Chapter XLII. of the Book of the Dead 1 the deceased

says —

“ My hair is the hair of Xu.

“ My face is the face of the Disk.

“ My eyes are the eyes of Hathor.

“ My ears are the ears of Ap-uat.

" My nose is the nose of Khenti-Khas.

“ My lips are the lips of Anpu.

“ My teeth are the teeth of Serqet.

“ My neck is the neck of the divine goddess Isis.

“ My hands are the hands of Ba-neb-Tattu.

“ My fore-arms are the fore-arms of Keith, the Lady
of Sai's.

" My backbone is the backbone of Suti.

“ My phallus is the phallus of Osiris.

“ My reins are the reins of the Lords of Kher-aba.

My chest is the chest of the Mighty one of terror.
“My belly and back are the belly and back of
Sekhet.

“ My buttocks are the buttocks of the Eye of Horus.

“ My hips and legs are the hips and legs of Nut.

“ My feet are the feet of Ptah.

“ My fingers and my leg-bones are the fingers and
leg-bones of the Living Gods.” 2

And immediately after this the deceased says:

1 See The Chapters of Coming Forth by Day , p. 93.

2 The idea of the deification of the human members was current
already in the Vlth dynasty. See Eecueil de Travaux , tom. viii,
pp. 87, 88.

198 THE OBJECT OF TRAVERS AND AMULETS

“ There is no member of my body which is not the
member of a god. The god Thoth shieldeth my body
altogether, and I am Ea day by day.”

Thus we see by what means the Egyptians believed
that mortal man could be raised from the dead, and
attain unto life everlasting. The resurrection was the
object with which every prayer was said and every
ceremony performed, and every text, and every amulet,
and every formula, of each and every period, was
intended to enable the mortal to put on immortality
and to live eternally in a transformed glorified body.
If this fact be borne in mind many apparent difficulties
will disappear before the readers in this perusal of
Egyptian texts, and the religion of the Egyptians will
be seen to possess a consistence of aim and a steadiness
of principle which, to some, it at first appears to lack.

THE END.

PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES.

Date Due

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