tinues, "I have brought the ropes, stopping the wicked (one) as I go along in the boat of Pthah; I have come from the scalding pools, from the flaming fields, alive from the great pool."* 30. Ere, however, the Osirian can enter the boat of Pthah, it is necessary to ascertain if he is really capable of making the voyage, if the deceased possesses a sufficient amount of the knowledge necessary to his safety, and which he is supposed to have obtained from the papyri presented to him by Thoth. The divine boatmen accordingly proposes a series of questions to his passenger, who declares he has come to see his father Osiris, (having, as before stated, taken the nature and form of Horus,) and to fight the Apophis. This reply satisfies the interlocutor, who bids him "go to the boat, which will carry him to the place he knoweth where." Here a most curious and mystical scene ensues, for each part of the vessel becoming animated, requests the Osirian to "tell me my name," that is, the esoteric meaning of it. Anchor, paddle, mast, poop, hull, planking, all in turn accost, and are in turn replied to, for twenty-three questions and answers; which finished, the deceased entreats the "good beings, lords of truth, who are living for ever, circling for ever," to pass him through "the waters, to give him to eat food, and baked cakes, and a place in the hall of the two truths before the great God." In the hundredth chapter the Osirian, having declared again that he has "stopped the Apophis and turned back its feet," is permitted to embark, and safely crossing the mighty river, lands on the other bank in the land of the mountains of the west, the blessed country of Amenti. Fig. 74. One of the mystic crocodiles of Amenti, named Shesh-shesh. (Sar. Oimen. 31. Here commence another series of chapters, containing descriptions of and an abstract of the geography of the spirit-land; and here again, as usual in the Ritual, the Ophite myth is interwoven throughout. The blessed region is described as "the valley of Balot,† or abundance, at the end of It would be superfluous to do more here than refer to the Greek myths of Hades, Styx, Charon and his boat, and to the medieval legend of St. Patrick's purgatory, as given in the History of Roger de Wendover; their almost exact analogy is too obvious to be dwelt upon. + Called more properly the "Valley of Buchat."-Renouf. heaven, 370 cubits long and 140 broad." In a cavern in one of the holy mountains is the great crocodile Sabak * (chap. cviii.), and at the head of the valley extends an enormous snake thirty cubits long and six in circumference. His head is of stone,† and is three cubits broad, and the name of the terrible supernatural is "Eater of fire." On coming near to this guardian genius, for such the serpent is, the Osirian in secret assumes the character of a similar reptile, and declares "he is the serpent the son of Nu," and presently he boasts that he has "taken the viper of the sun as he was resting at evening," and "that the great snake has coiled round the heaven." Further, "that he is ordered to approach the sun, as the sun is setting from the land of life to his horizon "; that "he knows the passage of spirits, the arrest of the Apophis in it." This seems to be, as nearly as may be guessed, the meaning of this chapter (cviii.), which is one of the most confused in the Ritual. 32. In the next chapter (cix.) is a further description of the heavenly region, on the north of which is a lake called the Lake of Primordial Matter, a chaos in fact; and on the south the lake of Sacred Principles, possibly spiritual essences. In chapter cx. the land of Amenti is further described as a magnified kingdom of Egypt, with its lakes, canals, palaces, fields, &c. There the walls are of iron, and the corn grows seven cubits high. There the sycamore-trees (trees of life) Fig. 75. The god Nilus or Hapimou encircled by the serpent of eternal years. Possibly the heavenly Nile is here represented. (Wilkinson.) are of copper, and there the spirits of the blest are dwelling, and the sun shines for ever. In this delightful climate for *After whom Sabakoph, the Ethiopian, mentioned in 2 Kings xvii. 4, under the name of So, was named. The name is there written iD. An idiom for extreme hardness, a peculiarity common to the frontal plates of certain species of vipers. Incidentally, the great antiquity of the Ritual is proven by its continual reference to lakes. Seas or oceans, such as the peninsular Hellenes delighted in, do not occur in the mythology of the Egyptians, who, up to the time of Thothmoses, were not aware of the existence of the Atlantic, nor till that of Necho, thought otherwise than that the Mediterranean was a vast lake. 3 8 6 10 11 Fig. 76. The Judgment scene in the Hall of the Two Truths. (Taken from a papyrus first engraved by Denon. See next page.) THE JUDGMENT BY OSIRIS IN THE HALL OF THE TWO TRUTHS.-The first part of this vignette, from an ancient papyrus, represents the mystic weighing, and the second part the intercession, before Osiris. 