EBYPT. The earliest Egyptians buried their dead in earthen jars like the Babylonians, but at a very early date religion decreed the iweserva tion of the body by embalming and the construc tion of a tomb of considerable size. Of the four elements man, the body, the double mr ka, the soul or bi, and the spiritual dame or khu, each had to be provided for in the burial arrangements. On the preservation of the body depended the continued existence of the other three elements. The 'double' lived with the and (-mistimed the offerings period ically brought to its reception chamber. The soul and the spirit returned after a long period from the other world to renew c(mtact with their for mer envelope. Portraits of the deceased were placed in the tomb so that they could still be rec ognized by them, even if the mummy were in jured or destroyed. The clearer conception of the afterlife in its material aspect held by the Egyp tians made them develop fully what is found only in germ in Babylonia. Immediately after death, the priest came with his assistants to take entire charge of the body and funeral. Ile closed the eyes of the deceased; handed his body over to the embalmers; saw to the preparation of the mausoleum with its paintings and images—if the deceased were well-to-do; engaged the mourners to parade the streets at stated intervals with loud lamentations. and directed the exhibition of family grief and the preparations for the pro cession. :Meanwhile the embalming had been pro •eeding. First the viscera and heart were re moved• stuffed with unguents, and placed in four jars: the brain, also, was set aside to dry, and the body placed to soak for seventy days in liquid litron or matron.
PIRENIciA. The Phoenicians imagined the soul to he a restless and pitiable double, abiding either near the body of the deceased or in a gloomy under-world. The body was not fully
embalmed, but anointed and enveloped in linen bandages impregnated with substances to retard decomposition. Bodies were placed in natural grottoes or artificial chambers, or else laid in the bare earth; though they were com monly inclosed in coffins or sarcophagi, some times of anthropoid shape, in imitation of Egypt. Around the dead were objects of daily use and ornaments. The eippus or stele to mark the tonal developed often into a monument or chapel, especially in Ilellenistic times. The early lle brew custom is shown by Abraham's purchase of envy of 1\lachpelab, and their occasional use of embalming in the ease of the kings is proved by 11. Chron. XVI. 14.
PEnsfA. Among the Persians, especially the stricter following of the Alagi, the ritual forbade the consigning of the body to earth, water, or tire, as these elements would thereby be polluted. The less strict Persians coated the body with a thick layer of wax and then buried it. The stricter devotees exposed it in the open to birds and beasts of prey, and the more thoroughly it was consumed by them the better the omen. The hones were then placed in an urn or a roek-cut tomb above the ground level. The soul, after dwelling near the body three days, departed on the morning of the fourth for the place of judg nient. if the soul had been sinful it was accom panied over tainted plains by an evil whid and preceded by a hideous female, emblem of its evil deeds; and after being condemned in the eternal judgment hall was cast over a bridge into the abyss. The righteous soul, preceded by a beauti ful maiden typifying its good deeds, passed safely, at the end of its luminous journey, into paradise.