^
OSIRIS AND THE EGYPTIAN RESURRECTION VOLUME II
SIRIS AND
THE EGYPTIAN RESURRECTION BYE.A.WALLIS BUDGE
M.A. LITT.D. D.LITT. D.LIT. F.S. A. KEEPER OF THE EGYPTIAN AND ASSYRIAN AN TIQUITIES IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. ILLUSTRATED AFTER DRAWINGS FROM EGYPTIAN PAPYRI AND MONUMENTS
MDCCCCXI
LONDON: PHILIP LEE WARNER NEW YORK: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
c\
BL 1H
Ol
CONTENTS OF VOLUME II
Page
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS vii
CHAPTER XIV. — THE SHRINES, MIRACLE PLAY, AND MYSTERIES
OF OSIRIS ... ... ... ... ... i ^
„ XV. — THE MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS AT DENDERAH,
AND THE FORMS OF OSIRIS IN THE GREAT
CITIES OF EGYPT, HIS 104 AMULETS, ETC. 21 „ XVI. — THE BOOK OF MAKING THE SPIRIT OF OSIRIS, OR THE SPIRIT BURIAL, THE LAMENTATIONS OF Isis AND NEPHTHYS,
HYMNS TO OSIRIS, ETC 44
„ XVII. OSIRIS AND THE AFRICAN GRAVE ... ... 79
„ XVIII. — AFRICAN FUNERAL CEREMONIES AND
BURIALS DESCRIBED ... ... ... 90
„ XIX. — THE AFRICAN DOCTRINE OF LAST THINGS :
IMMORTALITY 116
THE KA OR DOUBLE 117
THE SPIRIT-BODY 123
THE SHADOW ... ... ... ... 126
THE SOUL OF THE KA, OR BODY-SOUL... 128
THE HEART 130
THE SPIRIT-SOUL 132
THE DUAL-SOUL 135
TRANSMIGRATION OF SOULS AND TRANS FORMATION ... ... ... ... 139
NEW BIRTH AND REINCARNATION ... 141
DEATH 143
„ XX. — SPIRITS AND THE SPIRIT-WORLD 148
THE PLACE OF DEPARTED SPIRITS ... 155
„ XXI. — MAGIC (WITCHCRAFT), WHITE AND BLACK 169
„ XXII. — FETISHISM ... ... ... ... ... 196^
„ XXIII. — SPITTING AS A RELIGIOUS ACT 202
THE WEARING OF TAILS BY MEN AND
WOMEN 206
„ XXIV. — MISCELLANEOUS :
SICKNESS CAUSED BY AN OFFENDED DEITY 210 SICKNESS CAUSED BY THE SPIRIT OF A
DEAD WIFE ... ... ... ... 211
MARRIAGE 213
RESPECT FOR THE AGED... ... ... 216
PURIFICATION AFTER BIRTH 217
VOL. II. B
vi Contents
CHAPTER XXIV. — MISCELLANEOUS (continued] : Page -^^CIRCUMCISION, EXCISION, AND INFIBULA-
TION ... ... ... ... ... 221
TWINS ............... 224
STEATOPYGOUS WOMEN ......... 228
THE POISONING OF RA ......... 231
. r OSIRIS RESTORED TO LlFE BY ISIS ... 232
THE SPITTING SERPENT ......... 233
THE INSECT SEPA ............ 234
SNAKE WORSHIP ............ 236
THE CROCODILE ............ 238
THE USE OF THE NET IN FOWLING,
FISHING, AND HUNTING ...... 241
STRONG NAMES ............ 243
THE ELECTION OF A KING ...... 244
POTTERY MADE BY HAND ...... 245
FINGER NAILS ............ 246
FIGURES AND COUNTING ......... 246
TIME, THE YEAR, SEASONS, ETC. ... 249
ASTRONOMY ............ 251
THE PILLOW OR HEAD-REST ...... 252
THE DANCE OF THE GOD ...... 253
UNDER-WORLD ... ... ... ... 253
MAGICAL FIGURES ... ... ... 254
-^' INCENSE ............... 255
SITTING ON THE SHOULDERS ... ... 256
RED BODY COLOURING ......... 257
THE TORTOISE ............ 258
THE PRIMITIVE VILLAGE ......... 259
DECORATION OF Bows OF BOATS ... 259
TREE- WORSHIP ............ 259
THE THRONE ............ 262
DRIED HUMAN BODIES ......... 264
CANNIBALISM, HUMAN SACRIFICE, ETC ____ 265
THE SPIRIT BURIAL, OR SECOND BURIAL 266
„ XXV. — THE GODDESS Isis AND HER CULT ... 270
tfsr XXVI. — THE WORSHIP OF OSIRIS AND Isis IN
FOREIGN LANDS ............ 283
«"^" GREEK INSCRIPTION DEDICATED TO Isis,
SARAPIS, ANUBIS, AND HARPOKRATES ... 290 APPENDIX. — TRANSLATIONS FROM THE PYRAMID TEXTS OF PEPI I, MER-EN-RA, AND PEPI II, DESCRIBING THE
POWER AND GLORY OF THESE KINGS IN HEAVEN 307
ADDITIONAL NOTES .................. 364
INDEX ........................ 367
ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOLUME II
The Weighing of the Heart of Hunefer in the Judgment Hall of Osiris. From the Papyrus of Hunefer in the British Museum ... ... ... ... ... Frontispiece
Page
Seti I addressing Osiris in his shrine ... ... ... ... 9
The Soul of Osiris, incarnate in a Ram ... ... ... ... 15
The Model of Osiris used in the ceremonies at Denderah ... 21
The Model of Seker used in the ceremonies at Denderah ... 21
Osiris of Denderah on his bier 22
Osiris of Coptos on his bier 23
Osiris Khenti Amend of Thebes lying naked on his bier ... 24
Osiris Khenti Amenti of Eileithyias on his bier 25
Osiris of Edfu on his bier ... ... ... ... ... ... 26
Osiris Khenti Amenti of Nubia on his bier 27
Osiris of Cusae on his bier ... ... ... ... ... 28
Osiris Mer-at-f of Apis-town on his bier ... ... ... ... 29
Osiris of Libya on his bier ... ... ... ... ... 30
Osiris of Denderah begetting Horus ... ... ... ... 31
Seker-Osiris of Busiris, naked, on his bier ... ... ... 32
Seker-Osiris of Busiris, with loin cloth, on his bier ... ... 33
Seker-Osiris of Busiris, in mummified form, on his bier... ... 34
Seker-Osiris of Memphis on his bier 35
Osiris-Tet in Busiris ... ... ... ... ... ... 35
The 104 Amulets of Osiris ... ... ... ... 36, 37
Osiris of An (Heliopolis) on his bier ... ... ... ... 38
Osiris of Hebit on his bier ... ... ... ... ... 39
The Soul of Osiris on the Erica tree ... ... ... ... 40
Osiris of Hermopolis turning on his bier to rise... ... ... 40
Osiris Un-Nefer of Bubastis 41
Osiris Hemka begetting Horus 42
Osiris-Seker, Lord of the Shrine of Abydos, seated 42
The Resurrection of Osiris Khenti Amenti 4^
Isis and Nephthys bewailing the death of Osiris... ... ... 45
Osiris on his bier smelling a flower ... ... ... ... 46
Osiris on his bier, under which are the vases containing his
heart, liver, lungs, and other organs... ... ... ... 47
Anubis anointing the mummy of Osiris 48
The bier and coffer of Fenth-f-ankh Khenti Abti, a form of
Osiris ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 49
A local form of Osiris worshipped at Pehu ... ... ... 50
Isis and Nephthys providing Osiris with air ... ... ... 51
Seker-Osiris in his funerary coffer... ... ... ... ... 52
Seker-Osiris of Busiris 53
B 2
viii Illustrations
Page
Horus opening the Mouth of Osiris with a spear 54
Osiris-Tet of Busiris 55
Seker-Osiris of Busiris 56
Two goddesses performing a magical ceremony for Osiris ... 57
The Resurrection of Osiris as depicted at Philae ... ... 58
The Shrine Tenter on its sledge ... ... ... ... ... 59
The Serekh Shrine containing remains of Osiris... ... ... 60
The Boat of Seker-Osiris on its sledge 61
The Maat Boat on its sledge 62
A Boat of Horus on its sledge 63
The Sektet Boat on its sledge 64
The Boat of the Aterti of the North 65
The Boat of the Aterti of the South 72
Boat with a shrine containing the Body of Osiris 73
The Sethenu Boat of Osiris on its sledge 74
The Boat containing the Head-box and standard of Osiris ... 76
The Makhet Boat on its sledge 77
Section of a Mastabah Tomb 82
Deities presenting Amen-hetep III and his Ka to Amen-Ra ... 119 The Doubles of Ani and his wife drinking water in the Other
World... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 130
Isis giving bread and water to the Heart-Soul ... ... ... 135
The deceased setting out for the Other World 158
The deceased building himself a house in the Other World ... 159
The steatopygous Queen of Punt ... ... ... ... ... 229
Egyptian Pillow 253
The Bull-god Asar-Hep 272
OSIRIS AND THE EGYPTIAN RESURRECTION
CHAPTER XIV.
THE SHRINES, MIRACLE PLAY, AND " MYSTERIES " OF OSIRIS.
IT is impossible to state when and where the first shrines in honour of Osiris were built in Egypt, but it is tolerably certain that his most ancient shrine in the South was at Abydos, and his most ancient shrine in the North at Busiris, and that the cult of the god was firmly established in these places at the beginning of, if not before, the Dynastic Period. Of these the older is probably Abtu (Abydos), for every tradition about the worship of Osiris asserts his head to have been buried there, and the importance of Abydos, even in the earliest times, appears to have been due to the fact that the town contained his head, the most important part of the god's body. Abydos was, moreover, quite near to Netat, or Netit,1 the town on the Nile, or great canal of the district, near which Osiris was murdered by Set, and it was more natural for I sis when she found her husband's dead body there to take it to Abydos than to some more remote town. And as the symbol of the city and its name was the coffer, or basket, which contained the head of Osiris, with plumes above the
coffer and a serpent passing through it, m^t\ , we may
assume that the connection of the city with the cult of Osiris was exceedingly ancient. Tattu (Busiris),
in the Delta, which contained the backbone of Osiris n,
was undoubtedly the most important of all the shrines of Osiris in the North, but it never enjoyed the reputation and fame of Abydos.
2 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
It is idle to speculate on the form of the shrine of Osiris under the first three dynasties, but it was probably a small building made of mud strengthened with reeds, and covered over with a wooden roof. Inside it was probably a figure of the god seated on a throne with steps, and near it was his characteristic symbol, either laid upon the ground, or supported on a stand. The cleaning and preservation of his shrine were, no doubt, committed to the care of a special body of men, who thus became his priests, and received the offerings made to him, and made arrange ments for his festivals and for the performance of the annual play, in which his sufferings, death, and resurrec tion were acted. No details of these matters are found in the earliest texts, but we know from the evidence of the inscriptions that such a play was performed at Abydos once a year under the Middle and New Empires, and it is only reasonable to assume that it reproduced all the essential features of the great annual festival of the god which was celebrated under the Ancient Empire. In religious matters at least the con servatism of the ancient Egyptians was absolute.
When the worship of Osiris was first established at Abydos the inhabitants of the district worshipped Seker, the god of Death, the two Ap-uati gods, Anubis, An-her, Khenti Amenti, etc., but by the close of the Vlth dynasty Osiris had become the chief god of the district, and all the local forms of the above-mentioned gods had become subordinate to him. The fame of the god who rose from the dead himself, and could make his followers to rise from death to life immortal, had spread to all parts of Egypt, and the bodies of the wealthy who died in other parts of Egypt were taken there and buried. It was believed that the dead who were buried at Abydos would be joined by the god to his company of followers in the Other World, that they would enjoy his protec tion, and that they would share in his offerings on festival days, and become partakers with him in immor tality and everlasting happiness. The aim of every good man was to become an Osiris, and even in the Pyramid Texts we find it tacitly assumed that the kings for whom they were written had each become an
Shrines, Miracle Play, and " Mysteries" 3
Osiris, and the name of Osiris is actually prefixed to the names of some of them. Osiris had become the god of the dead, par excellence, and Abydos was the earthly centre of his kingdom. Very few Egyptians who were not natives of the neighbourhood could afford to buy tombs there and be buried in them, and the transport of mummified bodies from a great distance was both difficult and costly. Nevertheless, many men were so eager that their dead bodies should rest on the sacred soil of Abydos, and be near Osiris, if only for a short time, that it became the custom among the well-to-do classes to transport the mummies of their kinsfolk to Abydos so that they might absorb the beneficent emanations from the shrine of the-god^and be blessed by the influence of the place and its holy associations. These mummies were then taken back by river to the places whence they came, and buried in the tombs which had been provided for them. The popularity of Osiris could not fail to be of material benefit, not only to his priesthood, but also to the town of Abydos in general. The old mud shrine of the god would disappear, and a building made of wood or stone take its place, and his festivals would be celebrated with greater pomp and more lavish display. His priesthood would become wealthy, and every servant of his would benefit in every way by the great fame of his god. During the great festival of Osiris at the end of the year the plain round about Abydos would be thronged with pilgrims from all parts of the country, and at this time the inhabitants would gain enough to last them for the remainder of the year.
The great festival of Shekh Sayyid al-Badawi at Tanta offers many parallels to the great festival of Osiris at Abydos. At Tanta I have seen dead bodies brought in and laid for a few moments by the tomb of the saint, or simply carried round his tomb-chamber, in order to obtain his blessing, and men and women stand motionless and silent by the iron gates of the tomb, merely to be blessed by its presence, and to gain a share in the spiritual benefits which are believed to emanate from it. A large iron box for offerings stands near the tomb gates, and though nine-tenths of the people are very poor, their humble contributions are said to amount to
Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
. 40,000 a year. Similarly the revenue of Osiris, though all the offerings were in kind, there being no money in Egypt before the reign of Darius, must have been very great, and his landed property large.
Of the history of Abydos and its god Osiris from the end of the Vlth to the beginning of the Xllth dynasty we know nothing, but under the kings of the Xllth dynasty the worship of Osiris developed to an extra ordinary degree, and his sanctuary attained to a position of importance hitherto unknown. Thus in an inscription published by Daressy,1 we read that a king, probably Usertsen I, gave to Khenti-Amenti [Osiris] three metal vases and an ebony censer-holder. From the stele of Khent-em-semti,2 an official of Amen-em-hat at Abydos, we learn that Osiris was at that time called the " lord of life," " governor of eternity," and " Ruler of Amenti," i.e., the Other World, and that Abydos was the place to which all souls flocked to obtain blessing, to eat bread with the god, and to " come forth by day." This official had lived a righteous life, he says, so that Osiris might be gracious to him in judgment, and permit him to enter his holy boat. On the stele of I-kher-nefert we are told that Usertsen III ordered this official to go to Abydos and build a sanctuary for Osiris, and to adorn his shrine with some of the gold which the god had enabled him to bring from Nubia after his victorious campaign in that country. I-kher-nefert carried out his lord's commands, and built a shrine for Osiris made from sweet-smelling woods, and inlaid with gold, silver, and lapis-lazuli, and he made new shrines for the other gods of Abydos. He drew up regulations for the service of the priests, and defined the duties of each of them, and made careful arrangements for the celebration of festivals throughout the year. He provided a new Neshmet Boat for Osiris, i.e., a new copy of the famous boat in which Osiris set sail on the expedition against Set in which he lost his life, and added to it a suitable shrine wherein the figure or statue of the god was to be placed. He made a new statue of the god and decorated it with lapis-lazuli, turquoise, silver-gold, and precious stones of all kinds,
1 Annaks du Service, torn. IV. 2 British Museum, No. 146 (574).
Shrines, Miracle Play, and " Mysteries" 5
and it was as beautiful as the body of the god should be, and he provided apparel and ornaments for the festal attire of Osiris.1 In addition to the ordinary priests, I-kher-nefert appointed a priest to the sanctuary at Abydos whose title was " Sa-mer-f,"2z>., " his (the god's) beloved son/1 This priest ministered in the "golden house," and directed all ceremonies which were per formed in connection with the " mystery of the Lord of Abydos."3 He had charge of all the sacred dresses and ornaments of the god, and of all the furniture of the shrine, which no hands but his might touch, and he dressed the statue of Osiris for the festivals of the new moon and full moon each month, and directed the moving of it when it was necessary to do so. No one might assist him in his sacred office except the Sem priest, who also had to be a man of " clean fingers/'4
The second portion of the inscription on the stele of I-kher-nefert is of very great importance, for it describes briefly the principal scenes in the Osiris play which was performed at Abydos annually. I-kher-nefert himself played a prominent part in this " Mystery play," and he describes his own acts as follows : —
" I performed the coming forth of Ap-uat when he set out to defend his father."
From this it is clear that in the Xllth dynasty Ap-uat was regarded as the son of Osiris, and that he acted the part of leader of Osiris's expedition, which was repre sented by a procession formed of priests and the ordinary people. Ap-uat walked in front, next came the boat containing the figure of the god and a company of priests or " followers " of the god, and the rear was brought up by a crowd of people.
" I drove back the enemy from the Neshmet Boat,5 I overthrew the foes of Osiris."
The boat of the god was then attacked by a crowd
1 For the text see Lepsius, Denkmaler, Band II, Plate 135, and Schafer's monograph in Sethe, Untersuchungen, Band IV, No. 2, Leipzig, 1904. The stele is preserved in Berlin (No. 1024).
2 - -^x. 3 rrr-1
r-rrn
6 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
of men who represented the foes of Osiris, and, as the god was defenceless, Ap-uat engaged them in combat, and beat them off, and the procession then continued on its way in the temple.
" I performed the ' Great Coming-forth,'1 I followed the god in his footsteps."
This act was the greatest in the Osiris play, for it represented the " coming forth " of Osiris from the temple after his death, and the departure of his body to his tomb. A solemn service was performed in the temple before the body was carried from it, and offerings were eaten sacramentally, and then the procession set out for the tomb. When it reached the door of the temple it was received by a mighty crowd of men and women who raised the death-wail, and uttered piercing shrieks and lamentations, and the women beat their breasts.2 Many of the men in the crowd were armed with sticks and staves, and some of them pressed forward towards the procession with the view of helping the god, whilst others strove to prevent them. Thus a sham fight took place, which, owing to the excitement of the combatants, often degenerated into a serious one. And, if Herodotus was correctly informed,3 this combat with clubs was waged with great obstinacy, and heads were broken, and he says, though this the Egyptians denied, many men died of the wounds which they received on this occasion. This fight was, of course, intended to represent the great battle which took place in prehistoric times between Set and Osiris, when Osiris was killed. This battle, as has been already said, took place near Netit. Whether Osiris was killed outright whilst fighting, or whether he was wounded and taken prisoner by Set and slain after wards, is not stated, but it is quite clear that for a time no one knew what had become of the body of Osiris, and that his followers went about on the battlefield searching for it. This search is referred to in the words, " I followed the god in his footsteps," i.e., I traced the god by his footsteps. I-kher-nefert played the
Herodotus, II, 61. 3 II, 63.
Shrines, Miracle Play, and " Mysteries " 7
part of leader of the search party, and their wander ings probably occupied three days, during which the sham fight between the followers of Osiris and the followers of Set was repeated at intervals, and great lamentations were made. All these events were repre sented by the words " great coming-forth," which to every Egyptian bore the most solemn significance.
At length the body of Osiris was found, but by whom is not said here.
[A passage in the text of Pepi I supplies the informa tion, and shows that the finders of the body of Osiris were Isis and Nephthys, and that they made known their sad discovery to the gods of Pe by their cries of grief.1 In answer to the appeal of Isis the god Thoth was sent in his boat to convey the body from the dyke (?) of Netat, or Netit, to its tomb. When Thoth arrived he saw Isis with the body, and the text says that when she found it it was lying on one side, and that she caressed the flesh, and fondled the hands, and embraced the body of her husband.]2
The stele of I-kher-nefert goes on to say : —
" I made the boat of the god to move, and Thoth
»
What exactly Thoth did is not certain, for the text is broken, but it is clear that I-kher-nefert acted the part of a ferryman for Thoth, and that he went in a boat con taining a figure of Thoth to bring the body of Osiris from Netit to his tomb. The text continues : —
" I provided the Boat of the Lord of Abydos called " ' Kha-em-Maat ' (i.e., ' appearing in truth ') with a cabin " shrine, and I put on him his splendid apparel and " ornaments when he set out to go to the region (?) of
"Peqer" ©.
yQ I Q A/VVWV I
v= Q AWWS ri o 8 ^ . Pepi I, 1. 204 = Mer-en-Ra,
A tLJ A - —/i l n
1-339 = Pepi II, 1.865. 2 Pepi I, 1. 204.