1. Isis, the Queen of Heaven, who, together with (3) Horus-Ra, introduces the deceased (2) into the Hall of Judgment. In the centre of the picture stands the balance (4), in one scale of which (5) is the heart of the deceased, and in the other a weight (6) in the form of the goddess of Truth; behind the balance is the entrance to hell, guarded by a Typhocerberic monster (7); Anubis (8), the guardian of the dead, adjusts the beam, while Thoth (9) records the result upon his tablet. This ends the first scene. In the second part of the picture, Horus-Ra, crowned with the Pschent (11), introduces and pleads for the deceased (10), now invested with the robe of Justification. Before Osiris (13) are the four genii of the body upon an altar of lotus-flowers, being offered as intercessors for the Osirian, their office being specially to plead for the sins committed by that part of the body over which they individually presided. Behind Osiris stand the goddesses Isis and Nepthys, waiting to conduct the justified Osirian into the regions of Amenti. awhile the Osirian dwells, sowing corn, ploughing with heavenly oxen, and reaping the harvest in the Elysian fields. It was for this purpose that a hoe and a basket full of corn were buried with every Egyptian, that in the future life he might not be unprepared to follow his agricultural labours. There the Osirian freely, and frequently, partakes of the bread of knowledge, which he is shortly to find more necessary than ever, as he has arrived at the end of all his trials but one, and that one the last and most terrible, for as yet he is only in a superior kind of Sheol, or Hades, undergoing a purification, Fig. 77. The avenging Assessor watching to punish the Osirian. (Papyrus, British Museum.) as in Hades itself his soul was subjected to purgatorial influence conducted by Anubis, the guardian of the dead, the Osirian traverses an unknown labyrinth (chaps. cxiii. to cxxi.); but by the aid of a clue and the assistance of Thoth, he penetrates through all its intricacies and windings, and at last is ushered into the judgment-hall, where Osiris Rhot-Amenti,* Fig. 78. The snake-headed Assessor standing to interrogate the Osirian. (Wilkinson.) the judge of the dead, awaits him seated on his throne, surrounded as by a jury, with a court of forty-two assessors, four of whom are serpent-headed (figs. 77, 78). There the * Whence the Greek name of Pluto, Rhadamanthus, was doubtless derived. VOL. VI. 2 H decisive sentence is to be pronounced, either admitting the deceased to happiness, or excluding him for ever (chap. cxxv.). 33. On a raised throne before the Osirian, sits the awful deity Osiris, upon whose head are the double crowns of the united kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt, circled with the solar asp or uræus. In his hands are the cross of life, the Cucufa staff of dominion, the curved lituus* denoting sacerdotal authority, and the scourge of Khem. Behind his throne are the avenging Cabereii, children of Typhon or Set, and his consort the hippopotamus-headed goddess (Thoeris) of hell; lastly, underneath his feet, fettered and tortured, lie the souls of the condemned.+ Lest the Osirian should quail and be unable to stand before the solemn assembly, the goddesses Isis and Nepthys, deities of the upper and lower firmament respectively, support his trembling footsteps, while Amset, Tautmutf, Kabhsenuf, and Hapi, the guardian deities of the dead, intercede for his protection. On an altar before them, flowers and incense burn in fragrant propitiation, and between it and the judge, in a massive and yet delicate balance, the heart of the deceased is weighed against the feather of Thmei, the goddess of Truth. Thoth, the introducer of spirits, writes down the preponderance of the weight for good or evil, while an ape (the emblem of justice because all his extremities are even), sitting on the summit of the crossbeam, prevents either fraud or favour. Now is the Osirian to give an account of his whole former life, and while each of the forty-two assessors accuses him of some flagrant fault, he has in return to reveal to the questioner his own secret name, and to profess his innocence of the fault alleged. This is called the apology, or the negative confession, and it is one of the most sublime and singular ethical formularies in the whole of ancient mythology. The first part of this address is negative; but as heaven to the Egyptians was not accessible by mere sinlessness, but was the reward only of active virtue, the Osirian, from the evils he has not done, proceeds to the enumeration of the good which he has performed, and entreats not the clemency, but the equity, of the Judge. Extending then his arms towards the deity, thus he addresses the adjudicator Osiris and his coadjutor divinities: : 66 O ye Lords of truth, O thou Great God, Lord of truth, I have come to thee, my Lord, I have brought myself to see thy blessings; ‡ I have known Is this the origin both of the Druidical lituus and the episcopal staff? |