some of thetian scribes were as dishonest as most of Egyptian embalmers. As thepapyrus was to be placed with the mummy, the mercenary scribe or embalmer substituted a spurious for a good one.
wingless members of the family Psocider, order Platyptera. These minute insects would be easily mistaken for aphides, both the wingless as well as the winged individuals. Their bodies are oval, the head free from the prothorax, which is small and partially concealed by the unequal wings. The eggs are laid in patches on leaves, bar or other objects, and are covered with a web. Atropos divinatorius is a small pale, louse-like insect, seen running over books and in insect cases, where it does considerable injury. It is one of the worst museum pests, especially injurious to the smaller iepidoptera. The same habit is also possessed by the well-known Psocus domesticus. Another species of atropos,probably pulicarius, has been found in Missouri, infesting the egg mass of the cottony maple scale (Pulvinaria in numerabilis). See DEATH-Tick; DEATH-WATCH.