8 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
From this passage it is certain that Osiris did not go to his grave in the Neshmet Boat, but in another boat called Kha-em-Maat. Nothing is said here about the mummification of the body of Osiris which took place after it was brought from Netit, or of the elaborate ceremonies which were performed in connection with it by Horus and his Four Sons. These are mentioned in several places in this book, and are, therefore, not described here.
From an inscription quoted by Schafer1 we know that the two feathers of Maati were fastened on the coffin, or
coffer, of Osiris, -Hk , and that a bandlet was tied about
the god's head, and that a model of his enemy Set was placed at his feet. These things having been done, I-kher-nefert continues : —
" I directed the ways of the god to his tomb in Peqer."
Here we have a definite statement that the body of Osiris was buried, and that his tomb was situated in Peqer. But where was Peqer ? This question has been satisfactorily answered by the extensive excavations of M. Amdineau at Abydos,2 who proved that Peqer is a portion of the great plain of Abydos which lies about a mile and a half from the temple of Osiris, and which is known to-day by the Arabic name of Umm al-Ka'ab, i.e., " mother of pots," because of the large quantity of pottery which has been found there. In this portion of the plain are found the tombs of the kings of the First dynasty, and among them is one, that of King Khent, which the Egyptians identified as the tomb of Osiris. There is not the least doubt about the fact of the identification, for numerous proofs have been obtained from the excavations that the place was called Peqer, and that under the New Empire the Egyptians were firmly convinced that the tomb of Khent was the tomb of Osiris. Moreover, the famous cenotaph of Osiris, which was made probably
1 Op. at., p. 27.
2 Amelineau, Le Tombeau rf Osiris, Paris, 1899, and the other publications of the Mission Amelineau, Les Nouvelles Fouilles (T Abydos, Angers, 1893, etc-
Shrines, Miracle Play, and " Mysteries "
under the XXIInd dynasty and which is described elsewhere, was found here by M. Amdineau. It has been argued by some1 that the identification of the tomb of Khent as the tomb of Osiris is not older than the XVIIIth dynasty, because the oldest objects found round about it are of the time of Amen-hetep III, about 1 500 B.C. But the stele of I-kher-nefert of the Xllth dynasty says that the tomb of Osiris was in Peqer, and as the cult of Osiris developed greatly from the Xllth dynasty onwards, it seems to me wholly impossible for the Egyptians to have forgotten between the Xllth and the XVIIIth dynasties the whereabouts of the tomb of the god on whom their hopes of resurrec tion and immortal ity centred. When the Egyptians of the XVIIIth dynasty asserted that the tomb which we now know to be that of King Khent was the tomb of Osiris, they were undoubt edly asserting their belief in a tradition which was even at that time many centuries old. Similarly the Egyptians of the XXIInd dynasty asserted their acceptance of the traditional belief of the XVIIIth dynasty by making the famous cenotaph of Osiris, and placing it at Peqer, or Umm al-Ka'ab. Whether the identification of the tomb of Khent as that of Osiris is correct is a wholly different matter, which it is useless to argue, for the evidence which is necessary for deciding the question is not available, even if it exists. It is unlikely that there were two tombs in Peqer, each claiming to be the tomb of Osiris, but even if there were it is only reasonable to assume that the priestly authorities of the day would weigh the evidence in such an important 1 Petrie, Royal Tombs, Vol. I.
Seti I addressing Osiris in his shrine. Marietta, Abydos, Vol. I, p. 43.
io Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
matter carefully, and would decide in accordance with ancient tradition. If we assume that the identification of the tomb of Khent as the tomb of Osiris is not older than the reign of Amen-hetep III we ignore the vital importance of the grave of the god to every Egyptian, and the great antiquity of the cult of Osiris at Abydos. It is unlikely that Abydos was the original home of the worship of Osiris, indeed there is good reason for thinking that it was not ; but abundant evidence exists to show that the town was one of the principal centres of his cult from the beginning to the end of the Dynastic Period.
The official I-kher-nefert, having directed the ceremonies connected with the burial of Osiris, then proceeded to carry out those which were performed in connection with the avenging of the death of Osiris, and says : —
" I avenged Un-Nefer on the day of the Great Battle, I overthrew all his enemies on the dyke(?) of Netit."
The scene in the Osiris play here referred to repre sented the great battle which was waged by Horus, the "avenger of his father," against Set and his confederates, and is often mentioned in the religious texts. In it I-kher-nefert played the part of Horus, and led the victorious army in the sham fight, which probably took place at dawn, for it is the African custom to attack the enemy at that time. The foes of the god were supposed to be routed with great slaughter. The Book of the Dead (Chapter XVIII) makes it quite clear that in the original battle between Horus and Set large numbers of the followers of Set were slain on the field, and large numbers were taken prisoners. The prisoners were brought to the tomb of Osiris, where they were beheaded and, perhaps, hacked to pieces, and their blood was used in watering the sanctuary of Osiris in his tomb, and the ground round about it. This is, clearly, what is meant by the words, " On the night of the carrying out of the sentence upon these who are to die," and "the night of breaking and turning up the earth in their blood," and the " Tchatcha (chiefs), on the festival of the " breaking and turning up of the earth in Tattu (Busiris),
Shrines, Miracle Play, and " Mysteries " 1 1
<( slay the fiends of Set in the presence of the gods who " are therein, and their blood runneth about among them " as they are smitten." Whether I-kher-nefert offered up human sacrifices or not is not known, but it is tolerably certain that so careful a traditionalist as he shows himself to have been would not have omitted to see that the grave of Osiris was properly " watered " with human blood. The victims would be prisoners of war and criminals, who by the laws of Egyptian society were bound to die. They would be sacrificed so that their blood might gratify the great ancestral spirit Osiris, just as the criminals and prisoners of war are sacrificed in Dahomey at the Annual Customs to gratify and renew the life of the spirits of the king's ancestors. The text of I-kher-nefert continues : —
" I caused him (i.e., Osiris) to set out in the Boat, " which bore his Beauty. I made the hearts of the " dwellers in the East to expand with joy, and I caused " gladness to be in the dwellers in Amentet (the West), " when they saw the Beauty as it landed at Abydos, " bringing Osiris Khenti- Amend, the Lord of Abydos, " to his palace."
This was the most glorious scene in the Osiris play, for the god appears once more in the Neshmet Boat, and he returns to his palace once more a living god. Thanks to his own divine power, and to the ceremonies which Horus and his Four Sons had performed between the transport of the body of Osiris to his tomb and his re-appearance in the Neshmet Boat, and, thanks to the eating of the Eye, which Horus had plucked from his own face and given to him, and to the vengeance which had been wreaked on Set and his fiends, and to the " watering " of the tomb of Osiris with their blood, Osiris became once more a living being. The crowds who had flocked to Abydos from the East and the West rejoiced greatly, for their god had come once more to live among them, and in him they saw the symbol of their own resurrec tion and immortality. In describing the Osiris play at Abydos, I-kher-nefert dwells chiefly upon the ceremonies in which he played the prominent part, for he assumed
12 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
that those who read his inscription were thoroughly conversant with all the details of the Mysteries. It is quite clear from his narrative that the performance of the Mystery play of Osiris occupied many days, probably from first to last three or four weeks. The play was acted at Tattu (Busiris) with elaborate ceremonies, and a considerable number of human sacrifices must have been offered up at that place. Other towns in which special regard was paid to the festival of Osiris and its Mysteries were Anu (Heliopolis), Sekhem (Letopolis), Pe-Tep (Buto), Taui-rekhti (?), An-rut-f, and Re-stau.
In connection with the offerings to Osiris mention must be made of the belief, which was common among the Egyptians, that there existed at Abydos a means by which they might be despatched direct to the Other World for the use of the god. This means took the form of a well, or cistern, which was fed in some way by the Abydos canal, and was called " Ha hetepet,"
m \\ <Ed3>. Its waters2 were mighty and most
IU_S^o D II I & J
terrible, and the well was full of " great roarings " ; the god who guarded it was Qa-ha-hetep,3 and he allowed none to approach it. The ground about it was called the " region of offerings, the holy land, the mountain of Amentet."4 The roarings or noises which were heard in the well were caused by the fall of the offerings into it. The well is mentioned in the Stele of Menthu-hetep5 (Xlth dynasty), who says that he built it6 by the order of Horus, i.e., the king, but it is far more likely that he only cleared it out, and lined it
rn ^^ = ° r-F^ "I- PePi I» !• 7°8> and J« Aat VIII,
_^^ & o —&— I
Chapter CXLVIII of the Book of the Dead. 2 y^ f± -fv ^^^
O s
4 Lefebure, Sphinx, Vol. Ill, p. 92.
6 Mariette, Abydos, Vol. II, Plate 23; Daressy, Recueil, Vol. X, pp. i44-J49- I
Shrines, Miracle Play, and " Mysteries" 13
with stone. Close to this well was the chamber which contained the relic of Osiris, and this is, as M. Lefebure pGrmtrd~rraV probably the tomb chamber of King Khent, which the Egyptians identified as the tomb of Osiris. It is about 28 feet square, and was surrounded by cells, which increased its size to 43 feet by 38 feet. At the north-west corner of this chamber M. Amdineau found a staircase of fourteen steps, and the cenotaph of Osiris, to which reference has already been made. The well, or cistern, was either built or repaired under the Xlth dynasty, and it was certainly in existence in the time of Strabo, who seems to connect it with the " palace of Memnon." He says that there was a descent to the water, which was situated at a great depth, through an arched passage built of single stones, of remarkable size and workmanship. A canal led to the place from the Nile, and near it was a grove of Egyptian acanthus trees dedicated to Apollo.1
The building which Strabo calls the " palace of Memnon " cannot have been the temple of Seti I, as Mariette thought, but must have been the temple of Osiris ; every large temple had its well, and the general plan of the temple well, or cisterns, is known. Mariette devoted much time and attention during his excavations at Abydos in searching for the well described by Strabo, but he failed to find it, and his successors have been equally unsuccessful in this respect. Professor Naville in the course of his excavations at Abydos (1909-11) discovered a large well, but it can hardly have been the well described by Strabo. M. Lefebure thought2 that it might have been situated in the tomb of Osiris, and that its mouth was under the cenotaph of the god, but none of the excavators of the tomb mentions any trace of it. Still, it must be somewhere in the plain of Peqer, or Umm al-Ka'ab, though it is probably filled with sand.
The Uart S<:55_f S, or passage to the well, the
Ta tchesert -=^=>= , or " holy ground," Peqer, or Peka,
1 Strabo, XVII, i, 41.
2 Sphinx, Vol. Ill, p. 96.
VOL. II. C
14 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
the tomb region, and the " staircase" of the god1 must all be near together, and it is to be hoped that in the near future the well may be brought to light.
Notwithstanding all the great works which the kings of the Xllth dynasty caused to be done for Osiris at Abydos, we find that under the XHIth dynasty his sanctuary needed many repairs. King Nefer-hetep was a loyal worshipper of Osiris, and hearing that his temple was in ruins, and that a new statue of the god was required, he went to the temple of Temu at Heliopolis, and consulted the books in the library there, so that he might learn how to make a statue of Osiris which should be like that which had existed in the beginning of the world. Having obtained the information required, he set out for Abydos, and sent word to the priests there that the statue of Osiris should be brought out to meet him at the place where he was going to land on the river bank. When he arrived he found Osiris and his priests waiting for him, and the king journeyed from the Nile to the temple of Osiris at Abydos, under the escort of the god and his priests. As the king was going to the temple a number of the principal scenes in the Mystery play of Osiris were performed, no doubt to the great satisfaction of the actors and spectators. When Abydos was reached the king caused all the necessary works to be taken in hand at once, and he superintended personally their execution, in order that he might be certain that the directions which he had obtained from the books in the Library at Heliopolis were correctly carried out. In the making of the new statue of Osiris the king assisted with his own hands.2
Whether the sanctuary of Osiris at Abydos pros pered or not under the XlVth, XVth, XVIth, and XVIIth dynasties, is not known, but with the rise to power of the kings of the XVIIIth dynasty it certainly began a new period of glory. Thothmes I made a new statue of the god, or repaired the old one, and a shrine-
1 See the Stele of Sebek-khu, who built his tomb by the staircase of the god, at the Uart, so that he might smell the incense burnt there. — Garstang, El Arabah, Plate 4, 1. 8.
2 See Mariette, Abydos, torn. II, Plates 28-30, and Breasted, Egypt, Vol. I, p. 333 ff.
Shrines, Miracle Play, and " Mysteries" 15
boat of silver, gold, lapis-lazuli, copper, and precious stones, tables for offerings, sistra of various kinds, censers and bowls, a new barge in which the god might journey from the temple to Peqer during the Miracle play, and statues of all the gods of Abydos, each with his silver-gold standard.1 Thothmes III caused a great many restorations to be carried out in the temple of Osiris,2 and the results of the excavations made during recent years at Abydos prove that, in the reigns of Amen-hetep III and the other kings of the XVIIIth dynasty, the income de rived by Osiris from his worshippers must have been considerable.
Hitherto reference has been made only to the two chief shrines of Osiris, viz., Abydos in the South, and Busiris in the North, but since the legend of the scattering of the parts of the body of Osiris all over Egypt was generally ac cepted, even in early times, it follows that many shrines of the god existed in the country at an early period, although of such shrines there is no list older than the XVIIIth dynasty. Of this period, however, we have several copies of a List of the Forms and Shrines of Osiris, and from this it seems that there must have been a shrine of Osiris in every nome in Egypt. The List forms part of the CXLIInd Chapter of the Book of the Dead,3 and the oldest form of it is probably that given in the Papyrus of Nu. It follows a list4 of all the gods whose names are to be commemorated by a man for his
1 See Mariette, Abydos, torn. II, Plate 31.
2 Ibid., Plate 33.
8 See the Papyrus of Nu, Sheet 15, and the Papyrus of luau, Plate IX.
* This list begins with the name of Asar-Khenti-Amenti.
C 2
The Soul of Osiris, incarnate in a Ram, as worshipped at Busiris, Philae, etc.
1 6 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
father or for his son during the Festival of Amente and contains the following :
1. Asar Un-nefer. Un-nefer was an ancient god of Abydos.
2. Asar Ankhti.
3. Asar neb-ankh, i.e., Osiris, Lord of life.
4. Asar neb-er-tcher, i.e., Osiris, lord to the limit, or the universal Lord.
5. Asar Khenti-Peku (?).
6. Asar-Sah, i.e., Osiris Orion. The constellation of Orion was one of the abodes of Osiris.
7. Asar-Saa, i.e., Osiris the Protector, or Shepherd.
8. Asar Khenti peru, i.e., Osiris, Chief of the Temples.1
9. Asar in Resenet, i.e., Osiris in the House of the South.
10. Asar in Mehenet, i.e., Osiris in the House of the North.
11. Asar nub-heh, i.e., Osiris, golden one of millions of years.
12. Asar bati-Erpit, i.e., Osiris, double soul of Isis and Nephthys.
13. Asar Ptah-neb-ankh, i.e., Osiris plus Ptah, Lord of life.
14. Asar Khenti Re-stau, i.e., Osiris, Chief of the Door of the Funeral Passages, or, Osiris, Chief of the domain of Seker (Sakkarah), an ancient god of Death.
15. Asar her-ab-set, i.e., Osiris, Dweller in the funeral mountain.2
1 6. Asar in Ati (?).3
17. Asar in Sehtet.4
1 8. Asar in Netchefet.5
1 The Papyrus of luau gives Asar Khenti Un. luau gives Asar in Sehnen,
luau gives Asar in Busiris, \\
A — D JL
luau gives Asar in Sekri, ^z^ \\ 5 luau gives Asar in Sau (Sa'is).
Shrines, Miracle Play, and " Mysteries " 17
19. Asar in Resu (Southlands?).
20. Asar in Pe (Buto).
21. Asar in Netru, i.e., Osiris in the Divine Lake.1
22. Asar in Lower Sau (Sais).
23. Asar in Baket, i.e., Osiris in the City of the hawk.
24. Asar in Sunnu.
25. Asar in Rehnent.
26. Asar in Aper.
27. Asar in Qeftenu.
28. Asar-Sekri in Pet-she.2
29. Asar Khenti-nut-f, i.e., Osiris, Chief in his city.
30. Asar in Pesk-re.3
31. Asar in his shrines (or, seats) in the Land of the North.
32. Asar in heaven.4
33. Asar in his shrines in Re-stau.
34. Asar Netchesti.
35. Asar Atef-ur.
36. Asar-Sekri.5
37. Asar, Governor of eternity.
38. Asar Tua, i.e., the Begetter.
39. Asar in Ater.6
40. Asar in his tiara and plumes (?).
41. Asar, Lord of everlastingness.
42. Asar Ati, i.e., the Prince.
43. Asar Taiti.
44. Asar in Re-stau.
45. Asar on his sand.7
46. Asar, Chief of the Chamber of the Cow (i.e., Lord of Isis).
47. Asar in Tanent.
48. Asar in Netbit.8
luau gives Asar in Rehnent,
2 luau, in Pest of his city. 3 luau, Pesu-re.
4 luau adds, Asar in the earth. 5 luau omits.
6 luau, Asar Lord of An (?). 7 luau, within his sand.
8 Iuau)Tenit,
1 8 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
49. Asar in Sati.
50. Asar in Beshu.1
51. Asar in Tepu.
52. Asar in Upper Sai's.
53. Asar in Nepert.
54. Asar in Shennu.
55. Asar in Henket.
56. Asar in the Land of Sekri.
57. Asar in Shau.
58. Asar in Fat-Heru.
59. Asar in Maati.
60. Asar in Hena.2
In the Saite Period the Forms and Shrines of Osiris were 1 1 2 in number ; they will be found tabulated in the Todtenbuch of Lepsius, Bl. 59.
Under the XlXth dynasty the temple of Osiris was restored, or rebuilt, and a large number of repairs were carried out at Abydos in connection with the property of the god. Seti I regarded Osiris with great awe, and spoke of him as the god who would destroy those who declined to obey his commands.3 The reverence which Seti I personally showed to Osiris is well illustrated by the sections of the Book of Gates which specially deal with the kingdom of Osiris, appearing on his alabaster coffin. On this we have the remarkable vignette of Osiris seated in judgment on the top of his staircase, with the Scales set before him, and the boat containing the black pig of Set, which an ape is beating. The further scenes which illustrate the kingdom of Osiris prove that Seti was a believer in the doctrine of rewards for the blessed and punishments for the wicked, and in the existence of a place where the beatified lived with Osiris. The famous well of Osiris at Abydos appears in funerary literature copied during his reign, for we see Osiris seated by the side of it, or over it, in the Papyrus
1 luau, in Betshet.
luau, Nehna, ._, n © .
3 See the text edited by Golenischeff, in Recueil, torn. XIII, Plate II.
Shrines, Miracle Play, and " Mysteries " ig
of Hu-nefer, and pictures of it appear in some of the Books of the Other World.
Rameses II was a loyal servant of Osiris, and repaired his shrines and erected fine buildings in his honour. Rameses says in the great inscription at Abydos1 that he did for Osiris what Horus did for his father, that he set up monuments to him, and doubled the offerings to his KA, and his piety caused him to restore some of the royal tombs at Abydos which were in ruins. He finished the temple begun by his father, and built close to it a temple to Osiris. Rameses III restored Abydos and endowed the temples with great possessions, and made a great barge for the god.2 Under the rule of the later kings of the XXth dynasty the cult of Osiris does not seem to have been specially considered, and the priest-kings of the XX 1st dynasty devoted most of their attention and their possessions to the glorifica tion of Amen-Ra, the " king of the gods," at Thebes. Exact data are wanting, but it seems clear that with the end of the XX 1st dynasty the importance of Abydos began to decline, and with it the cult of Osiris in this place. The first great revival of the glory of Osiris at Abydos after about 900 B.C., happened in the reign of Amasis (XXVIth dynasty), and it was entirely due to his chief physician Pef-a-nef-Net, or Pef-ta-nef-Net. He interested the king in Abydos, and ultimately obtained from him the funds necessary for the restoration of the temple and the divine service. Much of the work of restoration he superintended personally. He built the god's temple, provided a silver-gold shrine, and imple ments for service made of gold, silver, etc. He built U-Pek and set up its altars, and cleaned out the famous well or cistern, and planted trees about it. He estab lished a regular supply of food for the temple, he settled there slaves, male and female, he endowed the temple with 1000 stat of land with its flocks and herds and peasant dwellers. He re-established the offerings, planted date groves and vineyards, restored the library, and built a sacred barge. He revived the Miracle play of Osiris, and took the leading part in the great scene
1 Marietta, Abydos, torn. I, Plates 5-9.
2 Birch, Papyrus of Rameses III, Plate 58, 1. u.
20 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
in which the representative of Horus beats back the foes of his father Osiris. He made provision for burying the people of Abydos by confiscating certain dues, which the lord of the district had been in the habit of exacting from the desert tribes, and the earnings of a certain ferry1 which the owner had assumed to be his private possession. Whatever may have happened to the shrine of Osiris at Abydos we may be quite certain that it did not in any way affect the general progress of the cult of Osiris in Egypt. It is probable that there was a small temple of Osiris attached to every great temple in Egypt, and there is good reason to think that such temples of Osiris were better and more regularly served by the priests than the larger temples. Little by little the Egyptians seem to have dropped the active cult of the other gods, Osiris and I sis, or Hathor, being in the eyes of the purely indigenous section of the population of more importance than all the other gods put together, for they gave resurrection and immortality to those who were dead, and protected the lives, property, and fortunes of those who were living.
