THE EGYPTIAN BOOK OF THE DEAD.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 308, 28 December 1881, Page 4

THE EGYPTIAN BOOK OF THE DEAD.

[ f! CoFtemporary "eviaw "] TheFoyptiin dectriue of the after life of the soul is r.es?. derived from a Btody of the Bonk of the Pead and tinother sacred writiD^a whieb (rent o! what would be known upon earth witL regard to existecee beyond the gravf. The Book of the Dead is the meet ancient and most important of this collection. The greater part of Egyptian papyri ie composed of the class of texts called the Hitoa), or Book of the D.-ad. This is a collection of byrons and litanies considered to be reoited by the deressed after deaih. These papyri were placed in the tombs Leside the mammies. Their number is very considerable. According to the wealth of ihe person, the book is more or less long, frcm ten lines to a volume. They already appear before the Thirfeenih Dynasty, tbe eldeet being a Qieen 0/ the Eleventh. In course of time tbftext suffered, icerpolations tre admitted, chapters: a?e dropped, others added. The art of copying was will many ecribee a mere perfunctory business. TLe woik ia a collection of bynjes and prayera wittout direciop lick, end placed in an or.^er which eeetns to us wholly arbitrary, differing according to the dale cfthe papyrus. Among all these detached pieces there if one of rpecial iaterest, the judgment ecene. The deceased is intro. doced into a bail of columns, the Hill of the Two Trutl b at tbe end of which Oeius is seated ca a throne. This divinity presides o«er a court of fou» jadgee, aided hy fortj-'wo witnesses ! In tbe centre of the hall is a bahnce, ! in one of tbe s^al*B of which is phcei I the heart, jd Eayjtian the conscience of tledece 6e\ «hiie in the ctber is the eoibltm of the Goiders of Truth, While tbe hear? is being weighed tbe person to be jo^g.^d addreßis s in soccesticn eaeb cf the forty-two witnesses, and declares that be has not committed that one of tbe forty-two deadly bids with which (bis special genius is con cetted. The d<?cea6ed had before him in all tbe trißlg of the under world this greet tfßt. Acquitted, i>e passed through a further protation to final blu* ; condemned, bis inteiliiif nee wondered jd ■pace, a termer tirg epirit. until adihilated ty tte tecend de^th. Amorg thr trials ot tie lutuie efate, tbe most interesting is the cultivation of iht Elyalan flelc's. Tbtt it was of iupreaie import&sce is eeeo io tbe abundance of lbe little figures found in Egyptian tombs, which represtnt tbe Usbabti, or "Answerer, ' invoked by ihe deceasea to perfcrni in his person the labor of tbia mystical couutry.