1 Breasted, Egypt, IV, p. 517.
CHAPTER XV.
THE MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS AT DENDERAH.
THE walls of one of the two courts which form part of the temple of Osiris at Denderah contain a long inscrip tion1 describing the bas-reliefs which illustrate the
The model of Osiris which was used in the ceremonies performed during the
celebration of his festival at Denderah.
Mariette, Denderah, IV, 38.
The model of Seker which was used in the ceremonies performed during the
celebration of his festival at Denderah.
Mariette, Dcnctirah, IV, 39.
mysteries and ceremonies that were performed annually in honour of Osiris in that city. The First Section of this text deals with the making of sixteen models of the sixteen pieces into which the body of Osiris was hacked by Set. Each model was made of wheat mixed with some specially prepared paste, and was sent to the town
1 See Brugsch and Diimichen, Recueil, I, 15, 16, and IV, 1-27; Diimichen, Rtsultats \ Mariette, Dendtrah, torn. IV, Plates 35-39 ; Lauth, A.Z., 1866, p. 64 ff . ; Loret, Recueil, torn. Ill, p. 43 ff . ; torn. IV, p. 21 ff. ; torn. V, p. 85 ff.
22 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
in which that member of the body of Osiris was believed to have been found, and it was there put in a specially prepared vessel in the " house of Osiris," and placed under the protection of the gods.
The Second Section of the inscription deals with the making of the figure of Khenti- Amenti, and is of peculiar interest. At Mendes, a town closely connected with Busiris and the cult of Osiris, one kin of wheat and three kin of paste were placed in a large stone trough resting on four legs, and each day, from the i2th to the 2ist day of Khoiak, three parts of a kin of water were poured
Osiris of Ant (Denderah) on his bier, with Nephthys standing at the head, and Isis
at the foot. Mariette, Denderah, IV, 68.
from a gold goblet into the trough. On the 2ist day the contents of the trough were taken out, and a measure of incense having been added to it, the whole was kneaded into the two halves of a gold mould for making the figure of Khenti- Amenti wearing the White Crown. The contents of the moulds were then taken out and tied together with four papyrus bands, and dried in the sun. At the eighth hour of the 22nd day of the month, the figure, and figures of gods and many lamps, were placed in boats, and taken by water to the tomb of the god, and there the figure of Khenti-Amenti was covered with a cloth, and afterwards buried.
At Abydos, one kin of wheat and four hin of paste were placed in the two halves of a mould of Khenti-
Mysteries of Osiris at Denderah 23
Amend on the I2th day of Khoiak, and the moulds were set in a large stone trough, with reeds laid above and below them ; each mould was covered with a cloth. Water was poured on each half of the figure of the god, morning and evening, and other ceremonies were per formed in connection with them until the 2istof Khoiak. On that day the halves of the figure were removed from the moulds, dry incense was sprinkled over them, and they were then tied together with four bands of
Osiris of Coptos. Isis stands at the head, and Horus, son of Isis, son of Osiris at
the foot. A crown and the tunic of the god are under the bier.
Mariette, Denderah, IV, 68.
papyrus, and set in the sun to dry until the 25th day of the month. On that day the figure was taken to the temple of Seker and laid there, and the ceremonies of embalmment continued from the 25th to the last day of the month, when the figure was buried. The ceremonial of Abydos was repeated at all the other sanctuaries of Osiris in Egypt.
The Third Section gives directions for making a figure of Seker in a mould, with his crook, whip, beard, and uraeus. The mould was of gold, and a cast made from it was one cubit in height. The paste of which the figure was made was composed of earth from the town of Neter, dates, incense, fresh myrrh, spices,
24 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
precious stones, and water. The paste was made in the form of an egg, and set in a silver vase with sycamore leaves round it, and then pressed into the mould, and anointed with oil, and finally laid on the bed in the interior of the chamber. At Mendes this paste was made on the I4th day of Khoiak, and put in the mould on the 1 6th ; on the igih the figure was removed from the mould, embalmed on the 24th, and buried on the last day of the month. Memphis, Sma-Behutet, Kes, and Ka-kam observed the same rites.
Osiris Khenti- Amend of Thebes lying naked on his bier. Mariette, Denctirak, IV, 68.
The Fourth Section gives the names of the gods who were enshrined in the temple of the goddess Shent.
The Fifth Section supplies the legends which were cut on the fronts of the moulds of Seker, Khenti- Amend, and on the two vessels of Sep. The coffin of Osiris was made of sycamore wood and bore a long inscription ; it was one cubit and two palms long, and three palms and three fingers broad. The coffin of Khenti- Amenti and the coffer of the vessels of Sep were also made of sycamore. The moulds for the "divine bread" were made of the wood of a red tree, and cakes were made from them in the forms of the sixteen members of Osiris, viz., his head, feet, bones, arms, heart, intestines, tongue.
Mysteries of Osiris at Denderah 25
eye, fist, fingers, body, back, ears, backbone, ram's head, and hair. These cakes were put in a box, which was placed in a silver chest, and then set under the head of the god for protection. The other paragraphs of this Section deal minutely with the spices, precious stones, bandlets, knot, the fourteen amulets of Un-Nefer,1 and the fourteen tebeh of the mould of Seker, which were in the forms of the fourteen divine members. The Field of Osiris in which the sacred grain was to be sown was
Osiris Khenti-Amenti of Per-urt (Eileithyias). At the foot is the goddess
Neith, and at the head the goddess Uatchit.
Mariette, Denderah, IV, 69.
from 210 to 223 feet long ; one end of it was sown with barley, its centre with dhura, and the other end with flax. The plough frame was made of two kinds of wood, and the ploughshare of black bronze ; the cows which pulled it were black. The barley which grew in the Field was cut on the 2Oth day of Tobe, and was made into sacred cakes, the dhura was also made into cakes, and the linen made from the flax was used at the festival. Descriptions then follow of the sacred casket made of reeds, the cow
1 The Four Sons of Horus, 4 tets TT, 2 lions, i Horus, i Thoth, 2 utchats.
26 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
Rement, the chamber which holds the mummy of Seker, the sacred linen chest, and the holy oil and its com ponents.
The thirty-four boats with their 365 lamps and deities are next mentioned, and the names of the gods of the twenty-nine other boats are also given. The objects next spoken of are the sacred bier with silver wheels ; the peace chamber, in which a man who represents the " lord of silence " is seated, with one hand on his mouth, and the other on his legs ; the shrine of stone, 16 cubits
Osiris of the city of Tebt (Edfu). Marietta, Denderah, IV, 69.
long and 12 cubits broad, with seven doors, and con taining a raised mound on which the god in his sarco phagus rests ; and the gilded wooden coffer, with its jackal on its cover, and its sledge beneath it. The festival Un-per was celebrated on the i6th and 24th of the month of Khoiak, and on these days the god with his jackal appeared in the courtyard. The yoking of the two pairs of heifers to draw the funerary furniture took place on the 23rd day. The furniture consisted of two obelisks, four coffers, one for each of the Four Sons of Horus, with their four veils, one blue, one red, one green, one white, sixteen vulture plumes, four affixed to each coffer, and behind came a figure of the serpent Apep, holding a knife with which to sever the cordage. On the 1 2th day of Khoiak the festival of Tena was
Mysteries of Osiris at Denderah
27
celebrated, and on the I4th the most solemn festival of Pert was observed. On the i6th the festival of Osiris Khenti-Amenti was celebrated, and on that day the transformation of the god took place. On the i Qth the figure of Seker was taken from its mould, and on that day Horus saw his father. On the 2ist the figure of Osiris was taken from its mould ; on the 24th Osiris was embalmed, and on the last day of the month the Tet,
^, was raised up, and Osiris was buried. For seven
days, from the 24th to the last day of the month, Osiris remained unburied, and during these days he rested in
Osiris Khenti-Amenti of Nubia. Horus sits at the head and Neith at the foot. Mariette, Denderah, IV, 69.
the branches of the sycamores of Mendes. The seven days symbolize the seven months which he passed in the womb of his mother Nut, and the branches symbolize the goddess.
The Sixth Section states that the object used at the Tena festival was made at each of the sixteen shrines of Osiris in Egypt. On the I2th of Khoiak the Festival of Ploughing the Earth was celebrated in the temple of the goddess Shentit in Mendes. The goddess appeared in the temple, and she was stripped naked. Some grain was strewn on a bed in the chamber of the goddess's dwelling, and then some of it was placed on a cloth and moistened with water, and at the sixth hour of the day this wet grain was placed in four gold vases in four equal
28 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
parts. Two parts were intended for the mould of Khent- Amenti, and two parts for the trough of Sep. A number of cakes (?) were then brought and treated in the same way. Next a piece of linen was laid in each half of the mould of Khent-Amenti, and it was filled with the wet wheat and the cake-paste ; both parts were then laid in the large trough and covered with reeds. The trough of Sep was then filled with the rest of the wheat and cake-
Osiris of Per-Kes (Cusae). Mariette, Denderah, IV, 69.
paste, and laid in the larger trough, and water was poured on them. On the 2ist day of Khoiak the reeds which were about the halves of the mould were removed, and on the following day the superfluous water was drained off. The figures were then removed from the moulds, and tied together with four papyrus bands, and the two figures from the trough of Sep were joined in a similar manner, and then they were escorted along the water to the tomb by 34 boats decorated with 365 lamps. The figure of Khent-Amenti and the figure from the trough of Sep, which had been made the previous year, were then brought from the place where they had been kept, and
Mysteries of Osiris at Denderah
29
oiled, and embalmed on the 24th day of the month of Khoiak, and put each in a sycamore-wood coffin, and buried in Re-stau on the last day of the month.
The remaining paragraphs describe the details of the final ceremonies which were performed for " Osiris, Lord " of Tattu, Un-nefer, triumphant, Khent-Amenti, Great " God, Lord of Abydos." The twelve magic spices and the twenty-four precious stones are enumerated ; the weaving and the dyeing of the sacred linen are described,
Osiris Mer-at-f of the town of Hep (Apis). Under the bier are the seven
crowns of the god. Mariette, Denderah, IV, 70.
and the painting and decoration of the figure of the god, and the fixing of the fourteen amulets on it, and when this and much else had been carefully performed, the priests went, on the 25th day of Khoiak, and " expelled " from the tomb of the god all the words which had been " spoken there during the ceremonies the year before."
The reader will have noted that none of the cere monies described in the text at Denderah are mentioned by the loyal official I-kher-Nefert in his account of the ceremonies at which he assisted. This is not to be wondered at, for he only took the lead in the great scenes of the Mystery play of Osiris which were always
VOL. II. D
30 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
performed before the people. The ceremonies described above were all performed in secret by the priests, partly in the most sacred parts of the temple, and partly in the tomb, and the object of them all was to make three figures of the different forms of Osiris. From the first mould was made a figure of Khent-Amenti, and from the trough of Sep, a figure of Sep, which was formed of sixteen distinct limbs of Osiris, and from the mould of Seker, a figure of the finished, reconstituted god. Every act was symbolic in character, and represented some ancient belief or tradition. The paste, the mixture of
Osiris of Libya (?) lying naked on his bier which is supported by the Four Sons of
Horus. At the head stands Isis, and at the foot Horus.
Mariette, Denderah, IV, 70.
wheat and water, the egg, the naked goddess Shentit, i.e., Isis in her chamber, the placing of the paste on her bed, the kneading of the paste into the moulds, etc., represented the great processes of Nature which are set in motion when human beings are begotten and conceived, as well as the inscrutable powers which preside over growth and development. The Egyptians believed that the original Osiris was re-made in the earth, and that the pieces of his body were woven together a second time through the words and ceremonies of the gods whose effigies were carried in the thirty-four boats during the procession on the water. And there was not the smallest action on the part of any member of the band who acted the
Mysteries of Osiris at Denderah 31
Miracle play of Osiris, and not a sentence in the Liturgy, which did not possess importance or vital significance to the followers of Osiris. The ceremonies performed at Denderah were not new, on the contrary, they were very old, and there is good reason to think the priests of the Ptolemaic Period accepted with absolute faith the observances which the Osirian traditions imposed upon them, and carried them out with the most scrupulous care, even in the smallest detail.
Osiris of Denderah lying on his bier which is supported by Thoth, two goddesses, and an Ape-god. The three hawks are Isis, Nephthys, and Hathor. At the head stands Isis, and at the foot Heqet.
Mariette, Denderah, IV, 70.
We may now consider the bas-reliefs at Denderah which illustrate the Festival and Mysteries of Osiris. ] In the First Chamber North we see the figures of the priests of the shrines of Osiris from Lower Egypt marching with the king at their head ; each holds in his hands the symbol of his nome, and above his head is his official title or designation (Plates 31, 32). In the First Chamber South we also see the figures of the priests of the shrines of Osiris in the South, or Upper Egypt (Plates 33, 34). In the same chamber is the long inscription which has already been summarized. It is illustrated by a figure of Osiris Khent- Amend (Plate 35),
1 See Mariette, Denderah, torn. IV, Plate XXXI ff.
D 2
32 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
and a representation of the mould of Khent-Amenti (Plate 38), and the mould of Seker (Plate 39). On the walls of the Second Chamber (Plates 40-43) is sculptured a series of birds, each with its characteristic head, which represent the deities of the various nomes wherein shrines of Osiris were situated. These are followed by figures of the Eight Goddesses, Isis, Nephthys, etc. (Plate 44), and of the deities who accompany Osiris during the twenty-four hours of the day and night to protect him against the attacks of Set, or Typhon (Plates 45-56).
Seker- Osiris, Lord of Tattu (Busiris). Mariette, Denderah, IV, 71.
Then come a representation of the passage of the sun through the twelve hours of the day (Plate 57), and two scenes which illustrate ceremonies performed in con nection with the renewal of the life of Osiris under the fostering influences of the goddesses Isis and Nephthys. The resurrection of Osiris is closely connected with the germination of wheat ; the grain which is put into the ground is the dead Osiris, and the grain which has germinated is the Osiris who has once again renewed his life (Plate 58). The remaining reliefs in this chamber represent the gods who are charged with the protection of the tomb of Osiris (Plates 59-63).
In the Third Chamber we have representations of the Seven Boats of Osiris, the Hennu, Sektet, Maat,
Mysteries of Osiris at Denderah 33
etc., which took part in the procession of Osiris (Plates 64, 65), of Osiris as Harmakhis in a boat, and of a form of Osiris as the Lord of Life. The god lies on a bier under which are placed his diadems (Plate 65). The next relief (Third Chamber North), represents the adoration or protection of Osiris of the South and Osiris of the North by Isis and Nephthys (the two Shenti-goddesses), and the two Merti, i.e., the god desses of the Inundation of the South and North. In a
Seker-Osiris of Busiris. Anubis is bringing unguent and linen to embalm him. Marietta, Dendcrah, IV, 71.
lower scene we have a figure of Osiris of the North lying on his bier in his tomb which is placed close to a tamarisk tree (Plate 66). Then come the Seven Boats of Osiris (Plates 67, 68), and these are followed by repre sentations of the funeral chests of Osiris in different localities. Thus we have the biers of Osiris of Denderah, Osiris of Coptos, Osiris Khent-Amenti of Abydos (Plate 68), Osiris of Eileithyias, Osiris of Edfu, Osiris of Ta-sti (Nubia), Osiris of Cusae (Plate 69), Osiris of the town of Apis, Osiris revivified, Osiris of Libya (?), Osiris of Abydos, Osiris under a form worshipped at Denderah (Plate 70), Osiris of Busiris, in three forms, Osiris of Memphis, Osiris of Heliopolis
34 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
(Plate 71), Osiris of the East, Osiris of Behbet, Osiris of Abydos, venerated in the town of Pehu of the North, Osiris of Hermopolis in Lower Egypt, and Osiris of Bubastis (Plate 72).
Southern Group. First Chamber. Here the first text contains invocations to Osiris, in all his forms of Upper and Lower Egypt, and the bas-relief represents Osiris Un-Nefer of Denderah lying on his bier, with Isis at the head and Nephthys at the foot (Plate 74). The second text is that of the " Book of the Magical Protection of Horus," which was composed for him by Thoth ; its recital brought about the destruction of all
Seker- Osiris of Busiris mummified and wearing the White Crown. Mariette, Denderah, IV, 71.
the enemies of Osiris, and gave to the soul of the god the strength of a bull in the Other World. The bas- reliefs show us Osiris, followed by the four Meskhenit goddesses, and a figure of Thoth (Plate 74). The third text contains invocations to Osiris, and the bas-relief represents Osiris Un-Nefer, Lord of Busiris, lying on his bier (Plate 75).
Second Chamber. The fourth text contains directions for the covering of the biers of Osiris, and the placing of the proper amulets on them on the 25th day of Khoiak (Plate 77). The next group of bas-reliefs contains a series of figures of the gods of the Dekans, and Planets, and days of the week, which stand ready to guard the Sepulchre of Osiris (Plates 78-83). Following these we have the Twelve Hour-gods of the day, and their
Mysteries of Osiris at Denderah
35
names (Plate 84), the Hennu Boat, and a scene of sacrifice (Plate 85), and a list of the nomes of Egypt, which the king presents to Hathor.
Third Chamber. Here on a tablet is given a list
of the One Hundred and Four Amulets y <5 made
of gold and precious stones of all kinds which were taken to the House of Gold, i.e., the sarcophagus chamber, to protect this holy god and the burial
Seker-Osiris of Memphis ; the goddess at the head is Isis. Osiris-Tet in Busiris. Mariette, Dendtrah, IV, 71.
furniture, or wrappings of his mummy (Plate 87). These amulets were : —
1. A breast plate, with figures of Osiris wearing
the Atef Crown, Isis, and Nephthys.
2. A pectoral, with straps for fastening over the
shoulders.
3. A figure of Thoth, in the form of a man with
the head of an ibis.
4. The ibis, sacred to Thoth, resting on his stand
5. The goddess Maat, wearing the feather of
Truth and holding the symbol of " life."
6. An Utchat, or Eye of Horus or Ra.
7. [Broken.]
8. A beetle, emblem of Khepera.
All the above were made of uher stone.
36 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
9. A beetle, emblem of Khepera.
10. A beetle, emblem of Khepera.
11. An Utchat, or Eye of Horus or Ra.
j\ /WAWA r\
These three were made of Teb stone (read (I = (I
6 A**\
The 104 amulets of Osiris. Mariette, Denderaht IV, 87.
12. A beetle, emblem of Khepera.
This was made of turquoise or green feldspar.
13. Uraeus wearing the Crown of the North.
14. Uraeus wearing the Crown of the South. These were made of Amen turquoise (?) stone.
Mysteries of Osiris at Denderah
37
15. A White Crown.
This was made of Syrian turquoise (?).
• en i
• • A L
M
*M
© ¥
I I
\ \
? *
111
t *
I 1
The 104 amulets of Osiris. Mariette, Denderah, IV, 87.
1 6, 17. Two beetles.
1 8. A seated figure of I sis.
19. A seated figure of Amen.
20, 21. Two hawks, symbols of Horus.
22. An Utchat, or Eye of Horus or Ra.
23. A papyrus sceptre.
These were made of Pert stone of Rutenu.
38 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
24. An Utchat, or Eye of Horus or Ra.
25. A tear drop of the Utchat ^?- These were made of or crystal.
26. A beetle, emblem of Khepera.
27. A figure of Thoth.
28. A Tet, i.e., the sacrum of Osiris set on a
stand.
29. A papyrus sceptre.
30. An Utchat, or Eye of Horus or Ra.
These were made of real lapis-lazuli 5^ \ o = — »- u o.
<=* J\ o o *& o
Osiris of the town of Heliopolis. Mariette, Denderah, IV, 71.
31, 32. Two figures of Thoth, holding a sceptre.
33. A figure of I sis holding a sceptre.
34. A figure of Nephthys without a sceptre.
35. A seated figure of the goddess Neith.
36. A seated figure of the goddess Serqet. 37, 38. Two Tets.
39, 40. Two beetles.
41. A breastplate, with ring.
42. A vessel, with cover.
43. A seated figure of Osiris wearing the White
and Red Crowns.
44. A seated figure of the goddess Maat.
45. A cartouche.
46. An article of apparel.
Mysteries of Osiris at Denderah
47. An Utchat, or Eye of Horus, or Ra.
48. A seated figure of the goddess Maat.
49. Three plaques (?).
50. A pomegranate.
51. A vessel (?).
52. A heart.
53, 54. Two hawks, symbols of Horus.
These were made in fine white " living " alabaster.
39
Osiris, Isis, and Nephthys of the town of liebit (Behbit). Above is a hawk
bringing air.
Mariette, Denderaht IV, 72.
55. A pair of plumbing instruments.
56. A pair of angles.
57. A pair of stands (?).
58. A pair of beetles.
59. A fruit (?).
60. A seated figure of a goddess, with a disk on
her head.
61. An Utchat, or Eye of Horus or Ra.
62. A pair of Utchats, the Eyes of the Sun and
Moon. 63, 64. Two uraei.
65. A hawk, symbol of Horus.
These were made of qa stone.
4O Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
66. A sistrum.
67. A pair of plumes.
68. Right Utchat.
69. Left Utchat.
70, 71. Two instruments with plumes and uraei.
72. A beetle, symbol of Khepera.
73. A pomegranate.
74. A vessel, with cover (?).
75-
These were made of carnelian.
The soul of Osiris Osiris of Hermopolis of Lower Egypt rising from his bier
on the Erica tree. at the command of Horus.
Mariette, Denderah, IV, 72.
so /:>\ f Vases for milk, or unguents (?).
7O— o7 If H T» r
' v ' [Perfume vases.
88. A pair of plumes.
These were made of turquoise.
89. A milk vessel (?).
90. A beetle, emblem of Khepera.
These were made of behet stone. 91-93. Three plaques (?). 94-96. Three knives made of black stone.
97. A pair of plumes.
98. An object.
These were made of khenem stone.
Mysteries of Osiris at Denderah
99, 100. Two amulets of Isis (?). 101, 102. Two bulls. 103, 104. Two Utchats.
Following these we have a group of the Sepulchres of Osiris, which may be briefly described : —
^3*J~>*~ ^v n ^v ^v — .
I. Osiris of Busiris, or Osiris Tet, rl'S
fLJ * L\ U / \ L \ ^3
fl-V: The god standing upright, with Horus, son of Isis, holding his right arm. Isis and Nephthys stand before
^ D
o o o
8
Jl
Osiris Un-nefer of Neter-het (Bubastis). Mariette, Dendtrah\ IV, 72.
him. Outside, at one end, is an ape, symbolic of the Four Sons of Horus, and at the other the goddess Shentit is seated.
2. An Osiris unnamed.
The god lying on his stomach on his bier. Horus his son driving a spear into his face, to open his mouth and his two eyes. Isis at the head, Nephthys at the foot. Beneath the bier is a row of diadems.
3. Osiris Khenti-Amenti.
Osiris, lying on his bier in the act of begetting Horus by Isis, who is in the form of a hawk ; behind comes Nephthys in a similar form. At the head kneels Hathor, and at the foot the Frog-goddess Heqet is seated.
42 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
Beneath the bier are Thoth, two uraei, and Bes. Behind Hathor stand four forms of Osiris.
Osiris Hemka begetting a son by Isis, who hovers over him in the form of a hawk.
Anubis, Horus, Nephthys and Shentit are present.
Mariette, Dendtrah, IV, 90.
Osiris-Seker, Lord of the Shrine of Abydos. Mariette, Dendtrah, IV, 90.
4. Seker Osiris in Tattu (Busiris),
The god lying on his bier. At the head stands Nephthys and at the foot Isis.
Mysteries of Osiris at Denderah 43
5. Osiris in the embalmment chamber being operated upon by Anubis and Heqet, according to instructions given by Thoth. I sis and Nephthys sit on the ground weeping.
6. Ptah-Seker-Asar lying on his bier.
7. Seker-Asar lying on his bier, by which stand I sis and Nephthys. Facing its head are three of the forms of Osiris.
The resurrection of Osiris Khenti- Amend. Mariette, Dendfrah, IV, 90.
-^CE>^ f\
8. Osiris Hemaka, rlS 8
dJ I A
in the form of
an unmummied man lying on a bier, by the foot of which stands Anubis. Nephthys kneels at the head, and I sis at the foot. Above the member of the god hovers I sis in the form of a hawk.
9. Asar-Seker of Abydos kneeling in a kind of boat which is resting on a sledge.
10. Osiris rising revivified out of a kind of bowl which stands on a plinth between the outspread wings of I sis.
11. Osiris Khent- Amend, rising revivified from his bier, beneath which is placed a series of his crowns.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE BOOK OF MAKING THE SPIRIT OF Osmis,1 OR THE SPIRIT BURIAL.
THE FORMULA FOR MAKING THE SPIRIT OF OsiRIS3 IN
AKERTET, WHICH SHALL BE MADE (i.e., RECITED) FOR
THIS GOD, THE LORD OF AfiYDOS, AT EVERY FESTIVAL OF OSIRIS, AND AT EVERY APPEARANCE [OF THE GOD] IN THE TEMPLES .... IT SHALL MAKE GLORIOUS HIS SOUL, IT SHALL STABLISH HIS BODY, IT SHALL MAKE HIS SOUL TO SHINE IN THE SKY, AND SHALL MAKE HIM TO RENEW HIS YOUTH EACH MONTH, IT SHALL STABLISH HIS SON HORUS UPON HIS COFFER. THIS FORMULA WAS RECITED BY THE SISTER [OF THE GOD]. IT WILL BENEFIT A MAN IF HE RECITETH IT, FOR HE SHALL BECOME A FAVOURED ONE OF OSIRIS UPON EARTH AMONG THE LIVING ; HIS SON (?) SHALL BE ESTABLISHED IN HIS HOUSE EVERY DAY, AND HIS CHILDREN UPON THE [EARTH]. THIS FORMULA WAS RECITED BY IsiS AND HER SISTER NEPHTHYS, AND ALSO BY HER SON HORUS. AND IF IT BE RECITED FOR OSIRIS, IT WILL CAUSE THE SOUL OF THE DECEASED TO
LIVE IN AKERTET EVERY DAY, IT WILL GLADDEN HIS HEART, AND WILL OVERTHROW ALL HIS ENEMIES ; AND IT SHALL BE RECITED DURING THE IVTH MONTH OF THE SEASON AKHET,3 FROM THE XXI IND DAY TO THE XXVlTH DAY THEREOF. [Here follow the commemora tive sentences.]
Come to thy house, come to thy house, O An. Come to thy house, O Beautiful Bull, the Lord of men and women, the beloved one, the lord of women. O Beautiful Face, Chief of Akertet, Prince, First of those who are in the Other World, are not [all] hearts drunk
through love of thee ( O Un-neferl triumphant ? . . . .
1 From a papyrus at Paris, a portion of which has been edited by Pierret (Et. Egyptologiques, 1873), and see Brugsch, Religion, p. 626 ff.
2 Or, commemorating Osiris.
3 Choiak.
Spirit Burial of Osiris
45
The hands of men and gods are lifted on high seeking for thee, even as those of a child [are stretched out] after his mother. Come thou to them, for their hearts are sad, and make them to appear as beings who rejoice. The lands of Horus1 exult, the domains of Set are overthrown through fear of thee.
Hail, Osiris, First of those who are in the Other World! I am thy sister I sis. No god hath done [for thee] what I have done, and no goddess. I made a man child, though I was a woman, because of my desire
Isis and Nephthys bewailing the death of Osiris. From a bas-relief at Philae.
to make thy name to live upon the earth. Thy divine essence was in my body ; I placed him on the back of the earth (i.e., brought him forth). He pleaded thy case, he healed thy suffering, he decreed the destruction of him that had caused it. Set hath fallen before his sword (or, knife), and the Smamiu fiends of Set have followed him. The throne of Keb is to thee, O thou who art his beloved son !
Hail, Seker-Osiris ! This calamity happened to thee in the primeval time. There have been made for thee mighty chambers in Tettu (Busiris). The god Utekh2 embalmed thee and made sweet the smell of thee. The
1 /.<r., the temple estates. VOL. II.
46 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
god Anpu (Anubis) toiled for thee in the place of purification, and performed all the things which he had to perform. I and my sister Nephthys kindled a lamp at the door of the urit chamber, so that [we] might snare in a net Set like a goose. Anubis came forth from the place of purification and overthrew all thine enemies. The mourners, male and female, made for thee their lamentations. Horus hath overthrown the Sebau fiends, and hath cast fetters about Set. The gods stand up and utter groans by reason of the great
Osiris, king of the gods, Lord of life, Osiris smelling a flower presented by Horus. Under the bier are the four crowns of the god. Mariette, Denderah, IV, 65.
calamity which hath happened to thee, and they send forth their loud cries unto heaven. Those who dwell in the horizon hear the goddess making lamentation over the motionless one, they see what that accursed one hath done unto thee.
Thoth standeth at the door of the pure chamber in order to recite his formulae which shall give life to the soul each day. The Ploughing of the Earth1 hath been performed for thee on the XXVIth day of the fourth month of the season Akhet. Thou comest forth in the Tuat. The Sons of Horus are with thee. Horus is before thee [with] the rope in his hands. The divine-
1 I.e., the sacrifice of human beings whose blood was used to moisten the earth.
Spirit Burial of Osiris 47
father priests and the servants of the god prepare thy two ways (?) in the pure [chamber]. Thy mouth is opened by the " Book of Opening the Mouth." The Kher-heb priest and the chief of the libationer priests, with their books of making [the soul] to live in their hands, recite the formulae over thee. The Setem priest hath opened thy mouth, Seker in the Hennu-Boat hath triumphed, thine enemies are overthrown.
Hail, Osiris Khenti-Amentiu, come to thy sister,
OfUn-neferl triumphant, come to thy wife !
Osiris on his bier under which are the vases containing his intestines. Mariette, Dcnderah, IV, 70.
Hail, Osiris Khenti-Amentiu, the gods and the goddesses, with their heads on their knees, await thy coming to them ; men with outcry and shouting call out : " O thou who art invisible, come to us." O Soul, perfect to all eternity, thy members are in a state of well- being, thy sufferings are relieved, every evil thing [in thee] is done away. Thy limbs are rejoined, thou art protected, thou hast no defect ; thy limbs are rejoined, and not a member of thine is wanting.
1. Hail, Osiris Khenti-Amentiu! O Form, thou hast thy head, O god of the lifted hand, [thy] crown and thy hair are [made of] genuine lapis- lazuli.
2. Hail, Osiris Khenti-Amentiu ! O Form, thou hast thy two eyes, thou seest with them ; the Maati goddesses love to protect thee.
3. Hail, Osiris Khenti-Amentiu ! O Form, thou
E 2
48 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
hast thine ears, wherewith thou shalt hear prayers for millions of years.
4. Hail, Osiris Khenti-Amentiu ! O Form, thou hast thy nose, thy nostrils snuff the breezes.
5. Hail, Osiris Khenti-Amentiu ! O Form, thou hast thy mouth ; thou speakest therewith ; Horus has pressed for thee thy mouth.
6. Hail, Osiris Khenti-Amentiu ! O Form, thy jaw-bones are on thee, firmly fixed.
Anubis anointing the mummy of Osiris with Isis giving directions. Mariette, Dendtrah, IV, 70.
7. Hail, Osiris Khenti-Amentiu ! O Form, thy beard [is made of] crystal which emitteth rays of light.
8. Hail, Osiris Khenti-Amentiu ! O Form, thy lips are of flint and thy teeth are turquoises.
9. Hail, Osiris Khenti-Amentiu! O Form, thy tongue is the pilot of the Two Lands, it licketh up thine enemies.
10. Hail, Osiris Khenti-Amentiu! O Form, thy body is of natron, it perisheth not.
11. Hail, Osiris Khenti-Amentiu! O Form, thy neck beareth ornaments and amulets which reach to thy throat.
12. Hail, Osiris Khenti-Amentiu! O Form, thy hands are firm on the staff, which is stable in thy abodes (?).
Spirit Burial of Osiris
49
13. Hail, Osiris Khenti-Amentiu ! O Form, thy sinews (?) and thy vertebrae (or, joints) are stablished firmly.
14. Hail, Osiris Khenti-Amentiu! O Form, thy belly, thy secret place, hideth that which is in it.
15. Hail, Osiris Khenti-Amentiu! O Form, thy two shoulders are stablished firmly on thy back.
1 6. Hail, Osiris Khenti-Amentiu ! O Form, thou hast thy member and thy genitals that thou mayest copulate.
The bier and coffer of Fenth-f-ankh Khenti Abti. Mariette, Denderah, IV, 72.
17. Hail, Osiris Khenti-Amentiu! O Form, thou hast thy backbone and thy buttocks, thou sittest upon the throne every day.
1 8. Hail, Osiris Khenti-Amentiu! O Form, the soles of thy feet are on the earth, the water flood appeareth with them, O Osiris Khenti-Amentiu !
Hail, Osiris Khenti-Amentiu! Isis and Nephthys say : —
" Thou hast received thy head, thou hast united in " thy embrace thy flesh, thy limbs thou hast brought " unto thyself, thou hast gathered together thy members, (l and they have come into thy mummified form. Thou
50 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
hast become like the god Sebeq, the Lord of the dead body.
" Hail, Osiris Khenti-Amentiu ! There is health in thy members, thy wounds are done away, thy suffering is relieved, thy groaning shall never return. Come to us the sisters, come to us ; [our] hearts will live when thou comest. Men shall cry out to thee, women weep for thee with gladness at thy coming to them. [The Two Lands] shall not lack thy name, and thou shalt be stablished in the nomes of the gods for ever.
A local form of Osiris of Abydos, worshipped in Pehu. Marietta, Dcnderah> IV, 72.
" Hail, Osiris Khenti-Amentiu ! Rise up, rise up ! Be thou not motionless. Thy son Horus over- throweth thine enemies. Rise thou up into heaven, unite thyself to Ra. The mariners of the divine boat ascribe praises unto thee. The mouths of the gods of the horizon utter glad words. Throats follow thee. Thy love is in their hearts, thy terror is in their breasts, when thou enterest into the Utchau, and unitest thyself thereto. Those who are on the earth and [those who are] in the Tuat flourish . . . Moon. O Bull, who renewest youth in the sky each day, creator of ... and the Great Company of the Gods. The Utchat goddess . . . filling of the mouth. . . . At [thy] entrance into the Utchat the Sekhem (i.e.,
Spirit Burial of Osiris
Power) of Osiris, that is to say, Thoth, cometh into being. When thou risest in the sky calamity departeth, and when thou art seen in the sky on this day bulls fecundate the cows and very many concep tions take place.
" Hail, Osiris Khenti-Amentiu ! Thou becomest a child in the horizon of heaven each day, and thou becomest old at every one of thy periods. Hap (the Nile) appeareth by the command of thy mouth, making men and women to live on the effluxes which come from thy members, making every field to flourish. At thy coming that which is motionless groweth, and the green plants of the marsh put forth blossoms.
Isis and Nephthys providing Osiris with air. Marietta, Denderah, IV, 75.
11 Hail. Osiris Khenti-Amentiu ! Thou art the Lord of millions of years, the lifter up of the wild animals, the Lord of cattle ; every created thing hath its existence from thee. To thee belongeth what is in the earth, to thee belongeth what is in the heavens, to thee belongeth what is in the waters, to thee belongeth whatsoever is in them in thy name of ' Hap.' Hail to thee, in thy name of ' Inert one, chief of Het-urit.' Thou art the Lord of Truth, the hater of sinners, who makest them to be overthrown in [their] sins. The two Maati goddesses are with thee, on no day do they depart from thee. Sins (or, sinners) cannot draw nigh unto thee in any place wherein thou art. To thee belongeth whatsoever appertaineth to life [and to] death. To thee belongeth whatsoever appertaineth to men [and to] women.
52 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
" Hail, Osiris Khenti-Amentiu ! The mourners weep, both men and women, and they lament. The magical fluid of thy bier protecteth thee at [all] seasons, thy members are guarded. All thine enemies are overthrown. Thy throne is stablished firmly each day like the throne of Ra, with mighty sovereignty, by his ruling to his son's son. Shu and Tefnut were with him in primeval time."
" Shu saith : ' O son of a son, I am thy son. Thou renewest thy youth at the word (or, voice), it is I who
Seker- Osiris in his funerary coffer. Marietta, Denderah, IV, 89.
give air to the throat which is closed, and from it proceedeth life to the throat. Thou art Sovereign among the gods, the Prince at the head of the Com pany of the Gods.'
" Tefnut saith : * There is not to thee thy mother who conceived by her father, on the day . . . giving birth [to thee] with gladness. I made the form of the dmit fire to overthrow all thine enemies. Likewise all the . . . which I made for my father Ra in primeval time I have made for Osiris Khenti-Amentiu, in order to create his form anew. I am the mother of thy mother, I am (?) thy eldest daughter ; thou art [my] Sekhem.' " (?)
Spirit Burial of Osiris
53
Men and women sing hymns of praise [when] thou risest on us at the season of thy departure. The beings of the South and the beings of the North must not be without a sight of thee. The beings of the West and the beings of the East are settled in the fear of thee, and they [bear tribute] on their heads each day. They shall never separate from thy Majesty by reason of their desire to see thee.
Hail, Osiris Khenti-Amentiu ! Come to me ; I am thy sister Isis. Rise up, rise up, come at my call.
Seker-Osiris of Busiris. Mariette, Denderah, IV, 89.
Hearken thou to the recital of the things which I have done for thee, which I have done for thee [and] thy name in all the nomes, and in every domain, and how they hold thee in fear. They cry out unto thee at the time of thy departure. [Their] hearts are not weaned because of [their] love for thee. Be not afar off, come thou to us.
Hail, Osiris Khenti-Amentiu ! Thy mother Nut gave birth to thee in Thebes, and thou didst become a young man. As soon as thou didst rise on the earth as a child there was a shout of joy, and Ra heard it in his abode (?) in the Land of the North ; hearts rejoice at thy birth. Thou arrivest at Het-sutenit1 on the night of the twentieth day of the month, and the fifteenth day of
1 Xois.
54 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
the moon (i.e., at full moon). Ra saw thee, thy love entered into his heart in this royal seat. He gave to thee the throne of thy father Keb. Thou art his son whom he loveth. Thou enterest into the temple, into thy hidden abode, in Het-Benben.1 The gods in Aat- tcha-Mut3 rejoice at the sight of thee. The city of Memphis3 is with thee every day, and thou livest there in the form of Atem-Khepera, the Prince in Anu (Heliopolis). Abydos is thy city in the Land of the South ; thou art there in it every day in the form of Osiris Khenti-Amentiu, the Great God, the Lord of Abydos. I sis stops the paths before that Evil One at
Horus opening the mouth and two eyes of Osiris with a spear. Mariette, Denderah, IV, 88.
Abydos, thy son Horus overthroweth thine enemies every day. Thou renewest thy youth in Tettu (Busiris). The goddess Nebt-hetep protecteth thee, the goddess Shenat keepeth off the fiend Set. The Temple Anti [is full of] loud acclamations, and Re-stau [is full of] splendour.
The god Khnemu protecteth thee in Metchet (Elephantine). He poureth out for thee water in the Hetep Chamber in the Metchet temple, appearing in it anew, appearing from thee. The city of Behutet (Apollinopolis) is stablished under thy name, Horus overthroweth Set. The city of Horus of the West (Asphynis) rejoiceth at the sight of thee. The temple of
1 The House of the Obelisk, i.e., Heliopolis.
2 Pasemis.
3 Res-aneb-f.
Spirit Burial of Osiris
55
Aptet (Ombos) hath joy of heart. The Spirits who dwell in Nekhent cry out with joy. The goddess Nekhebit protecteth thee in Nekhebet (Eileithyiaspolis). Splendid is thy rising up as the Lord of the South and North.1 ^ She is like a vulture in effecting thy protection, and she is like an uraeus serpent stablished on thy head ; she maketh thee to rise like Ra every day. Offerings [to thee], with joy, with joy !
The god An purifieth thee in Het-sekhemu (Diospolis Parva). Isis protecteth thee in Denderah (?), Nifu-urt2
Osiris Tet of Busiris. Mariette, Denderah, IV, 88.
rejoiceth because of thee, thou art on the roads which are in it. The Two Companies of the Gods exalt thee high on thy standard. The gods look upon the two Merti (?) goddesses who are before thee, thy two Uatchti goddesses are in thy following, thou art never deprived of them. The city of Shena-hennu rejoiceth at the sight of thee. Those who are in the East rejoice at thy KA (i.e., double), and the cities of Apu(?) and Khent-Menu utter many loud cries of joy. Hathor protecteth thee in Hierakonpolis, thou livest in Shaas-hetep (Hypselis).
Thou buildest up men and women, thou art the guide of the gods in thy name of Khnemu. Thy members are gathered together in Het-Ertuu, and the gods who dwell
2 A district of Abydos.
56 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
therein overthrow thine enemies. The god Thoth reciteth the Book of making the Spirit for thee in Khemenu (Hermopolis), and the Eight Gods of Hermopolis ascribe to thee praises as they did for thy father Ra. The gods of the city of Hesert rejoice in thee from the time thou enterest till thou departest. Hensu (Herakleopolis) adoreth thy Souls, and An-aarrut-f is under thee every day. Mer-ur (Moeris) rejoiceth, Smen-Heru (Ptolemai's) rejoiceth at thy coming. Thou hidest thy body in Pa-Hennu1 until Hathor of Aphroditopolis cometh.
Seker- Osiris of Busiris, hawk-headed. Mariette, De.nderah, IV, 90.
Memphis is established possessing thee. Kindled for thee is a fire in the hands of the goddess Rerat,3 she performeth acts of protection for thee every day. Ptah giveth air to thy nostrils. The Meriti-gods, chiefs of the Temple of Ptah, protect thee. The sanctuary Shetat rejoiceth, the sanctuary Hennu is glad. The heart of Ptah-resu-aneb-f is glad, he rejoiceth in thy love. The Temple of Sekhet resoundeth with music in thine honour. The Temple of Aqert rejoiceth possessing thee, and Horus overthroweth all thine enemies. The gods of Latopolis are full of the sight of thee. Thou art protected by Nut in the city of Apis, Momemphis
1 The Temple of the Canal.
2 The Hippopotamus goddess of the Nile.
Spirit Burial of Osiris 57
rejoiceth in thine image. Thou suckest in pure life with the milk of the Cow-goddess Sekha-Heru, and the Town of the Cow is full of happiness. The goddess Sekhmet protecteth thee in the lands of the Thehennu, she defendeth thee ; the queen of Mer-ur is glad.
The goddess of the Companies of the Gods tarrieth with thy name in the Temple of Neith, the city of Sais is filled with glory at the sight of thee. Thou becomest hidden on the south side and on the north side, [thy] apparel is the work of the two Crocodile-gods. Thou
The goddesses Serqet and Tua. (?) performing a magical ceremony for Osiris. From a bas-relief at Philae.
comest to Sa'is, thou passest into the Temple of Het- Khebit. The goddess Neith shooteth arrows from her bow to overthrow thine enemies utterly. Thou reachest Athribis, and thou appearest in the form of a bull upon his stand in thy name of Osiris-Uu, whilst Isis standeth before thee. She never leaveth thee. Thy name is in the mouth of her inhabitants, they praise thee where thou art all the day long, even as they praise Ra, the father of thy parents (i.e., thy grandfather) ; the throne which thou lovest is in her (i.e., Sai's). The Uraei-goddesses rejoice in thy image, and their sceptres bring thee healing season by season. The city of Pe rejoiceth at the sight of thee, and Tep bringeth hymns and praises before thy face. The goddess Uatchit, the Uraeus-goddess of the North,
58 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
taketh up her place on thy head. Clusters of papyrus plants are presented unto thee in the city of Khebit j1 all thine enemies are overthrown. The cities of Qebh-her and Nai bow themselves down before thy face.
The children and young men come to thee from Heliopolis. The awe of thee filleth the temple of the god Sep, and thy name is spread abroad in .... The city of Kher-aha3 is full of joy at the sight of thee, and
The Resurrection of Osiris. From a bas-relief at Philae.
the Temple of Amahet hath gladness of soul. Shenu- qebh is filled with joy of heart, and the holy city is glad ; and under the form of Hetepit the goddess Hathor guardeth thee. Bast, the Lady of Bubastis, sendeth awe of thee among all men ; thy strength against thine enemies is great. The town of Phacusa is glad. The god Sept, the Horus of the East, the Bull, the slayer of the Anti, rejoiceth at the sight of thee. Heru-Merti
1 The Island of Khemmis of the classical writers.
2 Babylon of Egypt.
Spirit Burial of Osiris
59
protecteth thee, and overthroweth all thine enemies in the town of Sheten (Pharbaetus). The town of Tchan is glad, and the Land of Haa is full of joy. The town of Remen keepeth a feast, the town of Horus in the North and Sma-Behutet rejoice in their hearts. The town of Theb-neter (Sebennytus) boweth low before thee, Heru- Tema, with the lofty plumes, the lord of the crown, is the vanquisher of all thy foes. The town of Het-Baiu (Thmuis) possesseth thy Ram, and thou appearest as
The Shrine Tenter on its sledge. Mariette, Dcnderah, IV, 65.
Ba-neb-Tet (Mendes), the virile Ram, the master of virgins. The town of Hermopolis lieth under thy rule, and Thoth, the judge of the Two Combatants, stablisheth the writings which commemorate [the combat] .... Thou art in the place of Ra for ever.
THE LAMENTATIONS OF Isis AND NEPHTHYS.1 THE BOOK OF THE COMMEMORATIVE SENTENCES WHICH
ARE TO BE SAID BY THE Two SlSTERS [I SIS AND
NEPHTHYS] IN THE HOUSE OF OSIRIS, KHENTI-AMENTIU, THE GREAT GOD, THE LORD OF ABYDOS, IN THE IVTH
»
1 For the hieratic text and a French translation see J. de Horrack, Les Lamentations •, Paris, 1866 ; for a hieroglyphic transcript see my Egyptian Reading Book^ p. 78.
60 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
MONTH OF THE SEASON OF AKHET, ON THE XXVTH DAY OF THE SAME. THIS BOOK SHALL LIKEWISE BE RECITED IN EVERY SEAT OF OsiRIS DURING HIS FESTIVAL, FOR IT SHALL MAKE HIS SOUL TO BE A SPIRIT, SHALL STABLISH HIS BODY, SHALL MAKE HIS KA TO REJOICE, SHALL GIVE BREATH TO THE NOSTRILS AND AIR TO THE THROAT WHICH IS STOPPED, SHALL MAKE THE HEARTS OF I SIS
AND NEPHTHYS HAPPY, SHALL PLACE HORUS ON THE
THRONE OF HIS FATHER. IT IS BENEFICIAL TO RECITE THIS BOOK FROM THE HIEROGLYPHIC TEXT.
The Serekh Shrine containing remains of Osiris. Mariette, Denderah, IV, 67.
I sis SAITH : " Come to thy house, come to thy house. An, come to thy house. Thine enemy is not. O beautiful Ahi, come to thy house. Look thou upon me, I am the sister who loveth thee, go not far from me. O beautiful Boy, come to thy house, immediately, immediately. I do not see thee, my heart weepeth for thee, my two eyes follow thee about. I am following thee about so that I may see thee. Lo, I wait to see thee, I wait to see thee, Beautiful Prince, lo, I wait to see thee. It is good to see thee. it is good to see thee ; O An, it is good to see thee, Come to thy beloved one, come to thy beloved
Spirit Burial of Osiris
61
" one, (Beautiful Being! triumphant ! Come to thy
" sister. Come to thy wife. Come to thy wife, " O thou whose heart is still. Come to the lady of thy " house, I am thy sister by (?) thy mother. Go not " thou far from me. The faces of gods and men are " towards thee, they weep for thee all together. As " soon as I perceived [thee] I cried out unto thee, " weeping with a loud voice which penetrated heaven,
The Boat of Seker-Osiris on its sledge. It was drawn round the sanctuary at dawn. Mariette, Denderah, IV, 64.
" and thou heardest not my voice. I am thy sister " who loved thee upon earth ; none other loved more " than [thy] sister, thy sister."
NEPHTHYS SAITH : " O Beautiful Prince, come to thy " house. Let thy heart rejoice and be glad, for all " thine enemies have ceased to be. Thy two Sisters " are nigh unto thee, they protect thy bier, they address " thee with words [full of] tears as thou liest overthrown " on thy bier. Look thou at the young women, speak " to us, O Sovereign our Lord. Destroy thou all the " misery which is in our hearts. Thy Shenit nobles " among gods and men look upon thee [and say] :
VOL. II. F
62 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
" Turn thou to us thy face, O Sovereign our Lord ! " Life is [on] our face[s] in the seeing of thy face, turn " not thou away thy face from us. The joy of our " heart is in the sight of thee, O Beautiful Sovereign, " our heart would see thee. I am thy sister Nephthys " who loveth thee. Thy Sebau fiend hath fallen, he " hath no being. I am with thee, and I act as a " protectress of thy members for ever and ever."
The Maat Boat on its sledge. Harpokrates is seated on the prow. Mariette, Dencttrah, IV, 64.
I sis SAITH : " Hail, thou god An, thou rollest up into the sky for us every day ; we cease not to see thy beams. Thoth acteth as a protector for thee, he maketh to stand up thy soul in the Maatet Boat in thy name of Aah. I have come to see thee and thy beauties within the Utcha in thy name of Heb-enti-sas (?) (i.e., the Sixth-day Festival). Thy Shenit nobles are round about thee, they depart not from thee. Thou hast conquered heaven by the greatness of thy majesty in thy name of ' Prince of the festival of the fifteenth day.' Thou risest upon us like Ra every day ; thou shinest on us like Atem. Gods and men live at the sight of thee. Thou risest on us, thou
Spirit Burial of Osiris 63
" illuminest the Two Lands. The horizon is covered " with the tracks of thy passings. The faces of gods " and men are turned to thee ; there is no evil thing " with them when thou risest. Thou sailest over the " sky, thine enemies exist not. I act as thy pro- " tector every day. Thou comest unto us as a babe " each month, we cease not to see thee. Thy divine " emanation glorifieth Sahu (i.e., the Orion god) in the
A Boat of Horus on its sledge. Mariette, Denderah, IV, 64.
" heavens, rising and setting each day, and I am like " Septet (i.e., Sirius) behind thee, and I go not away " from thee. The holy and divine emanation which " cometh forth from thee vivifieth gods, men, quadrupeds, " and reptiles, and they live thereby. Thou sailest forth "to us from thy cavern at thy season to pour out the " seed of thy soul, to make abundant offerings for thy ' KA, and to give life unto gods and men likewise. * Hail, thou Lord, there existeth no god who is like " unto thee. Heaven possesseth thy soul, earth pos- " sesseth thy similitudes, and the Tuat possesseth thy " secret things. Thy wife acteth as thy protectress, " thy son Horus is the Heq (Governor) of the World."
F 2
64 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
NEPHTHYS SAITH : " Hail, Beautiful Sovereign ! " Come to thy house, O ( Beneficent Being! trium-
" phant, come to Tetu (Busiris). Hail, Bull, thou " fertile one, come to Anep (Mendes). O beloved one " of the sanctuary, come to the nome of Hat-mehit " (Mendes). Come to Tettet (Mendes town), the " place beloved of thy Soul. The Souls of thy fathers " . . . are to thee, thy son, the child Horus, brought
The Sektet Boat on its sledge with the shrine containing Osiris-Ra in the form of a ram-headed man. Harpokrates is seated on the prow.
Mariette, Dendtrah, IV, 64.
forth by the Two Sisters, is before thee. I -act as thy protectress at dawn daily, and I never depart from thee. Hail, god An ! Come to Sais ; Sau is thy name. Come to the nome of Sapi (?) (Saites), thou shalt see thy mother Net (Neith) ; Beautiful Boy, cease not to be with her, come thou to her breasts, j and drink deeply there, to thy fill. O Beautiful ; Brother, depart not thou from her, O divine Son, | come to the city of Sais. Come to Sapi, thy city. Thy seat is the Temple of Teb. Thou shalt repose j near thy mother for ever. She protecteth thy members, she driveth away thy Sebau fiends, she
Spirit Burial of Osiris
acteth as the protectress of thy members for ever. Hail, Beautiful Sovereign, come to thy house ! O Lord of Sais, come thou to Sais."
Isis SAITH : " Come to thy house, come to thy house ! O Beautiful Sovereign, come to thy house ! Come, look thou upon thy son Horus, the king of gods and men. He hath conquered cities and nomes by reason of his august majesty. The heavens and the earth are in fear of him, and the Land of Sti
The Boat of the Aterti of the North. Mariette, Denderah, IV, 65.
(Nubia) holdeth him to be conqueror. Thy nobles among gods and men are to him in the Two Aterti,1 that they may perform what is to be performed for thee. Thy Two Sisters are about thee to pour out libations to thy KA. Thy son Horus maketh unto thee the offerings which appear at the word — bread, beer, oxen, geese. The god Thoth readeth the service for thee, and he reciteth for thee his magical spells. The [four] Sons of Horus act as guardians of thy members, and make to be spirit thy soul every day. Thy son Horus pronounceth thy name in thy hidden chest, and placeth things (i.e., offerings) to thy
1 I.e., the South and the North.
66 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
" KA. The gods hold in their hands the nemmest vases " to pour out libations to thy KA. Come thou to thy " nobles, O our Sovereign Lord, and depart thou not " from them."
RUBRIC : Now AFTER THE ABOVE WORDS HAVE BEEN READ, THE PLACE BECOMETH MOST HOLY. LET NO HUMAN EYE (l.E., NO MAN) LOOK ON OR LISTEN [AT THE READING] EXCEPT THE CHIEF KHER-HEB AND THE SETEM PRIEST. THEN TWO YOUNG AND FAIR WOMEN SHALL BE BROUGHT, AND MADE TO SEAT THEMSELVES ON THE GROUND BY THE CHIEF DOOR OF THE USEKHT CHAMBER. ON THE SHOULDER OF ONE THE NAME OF I SIS SHALL BE WRITTEN, AND ON THE SHOULDER OF THE OTHER THE NAME OF NEPHTHYS. AND CRYSTAL VASES FULL OF WATER SHALL BE PLACED IN THEIR RIGHT HANDS, AND CAKES MADE IN MEMPHIS IN THEIR LEFT HANDS, AND THEY SHALL PRESENT THEM AT THE THIRD AND AT THE EIGHTH HOURS OF THE DAY. THOU SHALT NOT CEASE AT ALL FROM THE READING OF THIS BOOK ON THE DAY
OF THE FESTIVAL.
HYMNS TO OSIRIS. I. THE HYMNS OF ANI THE SCRIBE.
1. Praise be unto Osiris Un-Nefer, the great god who dwelleth in Abtu, king of eternity, lord of ever- lastingness, who passeth through millions of years in his existence. [He is] the firstborn son |
2. of the womb of Nut [and] was begotten by Keb1 the Erpat. He is the lord of the Ureret Crown [and] the possessor of the lofty White Crown — the Sovereign of gods and men. |
3. He hath received the crook T [and] the whip, [and]
the rank of his divine fathers. Let thy heart be glad, O thou who art in the funerary mountain, [for] thy son Horus is established on thy throne. |
4. Thou hast been crowned " Lord of Tattu " (Busiris), and " Ruler in Abtu (Abydos). Thou makest the Two Lands (Egypt), to flourish triumphantly before
1 Strictly speaking, Keb was the grandfather of Osiris.
Spirit Burial of Osiris 67
5. Neb-er-tcher.1 | He guideth that which hath not yet come into being in
6. his name " Ta-her- | sta-nef." He draweth along the Two Lands (i.e., Egypt)
7. with regularity in his name of " Seker." He is
mighty in and most terrible in his name of
" Asar " (Osiris).2 The duration of his existence is an eternal henti period3 in his name of " Un-Nefer." |
8. Homage to thee, King of kings, Lord of lords, Governor of governors, Overlord of the Two Lands (Egypt), from the womb of Nut. He hath
9. governed | the countries [and] Akert. [With] limbs of silver-gold, and a head of lapis-lazuli, and turquoise all about him — thou god An of millions of years |
10. Extended of body, beautiful of face in Ta- Tchesert.4 Grant thou glory in heaven, and power upon earth, and triumph in the Other World, and a sailing
n, 12. down the river | to Busiris in the form of a living | soul, and a sailing up the
13, 14. river | to Abydos like a Bennu bird, and a going in and a coming out |
15. without being repulsed at any of the gates | of the Tuat, and give thou
1 6, 17. | bread-cakes in the House of coolness, | and sepulchral offerings in Anu
1 8. (Heliopolis), and a permanent estate (or, possession) in Sekhet-Arui,
19. with wheat, barley, and | millet (dhura] therein — to the KA (i.e., Double) of Osiris, the Scribe Ani.
II.
i. Praise be unto Osiris, the lord of everlastingness, Un-Nefer, Heru-Khuti, [whose] forms (or, transforma tions) are manifold, [whose] works are mighty.
1 7>., the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, the Universal Lord.
2 Here there is a play on the words usrt " strength," and Asar, " Osiris."
3 The henti period consisted of two periods, each containing sixty years.
4 Originally a part of Abydos, but subsequently the Other World in general.
68 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
2. He is Ptah-Sekri-Tem in Heliopolis, and the Lord of the Sanctuary Shethit. He is the creator of Het-ka- Ptah (i.e., Memphis) and the gods who are therein. [He is] the guide of the Tuat.
3. Thou art praised by them (i.e., the Spirits of the Tuat) when thou joinest thyself to the night sky. I sis embraceth thee with content, she chaseth away the Tchai fiend
4. from the entrance of thy paths. Thou turnest thy face to Amentet, thou illuminest the Two Lands (Egypt) with silver-gold light. The [souls who] are lying on their biers rise up to look upon thee, they snuff
5. the breezes [and] they behold thy face as the Disk rolleth on its horizon ; their hearts are content at the sight of thee, O thou who art ETERNITY and EVERLAST-
INGNESS !
LITANY.
1. Homage to thee, O Lamp in Heliopolis, and Henmemet-spirit in Kher-aha, Unti, who art more glorious than the gods of the Sheta Shrine in Heliopolis !
O grant thou unto me a path whereon I may journey in peace. I am righteous. I have not uttered lies wilfully. I have not acted a double part (or, dealt doubly).
2. Homage to thee, O An in Antes (?). Great God, Heru-Khuti, thou traversest the heights of heaven with spacious strides — thou who art Heru-Khuti !
O grant thou ^lnto me a path whereon I may journey in peace. I am righteous. I have not uttered lies wilfully. I have not dealt doubly.
3. Homage to thee, O Everlasting Soul, Ram-god, dweller in Tattu (Mendes), Un-Nefer, Son of Nut, who art the Lord of Akert.
O grant thou unto me a path whereon I may journey in peace. I am righteous. I have not uttered lies wilfully. I have not dealt doubly.
4. Homage to thee in thy dominion over Tetu (Busiris), the Ureret Crown is firmly fixed upon thy
Spirit Burial of Osiris 69
head. Thou art One, thou effectest thine own protection. Thou restest in peace in Tetu (Busiris).
O grant thou unto me a path whereon I may journey in peace. I am righteous. I have not uttered lies wilfully. I have not dealt doubly.
5. Homage to thee, O Lord of the Nart tree. The Seker Boat hath been placed upon its sledge. Turn back the Sebau Fiend, the Worker of evil, and make the Utchat to rest upon its throne.
O grant thoii unto me a path whereon I may journey in peace. I am righteous. I have not uttered lies wilfully. 1 have not dealt doubly.
6. Homage to thee, O Mighty One in thine hour, Chief, Prince, President of An-rut-f, Lord of Eternity, Creator of Everlastingness. Thou art the Lord of Suten-henen (i.e., Hensu, or Hanes).
O grant thou unto me a path whereon I may journey in peace. I am righteous. I have not uttered lies wilfully. I have not dealt doubly.
7. Homage to thee, O thou who art founded upon Truth. Thou art the Lord of Abydos, the members of thy body are joined to Ta-Tchesert. Thou art he to whom lies are abominations.
O grant thou unto me a path whereon I may journey in peace. I am righteous. I have not uttered lies wilfully. I have not dealt doubly.
8. Homage to thee, O thou who dwellest in thy Boat. Thou bringest the Nile forth from his cavern, and the Light-god rolleth above thy body. Thou art the dweller in Nekhen.
O grant thou unto me a path whereon I may journey in peace. I am righteous. I have not uttered lies wilfully. I have not dealt doubly.
9. Homage to thee, O Maker of the gods, king of the South and North, ( Osiris ], triumphant, Overlord of
70 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
the Two Lands (i.e., Egypt), in thy seasons of beneficence. Thou art the Lord of the two Halves of Egypt.
O grant thou unto me a path whereon I may journey in peace. I am righteous. I have not uttered lies wilfully. I have not dealt doubly.
III. HYMN OF HUNEFER THE SCRIBE.
i, 2. Praise be unto Osiris, and let adorations be made unto him ! The Osiris Hunefer, the steward of the Palace of the Lord of the Two Lands,
["^Men-Maat-RaJ, i.e., Seti ll smelleth the ground before Un-Nefer, and toucheth the earth with his forehead before the Lord of Ta-Tchesert, and exalteth Him that is on his sand (i.e., Osiris), saying :
3. I have come unto thee, O son of Nut, Osiris, Prince of Everlastingness.
4. I am among the followers (or body-guard) of Thoth, I applaud everything which he hath done [for thee]. He brought unto thee sweet breezes (i.e., fresh air) for thy nostrils, and life and serenity to thy beautiful face, and he brought the north wind which proceedeth from the god Temu to thy nostrils, O Lord of Ta-Tchesert. He made the light of Shu to fall upon thy body. He illumined for thee [thy] path with splendour.
10. He destroyed for thee the defects which apper tained to thy members by the magical power of the words of his mouth. He made the Two Horus Brethren1 to be at peace with thee. He destroyed for thee the rain storm and the thunder and the lightning. He made the Two Rehti Goddesses, the Two Sisters of the Two Lands, to be at peace before thee, he did away the hostility which was in their hearts, and each became reconciled to the other.
Thy son Horus is triumphant before the whole Company of the Gods ; the sovereignty of the earth hath been given to him, and his dominion reacheth to the uttermost limit thereof. The throne of Keb hath been awarded to him, and the full rank of the god
1 Horus and Set.
Spirit Burial of Osiris 71
Temu, and these are confirmed [to him] by the writings which are in the record chamber, and are engraved upon a block of alabaster (?), according to the decree of 15. thy Father Tanen on the Great Throne.
He (i.e., Thoth) hath set his brother on that which Shu supporteth, to spread out the waters of the firma ment, to [stablish] the mountains and hills, to make to germinate (or, flourish) the green things which grow on the untilled wastes, and the grain which shooteth up in the fields. He maketh offerings [to come] by water and by land. Gods celestial and gods terrestrial follow him [i.e., Horus] into his hall, and every decree which he maketh in respect of them they accept and carry out forthwith.
Let thy heart be happy, O Lord of the gods, let thy heart rejoice exceedingly. Kamt (Egypt) and the Red Land give service to thy diadem. The temples and their properties are stablished in their places. Cities [and] nomes are founded (?) in their names. We pay unto thee the offerings which are obligatory, and oblations are made in thy name for ever.
20. Titles of praise are invoked upon thy name. Libations of cool water are poured out to thy KA. Sepulchral meals are brought to the Spirits who are in thy train. Water is poured out on the bread (?) on both sides of the souls of the dead in this land. Every plan of thine which from the beginning was according to his (i.e., Ra's) commands hath been carried out. 25. There fore thou wast crowned, O son of Nut, like Neb-er-tcher at his coronation. Thou art a living being. Thou art established. Thou renewest thy youth. Thou art whole and perfect. Thy father Ra maketh strong (or, protecteth) thy members. Thy Company of gods make adorations to thee. I sis is with thee, she never separateth herself from thee. Thou art not overthrown by thine enemies.
The Lords of all lands (i.e., the world) thank thee for thy beauteous bounty as they thank Ra when he riseth up in the sky at sunrise. Thou art crowned like him that is exalted on his standard, and thy beauteous bounty exalteth the face and maketh long the stride. 30. It is thy father Keb who hath given unto thee sovereignty,
72 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
and it is he who hath created thy beauteous bounty Nut, the genetrix of the gods, was she who caused thy members to come into being, and fashioned thee as the " greatest of five gods."1 Thou art established king. The White Crown is upon thy head. Thou graspest the sceptre and the whip. Whilst thou wast in the womb, and before thou didst appear on the earth, thou wast crowned Lord of the Two Lands, and the Atef Crown of Ra was upon thy brow. The gods approach
The Boat of the Aterti of the South. Mariette, Denderah, IV, 65.
thee bowinof their backs because of the fear in which
£y
they hold thee, and their bodies swaying about with draw themselves when they see thee arrayed in the awful majesty of Ra, and the victory of thy Majesty is in their hearts. Life is with thee, offerings follow in thy train, and the statutory offerings are offered up before thee.
Grant thou that I may have my being as a follower of thy Majesty, even as I lived with thee upon earth. Let my soul be called, and let it be 35. found near the Lords of Truth. I have come into the City of God, the territory of primeval time, Ba-soul, Double, and
1 I.e., Osiris, Isis, Set, Nephthys, and Horus or Anubis.
Spirit Burial of Osiris
73
Spirit-soul in this land. The god thereof is the Lord of Maat, the Lord of offerings, the Most Holy One. This land draweth unto itself every land. The South cometh sailing down the river, and the North steered by winds cometh each day to celebrate a feast, according to the decree of its God, who is the Lord of offerings (?) therein. And doth he not say : — Assuredly there shall be joy to him that performeth Maat (or, maketh the offerings which are due) to the god who is in it? He giveth old age to him that doeth this for him, and after
Boat with a shrine containing the body of Osiris ; Nephthys kneels at
the head and Isis at the foot.
Mariette, Denderah, IV, 66.
him that followeth him loyally there shall follow offerings, and finally he shall attain to a beautiful funeral and shall be buried in the earth in Ta-Tchesert.
I have come unto thee, and my two hands hold Truth, and there is no falsehood in my breast. 40. I have set Truth before thee, for I know that it is that whereon thou livest. I have committed no sin in this land, and I have defrauded no man of that which is his.
I am Thoth, the perfect scribe, whose hands are pure, the lord of purity, the destroyer of evil, the righteous scribe whose abomination is sin. Behold, I am the writing reed of Neb-er-tcher, the lord of laws, who giveth forth the word of wisdom and understanding, whose speech founded the Two Lands (Egypt). I am
74 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
Thoth, the Lord of Truth, I make the feeble one to triumph, and I avenge the oppressed one by punishing him that wronged him. I have scattered the darkness, I have rolled away the thunder storm, I have brought air to Un-Nefer, the beautiful breeze of the north wind, which came forth from the womb 45. of his mother, and I have made Horus to enter into the Hidden Shrine to vivify the heart of the god of the Still-Heart Un-Nefer, the Son of Nut, triumphant.
The Sethenu Boat of Osiris on its sledge. Mariette, Dendtrah, IV, 67.
IV. HYMN OF SUTIMES.
The Osiris Sutimes, the libationer and president of the altar chamber in the Apts, the president of the scribes of the temple of Amen, triumphant, saith : —
Homage to thee, O thou God, holy one, great in beneficent deeds, thou Prince of Eternity, who presideth over his place in the Sektet Boat, thou Mighty One of risings in the Atet Boat ! Praises are ascribed unto thee both in heaven and upon earth. The Pat beings and the Rekhit beings exalt thee, and the greatness of thy awe is in the hearts of men, the Spirits, and the Dead. Thou placest thy Souls in Tettet (Busiris or Mendes) and thine awe is in Suten-henen. Thou
Spirit Burial of Osiris 75
placest the visible emblems of thyself in Heliopolis, and the greatness of thy forms in the Place of Purification. I come to thee, my heart bearing truth, and my breast containing no falsehood. Grant thou that I may have my existence among the living, and that I may float down and sail up the river among thy followers.
V. HYMN TO OsiRis.1
Homage to thee, Osiris, Lord of eternity, King of the Gods, whose names are manifold, whose forms are holy, thou being of hidden form in the temples, whose KA is holy. Thou art the Governor of Tattu (Busiris), and also the mighty one in Sekhem (Letopolis). Thou art the lord to whom praises are ascribed in the nome of Ati, thou art the Prince of divine food in Anu. Thou art the Lord who is commemorated in Maati, the Hidden Soul, the Lord of Qerrt (Elephantine), the Ruler supreme in White Wall (Memphis). Thou art the Soul of Ra, his own body, and hast thy place of rest in Henensu (Herakleopolis). Thou art the beneficent one, and art praised in Nart. Thou makest thy soul to be raised up. Thou art the Lord of the Great House in Khemenu (Hermopolis). Thou art the mighty one of victories in Shas-hetep, the Lord of eternity, the Governor of Abydos. The path of his throne is in Ta-tcheser (i.e., a part of Abydos). Thy name is established in the mouths of men. Thou art the substance of the Two Lands (Egypt). Thou art Tern, the feeder of the KAU (Doubles), the Governor of the Companies of the gods. Thou art the beneficent Spirit among the spirits. The god of the Celestial Ocean (Nu) draweth from thee his waters. Thou sendest forth the north wind at eventide, and breath from thy nostrils to the satisfaction of thy heart. Thy heart reneweth its youth, thou producest the .... The stars in the celestial heights are obedient unto thee, and the great doors of the sky open themselves before thee. Thou art he to whom praises are ascribed in the southern heaven, and thanks are given for thee in the
1 See Chabas, Rev. Arch., 1857, p. 65 ; Ledrain, Monuments, Plate XXII ff. ; Budge, First Steps, pp. 179-188.
76 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
northern heaven. The imperishable stars are under thy supervision, and the stars which never set are thy thrones. Offerings appear before thee at the decree of Keb. The Companies of the Gods praise thee, and the gods of the Tuat (Other World) smell the earth in paying homage to thee. The uttermost parts of the earth bow before thee, and the limits of the skies entreat thee with supplication when they see thee. The holy ones are overcome before thee, and all Egypt offereth
The Boat containing the head box and standard of Osiris. Mariette, Dcnderah, IV, 68.
thanksgiving unto thee when it meeteth Thy Majesty. Thou art a shining Spirit-body, the Governor of Spirit- bodies ; permanent is thy rank, established is thy rule. Thou art the well-doing Sekhem (Power) of the Company of the Gods, gracious is thy face, and beloved by him that seeth it. Thy fear is set in all the lands by reason of thy perfect love, and they cry out to thy name making it the first of names, and all people make offerings to thee. Thou art the lord who art com memorated in heaven and upon earth. Many are the cries which are made to thee at the Uak festival, and with one heart and voice Egypt raiseth cries of joy to thee.
Spirit Burial of Osiris
77
Thou art the Great Chief, the first among thy brethren, the Prince of the Company of the Gods, the stablisher of Right and Truth throughout the World, the Son who was set on the great throne of his father Keb. Thou art the beloved of thy mother Nut, the mighty one of valour, who overthrew the Sebau fiend. Thou didst stand up and smite thine enemy, and set thy fear in thine adversary. Thou dost bring the boundaries of the mountains (?). Thy heart is fixed (or, determined),
The Makhet Boat on its sledge. Marietta, Denderah, IV, 68.
thy legs are set firm. Thou art the heir of Keb and of the sovereignty of the Two Lords (Egypt). He (Keb) hath seen his splendours, he hath decreed for him the guidance of the world by thy hand as long as times endure. Thou hast made this earth with thy hand, and the waters, and the winds, and the vegetation, and all the cattle, and all the feathered fowl, and all the fish, and all the creeping things, and all the wild animals thereof. The desert is the lawful possession of the son of Nut. The Two Lands (Egypt) are content to crown thee upon the throne of thy father, like Ra.
Thou rollest up into the horizon, thou hast set light over the darkness, thou sendest forth air (or, light) from
VOL. II. G
78 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
thy plumes, and thou floodest the Two Lands like the Disk at daybreak. Thy crown penetrateth the height of heaven, thou art the companion of the stars, and the guide of every god. Thou art beneficent in decree and speech, the favoured one of the Great Company of the Gods, and the beloved of the Little Company of the Gods.
His sister [I sis] hath protected him, and hath repulsed the fiends, and turned aside calamities (or, times [of evil] ). She uttered the spell with the magical power of her mouth. Her tongue was perfect (or, well- trained), and it never halted at a word. Beneficent in command and word was I sis, the woman of magical spells, the advocate of her brother. She sought him untiringly, she wandered round and round about this earth in sorrow, and she alighted not without finding him. She made light (or, air) with her feathers, she created air with her wings, and she uttered the death wail for her brother. She raised up the inactive members of him whose heart was still, she drew from him his essence, she made an heir, she reared the child in lone liness, and the place where he was was not known, and he grew in strength and stature, and his hand was mighty in the House of Keb. The Company of the God rejoiced, rejoiced, at the coming of Horus, the son of Osiris, whose heart was firm, the triumphant, the son of I sis, the heir of Osiris. The sovereign chiefs of Maat, and the Company of the Gods, and Neb-er-tcher himself, and the Lords of Maat, gathered together to him, and they assembled in the [Great House of Anu]. And verily, those who repulse sin rejoice in the House of Keb to bestow its dignity upon the Lord thereof and the sovereignty of Truth.
CHAPTER XVII.
OSIRIS AND THE AFRICAN GRAVE.
As the priests of Osiris and the regulations made by them for his cult forbade the decapitation and mutilation, or dismemberment, of the bodies of worshippers of this god, it was obviously necessary to provide tombs for such bodies, and to place them in graves, where they would be protected from the attacks of human, animal, and other eaters of the dead. The making of a good tomb, however simple, demanded the expenditure of money, or its equivalent, and thus it follows, as a matter of course, that only kings, chiefs, nobles, or men of high position, who could command the services of slaves, would be buried in a tomb, and that all the poor, or common people, would go without burial. As a result of the excavations which have been made in Egypt during the last thirty years, thousands of graves have been brought to light, but these, after all, must repre sent a very small proportion of the graves which would be necessary for the burial of even the upper classes of the Egyptians during the long period of the history of the country, which covers some thousands of years. The Egyptians had to solve the same difficulty as their kinsmen in other parts of Africa, namely, what to do with the dead, and it is probable that they solved it, in the earliest times at least, in the same way that the peoples in the Sudan solve it at the present day. Rightly has Schweinfurth said : " Not a custom, not a superstition " is found in one part which is not more or less accu- " rately repeated in another ; not one contrivance of " design, not one weapon of war exists of which it can 11 be declared that it is the exclusive property of any one " race. From north to south, and from sea to sea, in " some form or other, every invention is sure to be " repeated ; it is the thing that hath been."1
•&
1 Heart of Africa, Vol. I, p. 313.
G 2
8o Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
Before the time of Osiris some of the Egyptians pro bably ate their dead, and used some of them up in making " medicines " of a magic character. Even after the cult of Osiris was established we read that the ertu of his body, i.e., the fluids which came forth from it after death, gave life,1 and it is well known that in Africa at the present day the brains and fat of the dead are used in making charms. Thus the Borfimor " medicine" was a harmless substance enough until human fat was added to it, when it became an all-powerful fetish. This fat was procured from the intestines of men who were killed by the Human Leopard Society.2 The infamous Temban- dumba3 pounded her child which she was feeding at her breast in a mortar, with roots, leaves, oils, etc., and made an ointment, with which she is said to have rendered her self invulnerable. Her subjects killed their male children also, and turned them into ointment, some of which was preserved till Winwood Reade's time, and was called " Magija Samba."4 The Mpongwe sever the head from the body of a partially decomposed man, and suspend it above a mass of chalk which is placed to receive the moisture that drops from it. By rubbing the chalk on the foreheads of the living it is thought that they will acquire the brain power of the man whose brains have dropped on the chalk.5 The eater of the brain becomes endowed with bravery.6 Miss Kingsley found in a fetish bag a human hand (fresh), three big toes, four eyes, and two ears.7
The dead among the Egyptians who were not eaten by men were disposed of by the crocodiles in the rivers, by the hyaenas and jackals in the desert, and probably some of them by burning ; at all events, judging by the graves which remain, the number that were buried were com- ; paratively few. It seems from allusions in the Egyptian
1 Budge, Liturgy of Funerary Offerings, p. 53.
'2 Alldridge, The Sherbro and Its Hinterland, p. 153.
3 Or, Temba-Ndumba. — Burton, A Mission to Gelele, King of \ Dahome, 1864, Vol. I, p. 71.
4 Savage Africa, p. 367.
5 Nassau, Fetichism in West Africa, pp. 158, 162; Wilson, Western , Africa, pp. 393, 394 ; Winwood Reade, Savage Africa, p. 248.
6 Du Chaillu, Adventures, pp. 168, 169.
7 Travels in West Africa, London, 1897, p. 273.
Osiris and the African Grave 81
texts as if the custom of burning the dead was commoner in early times than has bee_n generally supposed. In the Book of Overthrowing Apep, this archfiend and his associates are burnt by the flames of the Sun-god and consumed.1 In the Book Am-Tuat, the bodies, souls, shadows and heads of the enemies of Ra are burnt and consumed daily in pits of fire.2 In the Book of the Dead several allusions to burning occur. Thus the Rubrics of Chapters XVIII and XX say that the recital of these Chapters will enable a man to " come forth (i.e., escape) from the fire." In Chapter XVII we read of the monster who feeds on the dead, and watches at the Bight of the Lake of Fire, and in Chapter LXXI are mentioned the Seven Beings who work slaughter in the Lake of Fire, who cut off hands and hack necks to pieces, and seize hearts and tear them out of the breasts. In Chapter LXI 1 1 A the deceased prays in one version that " he may neither be burnt up nor destroyed by fire," and in the other he states that Osiris escaped from the fire and was not burnt. In Chapter CXXVI the deceased addresses the four apes who sit one at each corner of a rectangular lake of fire, "by the fire from whose mouths the gods are pro pitiated," and beseeches them to allow him to enter Amentet. The Lake of Fire was no doubt a lake of boiling water, the drinking from which the deceased wished to avoid at all costs. A legend referred to in Chapter CXXV mentions that the abode of Osiris has a covering of fire, that its walls are living serpents, and that it rests on water ; whether the water is boiling or not the text does not say. These passages make it quite clear that the cult of Osiris forbade the burning of the body, and that at one time certain Egyptian peoples must have burnt their dead. The custom had not entirely died out in the Sudan in the first or second century of our era, for in 1902 I found at the Pyramids of Meroe several pots containing ashes of the dead and calcined bones.3 According to Frobenius, the Madgo tribes who live near the Mafibattu burn the bodies of the dead, and scatter their ashes.4 As regards the other ways of disposing of the
1 Budge, Papyrus of Nesi Amsu (in Archaeologia, Vol. LI I).
2 Division XL 3 Budge, Egyptian Sudan, Vol. I, p. 343- 4 Die Heiden-Neger des dgyptischen Sudan, Berlin, 1893, p. 437-
82 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
dead followed by modern peoples in Africa, almost every where the common, or very poor, or very old, folk are thrown " into the bush " for the kites and hyaenas to devour. The Masai wholly decline to bury the dead, for they believe they would poison the soil ;x this may be due to the fact that they believe in annihilation.
The oldest form of the African tomb is a pit dug in the ground, on the bottom of which the dead person was
placed. Attempts were made at a very early period to protect the body from contact with the earth, for it was sometimes wrapped up in a reed mat, and sometimes in the skin of some animal. Another method of protect ing the body was to place it in a hollow made in one side of the pit at the bottom, and this hollow subsequently developed into the sarco phagus chamber of the Egyptian tomb. In the Sudan no stone buildings or tombs of any kind could be built because of the want of lime,2 and therefore from the earliest period to the present time the essential character istics of the African tomb have remained unchanged in
that region. In Egypt several general modifications and developments took place in tombs at a very early period, but from first to last the essentials for all tombs were : i. A funerary chamber, usually at the top of the pit, where offerings were placed. 2. A pit. 3. A chamber for the body or mummy, usually called the sarcophagus chamber, or mummy chamber.
Sometime between the XI I th and XVIIIth dynastie when a great development in the cult of Osiris too
1 Joseph Thomson, Through Masai Land, London, 1885, p. 444.
2 Schweinfurth, Heart of Africa, Vol. I, p. 208.
ve g B, C, Pit or shaft.
D, Corridor leading to mummy chamber.
E, Mummy chamber.
Osiris and the African Grave 83
place throughout Egypt, the view became general that Osiris was buried at Abydos. How or why this happened is not known, but it may have been due to the revival of an ancient tradition to this effect. Be this as it may, quite early in the XVIIIth dynasty, the Egyptians felt sure that the body of Osiris rested at Abydos, and they identified a tomb of one of the kings of the 1st dynasty as the tomb of Osiris. This tomb was made for a king whose Horus name is written with a sign which I believe to have been read " Khent,"1 and it is possible that those who made the identification connected in their minds this name with " Khenti- Amenti," an old god of the dead of Abydos, whose position and attributes were absorbed by Osiris. From the XVIIIth dynasty onwards this tomb enjoyed great repute as the shrine of Osiris, and offerings poured into it in abundance. Between the XX 1st and XXVIth dynasties a massive granite bier, on which was cut in high relief a figure of Osiris, was placed in the tomb, which for a considerable time afterwards continued to be regarded as the veritable tomb of Osiris. Whether this view was correct or not does not concern us here, for it is as a tomb merely that we are considering it. This tomb was discovered and excavated by M. E. Amelineau in the winter of 1897-8, and he has published a long detailed account of his labours in connection with it.2 It was a rectangular building, the east and south walls of which were about 8 feet thick, and the west and north walls a little thicker. The walls were of brick. It resembled a house built on the north, south, and east sides of a court, and in the north-west corner was a flight of steps which enabled visitors to descend into the tomb, and to reach the tops of the fourteen chambers which were built on its three sides. The north and south walls were about 42 feet 6 inches long, and the
1 Prof. Naville thinks the sign should be read SHEST or SHESTA, probably identifying it with L~~%~> |?0 0 fl| ^~~^ (Pepi I, 11. 196, 682) or
Le Tombeau £ Osiris, Paris, 1899; see also Petrie, Royal Tombs, Part II, 1901, p. 8.
84 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
east and west walls about 38 feet 6 inches long ; their original height is unknown, but when M. Amelineau discovered their remains they were all about 8 feet high. In this rectangle, supported on layers of sand, bricks, and wood, the tomb chamber was built ; it was made of ^ wood, and was probably about 28 feet square. In the small chambers were found large jars, most of them broken, but on some of them there remained the earthenware caps which served to close their mouths, and which were stamped with the Horus name of King Khent.
On January 2, 1898, M. Amelineau found a head, which he believed to be that of Osiris, and on the same day his workmen excavated the granite bier of Osiris already mentioned. This bier, which is now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, is of grey granite, and is about 5 feet 4 inches in length, and about 3 feet in width. The bier resembles in form the angareb bedstead which is found
<3
all over Egypt and the Sudan, and had lion legs with a lion's head on the top of each, and they rest on a pedestal. On the bier lies a figure of Osiris, wearing
the White Crown, and holding /jf\ and | in his hands.
Above his head are figures of two hawks, and at his feet are two more. On the centre of his body is another hawk, which represents the goddess I sis, and is intended to commemorate the union of I sis and Osiris which, according to the legend,1 took place after the death of Osiris. The fruit of this union was Horus, whom I sis brought forth in the Delta, where she reared him and taught him that it was his duty to avenge his father's murder. This interesting monument belongs obviously to a comparatively late period, but it is possible that it was a copy of an earlier bier which may have existed in this tomb.
The tomb of Khent certainly belongs to the period of the 1st dynasty, and it has importance in connection with
1 It is as old as the Vlth dynasty. In an address to Osiris it is
— -
Osiris and the African Grave 85
the history of Osiris, for it satisfied the requirements of the tradition which identified it with the tomb of Osiris. Also we see in it the three essentials of the African tomb, the place for offerings, the pit, and the chamber for the dead. In this case the place for the offerings consisted of several chambers which were in the pit itself, but the inconvenience of this arrangement was readily recognized, and very soon after the 1st dynasty the place for the offerings was formed by a chamber made at the top of the pit.
The most perfect Egyptian form of the African tomb is the mastabah, in which the chamber for offerings stands immediately over the pit and the mummy chamber, which was made on one side at the bottom of the pit, from which it was separated by a very short passage. When the mummy had been placed in its chamber this passage was blocked carefully, or built up, and thus the mixture of stones, sand, and mud, with which the pit was filled afterwards, did not force its way into the mummy chamber. In the great pyramid tombs the pit takes the form of a diagonal or horizontal corridor ; at the entrance is the hall for offerings, called the Tuat chamber, and at the end in the ground is the mummy chamber. When the tomb is hewn in the mountain the pit may also take the form of a horizontal or diagonal corridor, or series of corridors, and the mummy chamber is hewn at a considerable depth in the bowels of the mountain. In such cases the chamber for offerings is some distance from the outside of the mountain, and may be approached by going down a corridor or flight of steps. In all cases, however, the chamber for offerings, the pit, and the mummy chamber are the chief features of the tomb. We may now compare the facts about ancient Egyptian tombs given above with the details of tombs which are found scattered through the writings and reports of African travel made by competent travellers during the last hundred years.
The Dyoor graves are made close to the huts of the living. The ground is levelled by means of a piece of bark about 3 feet long, and a circular mound, some 3 or 4 feet high, indicates the last resting-place of a Dyoor, so long as the violence of the rain allows it to
86 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
retain its shape. After a few years all traces of them disappear.1 The Bongo grave is a pit 4 feet deep, with a niche hollowed in one side of it, so that the sack contain ing the corpse may not have to sustain any vertical pressure from the earth which is thrown in to fill up the grave. After the grave is filled in, a heap of stones is piled over the spot in a short cylindrical form, and this is supported by strong stakes, which are driven into the soil all round ; on the middle of the pile is placed a pitcher, probably that from which the deceased drank. The graves are close to the huts, and their sites are marked by a number of long forked branches, carved with numerous notches and incisions, and having their points sharpened like horns. The Mittu and Madi and Musgft graves are somewhat similar. Among the Musgu arrows are shot into the stakes and are left sticking in the wood.2 Schweinfurth could not learn from the natives what these notched stakes signified, but it is probable that originally each notch represented a year,3 and that they collectively represented a great number of years, and signified the wish of relatives of the deceased that he might live for ever in the Other World. The A-Zande, or Niam- Niam, also bury the body in a niche in the pit, and when this is filled in with clay and stamped down a hut is built over it.4 The Muslims have copied the old African custom, and carefully bury their dead in niches in the pit. The grave of the Moro chief, in Neambara, which Petherick saw, was a slightly oval hole, which varied from 2 feet 2 inches to 2 feet 6 inches in diameter, and was 5 feet deep. On the south side a cavity 4 feet 6 inches long, 4 feet wide and i foot 6 inches high was excavated, and in this the body was placed ; a piece of basket work was placed along the side of it to keep the earth from the body when the pit was filled in. A tree trunk was dropped into the grave, and set upright, and round the top of it, which projected 3 feet above the level
1 Schweinfurth, Heart of Africa, Vol. I, p. 212.
2 Heart of Africa, Vol. I, p. 304.
Like the Egyptian 3 ; compare MH , " eternity."
4 Heart of Africa, Vol. II, p. 35 ; Johnston, George Grenfell, Vol. II, p. 651.
Osiris and the African Grave 87
of the ground, a conical mound was built ; when this was covered with dry thorny branches, the grave was complete. Two large fires were kept burning at the grave day and night, and eight or ten persons kept guard over it for a week.1
Among the Bahima peasant folk are buried in holes dug at the doors of their huts.2 Among the Banyoro a king's grave is dug 1 2 feet deep, and 5 feet in diameter ;3 the Basoga grave is 1 5 feet deep.4 Thirty-six kings of Uganda were buried each on a wooden bier which was set on the ground in a large house, with a huge conical thatched roof resembling a pyramid in shape.5 The Baziba grave is a deep narrow pit, just large enough for the body to stand or sit in ;6 the Manyema grave is a pit 10 feet deep and 10 feet square.7 The Karamojo bury rich men in their own houses.8 The Shula bury the dead in pits near the houses, and lay on them stones on which offerings are placed.9 The Madi grave, according to Emin Pasha, is circular, and is 5 feet deep, and 3^ feet in diameter.10
Of the cemetery of a village of Mbinda, Stanley says : The grave mounds were neat, and by their appearance I should judge them to be not only the repositories of the dead, but also the depositories of all the articles that had belonged to the dead. Each grave was dressed out with the various mugs, pitchers, wash-basins, teapots, kettles, glasses, bottles, etc., and above the mound thus curiously decorated were suspended by the branch of a tree the various nets of palm fibre in which the deceased had carried his ground-nuts, cassava bread, and eatables. All articles had been rendered useless, i.e., broken.11 The grave of a Lendu chief is dug in his hut, and one end of it is prolonged into a tunnel under the floor, in which the
1 Petherick, Travels in Central Africa, pp. 271-273.
2 Cunningham, Uganda, p. n.
3 Ibid., p. 30.
4 Ibid., p. 117.
5 For a picture of this see Cunningham's work, p. 251.
6 Ibid., p. 284.
7 Ibid., p. 314.
8 Ibid., p. 344.
9 Frobenius, Die Heiden-Neger, p. 334. " Ibid., p. 378.
11 Through the Dark Continent, Vol. II, p. 453-
88 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
deceased is placed.1 In Western Africa the graves of chiefs and kings are "nice roomy apartments generally about 12 feet by 8 feet by 14 feet, but in Benin, I am told, the graves have a floor about 16 feet by 12 feet, with sides tapering to an aperture that can be closed by a single flag- stone."2 When a Bari dies he is buried in the yard. A few ox-horns and skulls are suspended on a pole above the spot, while the top of the pole is orna mented with a bunch of cock's feathers.3 In Dahomey the body is placed in a niche offsetting from a circular pit.4 Battell, who wrote at the close of the sixteenth century, says that the African grave is made like a vault. A little way down the pit is undermined and made spacious within.5 The Juiga graves are merely pits covered with mounds of stones, on which are placed cooking and drinking vessels ; they are made by the sides of frequented paths, and the points where cross roads touch are favourite burial places.6 Around the grave of Sekote, a Batoka chief, seventy large elephants' tusks were planted, with their points turned inwards, and there were thirty more set over the resting-places of his relatives.7
The Bangala rarely buried anyone. When they did commit a person to the earth the grave was only a foot deep, and its exterior was covered with provisions for the dead man's future existence. The Manbattu buried warriors where they fell, and erected huts over their graves, to which friends and relatives8 brought baskets of provisions and jars filled with water. The Abarambo chief, Mburo, thought it degrading for a chief like himself to be brought into close contact with the earth, and, therefore, ordered that his body should be placed in the upper part of a great tree near his house, with his face turned towards heaven. This is related
1 Johnston, Uganda Protectorate, Vol. II, p. 554.
2 Kingsley, West African Studies, p. 452.
3 Baker, Albert JSPyanza, p. 58.
4 Burton, A Mission to Gelele, Vol. II, p. 164.
5 Strange Adventures, p. 74.
0 Livingstone, Missionary Travels, p. 424.
7 Ibid., p. 518.
8 The following notes are from Johnston, George Grenfell, Vol. II, p. 649.
Osiris and the African Grave 89
on the authority of Casati. An Ababua killed in war is cremated to prevent his body being eaten, and his ashes are carried to his village and buried there. The Bahuana grave is about four or five feet deep, and a small hut is erected over it. Grenfell notes that the Bakete mark a grave by means of an uprooted tree stuck into the earth with the trunk top downwards.
CHAPTER XVIII.
AFRICAN FUNERAL CEREMONIES AND BURIALS.
THE tombs of Egypt and their inscriptions supply an extraordinary amount of information about the funeral ceremonies and customs of the Egyptians from the beginning to the end of the Dynastic Period. And if we compare the details derived from these sources with the facts about funerals recorded by travellers in Africa, we shall find that whenever material means permit, and when allowance has been made for differences in the physical products of the country, there is a very close resemblance between the funeral of a really great modern chief in Central or Western Africa and that of an ancient king of Egypt. The Egyptians removed the intestines and brain, and embalmed the body with great skill, and then swathed it in linen, and laid it in a coffin or sarcophagus. The modern African removes the more perishable parts of the body by ways which will be described further on, and dries or smokes the corpse very effectively. He also anoints it with unguents, and wraps it up in much cloth, and then places it in a coffin or on a bier. The modern African grave contains all the essentials of that of the Egyptian, but as the modern African is not a skilled mason, and as mountains of stone are not always available, he is obliged to make almost all his graves in the earth. The sacrifice of human beings, or animals, the funeral feast, the pomp and ceremony, the wailings and the noise and the dancing which accompanied the burial of a king of Egypt are all paralleled in the great modern African funeral. The Egyptian king built his funerary chapel and endowed it, and made arrangements for the regular supply of sepulchral offerings, and for a perpetual service of priests to recite the appointed formulae daily, and to make all the necessary preparations for the commemora tive festivals. A glance at the history of Dahomey, and of Congo-land, and of Uganda, is sufficient to show that
African Burials 91
the kings of these countries made exactly similar arrange ments, and it is becoming clearer, the more the subject is investigated, that the beliefs which underlie the funeral ceremonies of Ancient Egypt and the Sudan are identical. In some cases the customs of the ancient Egyptian are explained by those of the modern Sudani, and in their light certain passages in early Egyptian literature receive a new significance. Of this the follow ing is an example : —
In the Liturgy of Funerary Offerings1 which is found in the pyramid of Unas, a king of the Vlth dynasty, we find the phrase : " O Unas, thy two jawbones which were separated have been established." In Chapter CXXXVlB (1. 10) of the Book of the Dead the deceased says : " I have come, I have brought to him " the jawbones in Re-stau, I have brought to him the " backbones in Anu." In Chapter XCIX (1. 27) the deceased says that the god is equipped and that he is equipped ; that the god is provided with jawbones, and that he is provided with jawbones. In Chapter CLXXVIII (1. 28) it is said to the deceased : " Horus " hath avenged thee, he hath destroyed the jawbones2 of " thine enemies." From the extract from the Liturgy we gather that some unpleasant thing had been done with the jawbones of Unas, and that owing to what the priest had said and done this unpleasantness had been done away. And from the passages from the Book of the Dead we learn that jawbones were taken to Re-stau, that the deceased rejoiced in his jawbones, and that Horus had smitten the jawbones of his enemies. So far as I know there is no Egyptian text which explains the allusion to the jawbones in any one of these passages, and it is not until we examine the funeral customs of the modern Sudani tribes that we gain any inkling as to their meaning. When a king of Uganda died the body was handed over to the official executioner and to the keeper of the royal tombs, and it was taken to the country of Emerera, where it was placed in a house. The under jaw of the dead king was then cut off and
Ed. Budge, p. 65. Arfi, <=>
i *
92 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
placed in a wooden dish, and the executioner having caused a kibuga, or enclosure containing a few houses, to be built, deposited the jaw in one of the houses, and appointed the chief who built the kibuga to be its guardian. Before the jaw was finally installed, it was decorated with kauri shells. No king of Uganda before Mtesa had been buried with his under jaw in its natural place,1 and before he died he ordered all the jawbones of the kings to be collected and buried. The Wahuma dried their kings for months, till they were like sun-dried meat, before they buried them, and they cut out the lower jaws, and covered them with beads and preserved them.2 Among other objects brought at the celebration of the " So-sin Custom " of the king of Dahomey was the Agranhohwe, or "jaw umbrella," the white top and lappets of which were thickly studded with human jawbones.3 Skertchley says that the jaw bones are 84 in number, and that they are arranged chevronwise.4 In Ashantee, before the return of the army, the general in command sends to the capital the jawbones of the enemies who have been slain.5
Thus we see that the Baganda and other modern African peoples cut out the jawbones of their dead kings and preserved them with honour, and the passage in the text of King Unas suggests that the Egyptians must have treated the jawbones of their dead kings in primitive times in a somewhat similar manner. Now the cult of Osiris prohibited the mutilation of the human body, and therefore the custom of cutting out the jawbones became obsolete. And the statement that Horus destroyed the jawbones of the enemies of the deceased is illustrated by the custom in Ashantee and Dahomey of wrenching the jawbones from the heads of dead foes and sending them to the kings. It may be noted in passing that Frobenius figures a trumpet ornamented with human jawbones, and that he refers to a curious use made of the lower jawbone by the New
1 Cunningham, Uganda, p. 226.
2 Speke, Journal, p. 394.
3 Burton, A Mission to Gelele, Vol. II, p. 53.
4 Dahomey as It is, p. 259.
5 Ramseyer and Kiihne, Four Years in Ashanti, p. 115.
African Burials 93
Pomeranians.1 Colonel Ellis notes that the Awunas, an Eastern Ewe tribe, say that the lower jaw is the only part of the body which a child derives from its mother,2 and he mentions horns decorated with human jaws. It will have been noticed that the word used in Egyptian for jawbones is arti, and that it is in the dual, and is determined by two jawbones ^J^ ^J? , but I believe that the lower jawbone only is referred to. Some ancient peoples believed that the lower jawbone con sisted of two bones which were joined at the chin, and Abd al-Latif, the famous physician who flourished in the fourteenth century of our era, spent a good deal of time in examining skulls in Egypt, in order to be able to refute by personal observation the opinion of those who held this view. The determinatives of the Egyptian word suggest that the primitive Egyptians agreed on this point with the opponents of Abd al-Latif.3
Some interesting light also is thrown on the umbilical cord and phallus of Osiris by customs concerning the preservation of these things which obtained until quite recently among the people of Uganda. In Chapter XVI I of the Book of the Dead (1. 39 f.) we read : — " I have " done away my impurity, I have destroyed the evil things " in me." The commentary says : " What does this mean ?" The answer is : "It is the cutting off of the " umbilical cord* of the Osiris, the scribe Ani, triumphant " before all the gods, and the driving away of all the evil " things which belong to him." The commentary says : "What does this mean?" The answer is: "It is the purification [which takes place] on the day of his birth." From this we learn that the umbilical cord of Osiris was
1 Childhood of Man, pp. 61, 167 and 174.
2 The Yoruba-speaking Peoples, p. 131 ; The Tshi-speaking Peoples,
P- 257-
3 See the translation of De Sacy, p. 419 ff. Tous les anatomistes s'accordent a dire que cette machoire est composee de deux os qui sont
fermement reunis vers le menton nous avons employe
toute sorte de moyens pour nous assurer de la verite, et nous n'y avons jamais reconnu qu'un seul os.
4 i u i >^ «=\ *a— =» -q ^) *n -fv c^
— L — d-
i i
VOL. II. H
94 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
cut off, and that this cutting symbolized an act of purifi cation whereby the god was freed at his birth from impurity. In the Westcar Papyrus we are told that when the three sons of Rut-tetet were born, the four Meskhenit goddesses who were present at their birth washed in turn each child, cut off his umbilical cord, and placed it in a four-sided cloth which was laid in a stone box.1 From the fact that the goddesses preserved the cord and wrapped it up in cloth and laid it in a box we are justified in assuming that they attached great import ance to it, and that they intended to preserve it. Now Osiris was a king from his birth, and the three sons of Rut tetet were destined to become kings, and it is there fore clear that under the Ancient Empire, and long before, the Egyptians were in the habit of preserving the umbilical cords of kings and great personages. What they did with them the texts do not say, but the customs of Uganda and Unyoro throw some light on the matter, for the Baganda and Banyoro have been in the habit of preserving the umbilical cords of kings for untold generations. Thus Speke tells us : " The umbilical cords are preserved from birth, and, at death, those of men are placed within the door-frame, while those of women are buried without, this last act corresponding with the custom of the Wahiyow."2 Mr. Cunningham describes an interview between King Mtesa and the Namasole, or Queen Mother, who sat side by side on a sofa. An attendant brought to her the king's umbilical cord, and having taken it and held it for a moment in her hand, she placed it on the couch by her side.3 The reason for preserving the cord is given by Mr. C. W. Hattersley, who says that the umbilical cords of kings are kept in receptacles called Balongo. Each umbilical cord is attached to a wooden frame beautifully covered with beads, and when its owner dies his spirit enters the
I) JJ
, ed. Erman, Plate X, 1. 12 ff.
2 Speke, Journal of the Discovery », p. 394. 8 Uganda, p. 190.
African Burials 95
wooden frame, and lives there with the cord for ever.1 If the frame be destroyed the spirit departs.
The investigations made in Uganda by the Rev. J. Roscoe supply a number of most important facts about the preservation of the lower jawbone, umbilical cord and phallus of kings in Uganda.2 He says : " The cord seems to be to the afterbirth what the lower jawbone is to the person to whom it belonged ; that is, the ghost of the person attaches itself to the jawbone after death, and the ghost of the afterbirth attaches itself to the bit of cord. Every person is born with a double, viz., the afterbirth, which has its ghost, and the umbilical cord in some way connects the ghost of the afterbirth with the living child .... At the ceremony of naming the child the bit of umbilical cord is brought out and dropped into a bowl containing a mixture of beer, milk, and water. If the cord floats the child is legitimate and the clan accepts it as a member ; should the cord sink the child is disowned by the clan and the woman is punished for adultery. The cord is either preserved by the clan or buried at the roots of the plantain tree with the after birth. In the case of princes the cord is carefully preserved, and the fortunate prince who becomes king has the cord decorated and made into a "twin" (mulongo). This is kept by the Kimbugwe, who each month, after the new moon appears, brings in the " twin " wrapped up in bark-cloth to the king, who holds it for a moment or two and then returns it to him. It is carried in state to the Kimbugwe's enclosure, drums are beaten in the procession, and the " twin " is honoured as a king. When it is returned to its house it is not put inside, but is placed by the door and guarded all night ; next morning the Kimbugwe comes and rubs butter on it, and restores it to its usual place inside the temple or hut. The jawbone and the umbilical cord must always be kept together to fulfil the requirements of the ghosts after the death of the king.
The stool on which the god Kibuka sits is also of
1 Hattersley, The Baganda at Home, 1908, pp. 14, 15.
2 See Journal Inst. Anthropological Society, Vol. XXXI, p. 117 ff. ; Vol. XXXII, p. 25 ff. ; and Kibuka, the War God of the Baganda, in Man, No. 95, 1907, p. 161 ff.
H 2
96 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
interest in connection with Osiris. Instead of the usual seat there is a basin 8 inches in diameter, and 4 inches deep, fitted into this. In this basin were kept the lower jawbone of the god, stitched into a leather case, and with this were two smaller leather cases containing the genital organs ; each case is decorated with shells and beads. These were put in a bag tied with string made from the fibre of aloes, which was placed in the basin on the stool. The whole stool with its contents stands 22 inches high.1 Now if we look at the vignettes in papyri of the Book of the Dead we shall find that in most cases the side of the seat, or stool, of the god is made to resemble the front of a tomb, and that the doors, with their bolts, resemble those which are painted on sepulchral coffers and chests which contain ushabtiu figures and the viscera of the dead. In other words, Osiris sits upon what is intended to represent a sepulchral coffer. And if the stool of Osiris were a sepulchral coffer it must have contained some portions of the body of the god, and such portions might well have been his genital organs and his lower jawbone, as was the case with Kibuka, the War-god of the Baganda. At all events, the custom followed by the Baganda in respect of the stool of Kibuka certainly throws some light on the stool or throne of Osiris and its sepulchral character. The texts -are silent as to the fate of the phallus of Osiris, and •Greek writers, being ignorant of the customs of the Sudan, state that it was never found, and that I sis made a model of it which was worshipped in the temples. Allusions to the phallus of Osiris and the phallus of Ra occur in the Book of the Dead,2 and we may be certain that the phallus of Osiris must have played a very prominent part in the beliefs of the Egyptians con cerning the resurrection, otherwise the phallus of the deceased would not have been identified with Osiris in the Chapter of the Deification of Members of the body (Chapter XLII).
1 See the illustration to Mr. Roscoe's paper in Man.
XVII, 61, 143 ; XCIII, 2, 3, that of Beba, | ^ ^ n ^ |||j is mentioned in XCIX, Introduction, 1. 17.
African Burials 97
The chief authorities for the methods of procedure followed in funerals by the Egyptians are the bas-reliefs and paintings which decorate the tombs of their nobles, especially those which belong to the period of the New Empire, say from B.C. 1600 to B.C. 600. Of special importance are the tombs of Western Thebes, for whole series of funerary scenes still remain in them in a wonderful state of preservation. Most valuable evidence is also supplied by such works as the Liturgy of Funerary Offerings and the Book of Opening the Mouth, which are well illustrated by the scenes depicted on the walls of the tombs of Rekh-ma-Ra (XVIIIth dynasty), Seti I (XlXth dynasty), and Amen-em-Ap (XXVIth dynasty). Also the vignettes of the great illustrated copies of the Theban Recension of the Book of the Dead, e.g., the Papyri of Nebseni, Nu, luau, Ani, Hunefer, Anhai, Nesi-ta-neb-Asher, etc., and the Rubrics, describe and explain many interesting customs and ceremonies. When these authorities are examined, and the information given by them generally is compared with the descriptions of comparatively modern African funerals and methods of sepulture given below, the similarity in both customs and ceremonies will be found to be so marked that it is impossible not to conclude that they are the result of beliefs which are common to the ancient Egyptians and to modern Sudani tribes. This similarity is due not to any borrowing by the Sudani tribes from the Egyptians, but to indigenous, fundamental African beliefs which have remained unchanged in all essentials from the end of the Neolithic Period in Egypt until the present day.
THE BURIAL OF KAMRASI, KING OF UNYORO. — Immediately after the death of Kamrasi, his body was laid upon a framework of green wood, like a gigantic gridiron, over a slow fire, until it was quite dry and resembled " an over- roasted hare." It was then wrapped in new bark-cloths, and made to lie in state in a large house which had been specially built for the purpose. As long as the succession to the throne is undecided, the body remains unburied, but as soon as the victor in the civil war, which breaks out on the king's death, is hailed as king, he goes into the house where his father's body lies, and, standing near it, drives his spear into the ground,
98 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
and leaves it near the right hand of the king. The victor next buries his father. A huge pit, capable of holding several hundred people, is dug, and neatly lined with new bark-cloths. Several wives of the late king are made to seat themselves together at the bottom, to bear upon their knees the body of their departed lord. On the night previous to the funeral, the king's own regiment, or bodyguard, surrounds many dwellings and villages, and seizes indiscriminately the people as they go out in the early morning. They are taken to the mouth of the pit, and, when their arms and legs have been broken with clubs, they are thrown into it, on the top of the king's body and his wives.
A mighty din of drums, horns, flageolets, whistles, mingled with the yells of a frantic crowd, drowns the shrieks of the sufferers, upon whom the earth is shovelled and stamped down by thousands of cruel fanatics, who dance and jump upon the loose mould so as to form it into a compact mass, through which the victims of this horrid sacrifice cannot grope their way, the precaution having been taken to break the bones of their arms and legs. At length the mass is buried and trodden down beneath a tumulus of earth, and all is still. The funeral is over.1
According to Mr. Cunningham, the grave of an Unyoro king was five feet in diameter and twelve feet deep. The king's bodyguard seized the first nine Unyoro men they met, and threw them alive into the pit. The body of the king was then wrapped in bark-cloth, and sewn up in the skin of a cow newly killed, and let down into the pit. Another cow-skin was stretched tightly across the opening, and pegged down all round ; a covering of grass was laid over the skin, and a temple was built over the grave. A headman was appointed watcher, and some of the dead king's servants were ordered to live there, they and their descendants after them, and food wras supplied as a matter of course by the people. The position of the dead body was the same for king and peasant. The body lay on its left side, with the hands, the palms facing, under the head, and the legs drawn up to the body. The poor people 1 Baker, Ismaitia^ p. 316.
African Burials 99
were wrapped in grass, and spirit-houses were built over their graves.1
DAGARA'S BURIAL. — When Dagara, king of Karague, was dead, the people sewed his body up, as was the custom in the case of kings, in a cow-skin, and placed it in a boat floating on the lake, where it remained for three days, until decomposition set in, and maggots were engendered. Then it was taken up and deposited on the hill Moga-Namirinzi, where, instead of putting him underground, the people erected a hut over him, and, thrusting in five maidens and fifty cows, enclosed the doorway in such a manner that the whole of them subsequently died of starvation. Rohinda the Sixth, father of Dagara, was buried in the same way. Out of his heart a young lion emerged, which guarded the hill and was the ancestor of all the lions in Karague ! These lions became subject to Dagara, and whenever he went to war he took an army formed of them instead of men, and was always victorious.2 Rumanika, son of Dagara, sacrificed a cow yearly at his father's grave, and placed pombe and grain on it, because he thought they would secure for him good crops in the coming year.3
THE BONGO BURIAL. — The dead body is placed in a crouching position, with the knees forced up to the chin, and is firmly bound round the head and legs. It is then sewn up in a skin sack and placed in a deep grave. The faces of men are turned towards the north and those of women towards the south.4
THE NIAM-NIAM BURIAL. — The dead body is adorned, as if for a festival, with skins and feathers. It is usually dyed with red wood. Men of rank have their aprons fastened to them, and they are buried either sitting on their beds or enclosed in a kind of coffin which is made from a hollow tree. The earth is not allowed to touch the body, which is placed in a specially prepared niche in the grave. The men have their faces turned towards the east, and the women's are
1 Uganda, pp. 30, 31.
2 Speke, Journal, p. 181. Of the maggots of Dagara three were taken to the palace, where they turned into a lion, a leopard, and a stick.
3 Ibid., p. 197.
4 Schwemfurth, Heart of Africa, Vol. I, p. 303.
ioo Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
towards the west.1 The relatives shave their heads and destroy their headdresses.
THE MORO BURIAL. — The uncovered body was carried to the grave on a strong wicker frame ; a number of mourning women went in front, and the wives went behind, and women chanted to the tom-toms. On the way many of the wives turned somersaults, and tried to throw themselves into the grave. The body was laid on its right side, in a bent position, as if asleep. A ligament of bark was tied to the little finger of the left hand, and the other extremity was drawn to the surface, and there attached to a peg driven in the ground. This was to enable the dead man to communicate with his children. The grave was filled up and a mound raised over it, with a pole in the centre, to the top of which was fastened the falcon's feather which was worn by the deceased when alive. The women threw their ornaments on the grave, and the relatives and friends of the deceased proceeded to hack in pieces with a spear the carcases of two bulls and to eat them.2
THE BAHIMA BURIAL. — The dead body is washed, and the arms and legs are doubled up against it by breaking the joints ; the neck is broken, and the head is bent over the chest. The body is then tied up in a mat, forming a sort of bundle, and buried in the great village manure heap, within eight or ten hours after death. An ordinary man is buried in a hole dug at the door of his hut.3
THE BANABUDDU BURIAL. — The male relatives stand on the right-hand side of the body, and the females on the left, and then, beginning with the head, smear it with butter ; it is then wrapped round with bark cloth, and carried to the grave in the neighbouring garden. The clay all round the grave must be pushed in with the elbows, and not with the hands and feet.4
1 Schweinfurth, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 34; Johnston, George Grenfell, Vol. II, p. 650.
2 Petherick, Travels, p. 270 ff. Dr. Brownell was buried in a grave in an ant hill, fully four feet deep, with a niche for the body, which was protected from contact with the earth by means of several sticks which covered the opening of the niche. Ibid., p. 140.
3 Cunningham, Uganda, p. 10.
4 Ibid., p. 67.
African Burials 101
THE BASOGA BURIAL. — The body is first rubbed with pulp made from the banana tree, and whilst this is being done no one must be present as witness of the operation. It is then rolled up in bark cloth and laid in a grave 15 feet deep, dug in the deceased's house. All the bark cloth which the relatives can get is stuffed into the grave, which is sometimes filled to the mouth with this material ; earth is then thrown on top and stamped down flat. As soon as the grave is filled up the women leave the house, and having shut it up it remains unoccupied, and eventually tumbles down.1
The Basoga perform a curious ceremony in connec tion with a man who dies away from home. The relatives go into the bush and bring out a branch or long reed. This is thrown on the ground, and they say to it, having called out the dead man's name, " We have come to bring you home for burial." The branch or reed is then wrapped in bark cloth and carried home, and, when news is brought into the village that it is approaching, the women scream and wail until the branch is laid in the grave. The usual funeral ceremonies are then observed. In some places in Basoga the head of the dead person is washed, and his lips are smeared with oil,2 which calls to mind one of the ceremonies in the Book of Opening the Mouth, in which the mouth of the deceased was anointed with oil by the Egyptians.
Formerly, before European influence modified any of the customs of the country, the successor of a dead king of Bukole, a district of Basoga, sent a large number of soldiers to range the country for miles round the chiefs village, and slay any person they met. During the raid every attempt was made to capture a young man and a girl. On the second day after the chiefs death they were killed, their pudenda were removed, and together with those of a bull, were put into the interior of a large fetish drum called " Kideye." The hole in the drum through which this tribute had been inserted was sown up, and the drum was beaten to
1 Johnston, Uganda Protectorate, Vol. II, p. 715; Cunningham, Uganda, p. 117.
2 Johnston, op. tit., Vol. II, p. 718.
iO2 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
announce the chiefs death.1 Similar mutilations of a young man and a girl were made in order to make a sacrifice to the sacred stream on the death of a chief. Sometimes the man and maid after mutilation were thrown into the Nagua River as a sacrifice to the water spirit.
BURIAL OF KINGS IN UGANDA. — Formerly the dead king was carried to Emerera and dried, and when the lower jaw had been cut out,3 it was wrapped up in many layers of bark cloth, and placed on a bedstead which stood on the floor of a large new house, with a conical thatched roof. The door was then shut and was never opened again. The king's cook, the headman of the beer-pots, and chief herdsman of the king's cows, and three women of rank equivalent to these, were seized, and dragged before the door of the closed tomb and slaughtered. The bodies were not buried, but left for the vultures to eat.3
THE BASUKUMA BURIAL. — A king or chief is wrapped up in an ox-skin and buried in a sitting position. Ordinary folk are wrapped up in the leaves of the nghali tree, and buried in the centre of the kraal. At the funeral of a chief the people mourn for two days, and then eat the ox, in the skin of which the chief is buried.4
THE MANYEMA BURIAL. — A chief is buried in a square pit 10 feet deep, wrapped in bark cloth. At the bottom of the grave ten living women with their arms and legs broken are laid, and on them the chief is placed ; ten men, with their arms and legs broken, are next brought and laid on top of the chief.5 The grave is then filled up with earth, and the burial is complete.
THE LENDU BURIAL. — The body of a chief is, by means of many strips of bark cloth, made to take a sitting position, and is then placed on a bed of skins inside a tunnel-like excavation in the grave, which is dug
1 Johnston, Uganda Protectorate, Vol. II, p. 716.
2 The body was placed on a board which rested on the mouth of an earthen pot heated by fire from below. The drying process lasted three months. — Speke, Journal, p. 207.
3 Cunningham, Uganda, p. 226.
4 Cunningham, Uganda, p. 307.
5 Ibid., p. 314.
African Burials 103
inside the hut of the deceased. This hut, with some times the whole village in which it is situated, is then abandoned.1 Ordinary folk are buried immediately after death near the side wall of the hut. The body is put into the earth naked, and no coffin of any sort is used. The Alulu tribe wrap the body in the skin of a freshly killed bull or cow. Over the grave of a chief a tree is sometimes planted.2
THE SENGA BURIAL. — When a man dies everyone utters mournful cries. The body is washed, clothed, decorated with beads, and wrapped up in a piece of calico soaked in saffron. Then it is left two days, when it begins to decompose. It is then placed in a bag of rushes of three layers, and buried in a hole in the ground of the hut about five feet deep, and covered over with thorns and earth. On the grave they put a large earthen ware urn containing a little flour, while a roast chicken is placed by the side of it. The natives clap their hands by way of adieu, and abandon the hut, and everyone who has touched the body goes and washes in the river. The members of the family cut their hair, and deposit the cuttings in a place where two roads meet ; they put on black beads, and if possible black clothes. Three months after the death the friends assemble for a great feast. Having prepared a large quantity of beer, they take it to the hut in which is the grave, and digging a large hole outside, they set down in it a pot of beer, covering it with a plate, on which they sprinkle a little flour. Then they go into the hut, taking with them a sheep. They remove the urn which was placed over the head of the grave, dig a little hole and pour in beer ; they also kill the sheep, and let the blood run down into the hole. They take the sheep outside, shut the door, and eat the carcase, and then they wash their hands in the pot of beer which they have left outside. One of the dead man's wives, who is called the ''spirit" (musimo) is carried away on a man's shoulders, and they give her beer which she drinks under her veil. They next go to the hut of the chief widow, where a large hole has been dug and cemented ; in this they pour the beer, and lie down on
1 Johnston, Uganda Protectorate, Vol. II, p. 555.
2 Cunningham, Uganda, p. 337.
104 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
their bellies and drink it. A great feast follows, with dancing and music.1
THE LOWER NIGER BURIAL. — In the case of a king or chief, the body is smeared with a decoction of certain plants, and then rubbed over with camwood oil and spirit, and wrapped in mats. The favourite method is to smoke- dry the body. Bodies are usually buried in the earth, but the Andoni use mud altars and platforms in trees ; in graves the bodies are just laid flat upon the ground. The possessions of the deceased are buried with him, as well as the sacrificial victims, both human and animal.3
THE WANYAMWESI BURIAL. — When the last Sultan, Mkasiwah, died, they dug a large pit, in which they placed the chief in a large bark box, in a sitting posture, with one hand at his face and one of the fingers of the other pointing upward ; beside him were placed two living men and two living women, and then the whole was covered over. They look upon the graves of their chiefs as sacred, and carry food and pray there.3
THE FJORT BURIAL. — The dead body is dried over a smoky fire, and is then wrapped up in endless lengths of cloth according to the wealth of the deceased ; and after some months it is buried. When a king dies the body is smoked and watched, and the process may take years. First it is shaved and washed with water or palm wine. It is then placed upon rush mats for a day, then swathed in long pieces of cloth, and laid upon a framework bed, underneath which a hole is dug to receive the water, etc., which runs out of the body. A fire is lighted at the head and foot of the bed, so that the smoke may keep off the flies. The body is next covered with acaju leaves, then wrapped up in more cloth, then placed in a coffin, which is put in a shimbec or hut. There the body may lie for years. Formerly slaves and wives were buried with a chief or king.4
THE GAGA BURIAL. — The dead man was buried in a pit, sitting on a seat. Two wives, with broken arms and
1 Decle, Three Years in Savage Africa, p. 234.
2 Leonard, Lower Niger and Its Tribes, p. 175.
3 Thomson, To the Central African Lakes, Vol. II, p. 258.
4 Dennett, Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort, London, 1898, pp. 23, in.
African Burials 105
legs, were thrown in with him, and the grave was then covered over, and palm oil and goats' blood poured on the grave.1
THE PYGMY BURIAL. — The body is washed, painted, dressed in new clothes, and then seated on a seat of earth, with his beads and " the most part of his goods " with him. The blood of goats and wine are poured over the grave.2 Memorial feasts for the dead are celebrated four or five times each year.
THE CONGO BURIAL. — The body is washed with a strong decoction of manioc, which whitens the skin. It is then placed in the fetish attitude : the face towards the setting sun, the knees bent, the left foot raised behind, the right arm hanging by the side, the fingers of the left hand separated, crooked, and pointing eastward. A small fire is kept burning under the body till the intestines are dried up like parchment. The body is then plastered over with red clay, and rolled up in cloths till it becomes a shapeless mass. The richer the person the more the cloth. Finally the body is buried in a large grave, over which is erected a hut without a roof. In Loango, the body is smoked on a scaffold over a green fire, like elephant meat. It is exposed in a sacred house for from six to twelve months, the relatives coming at stated intervals to mourn there. The body is then placed in a coffin shaped like a barrel, and is drawn to the grave in a kind of car.3
It is the earnest desire of a Congo man to be buried in a great quantity of cotton cloth, and to have a grand funeral. For this he trades, and works, and sins, and spares no pains. He shivers with cold in the dry season, but will not put on his back the coat or blanket which is reserved for his shroud. He suffers all this for the sake of display at the funeral. When a friend dies it is the proper thing to take a present of cloth for his shroud. A man's rich enemies may ruin his family at his death by their lavish donations for his shroud, which his family will never be able to repay. A great man is often buried in hundreds of yards of cloth, and it all goes underground
1 Battell, Strange Adventures, p. 34.
2 Ibid., pp. 74, 78 : Johnston, Uganda, Vol. II, p. 539.
3 Win wood Reade, Savage Africa, p. 542.
io6 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
to rot, and be eaten by the white ants. The expense of a funeral is so great in the case of an important man that his own accumulations are never sufficient. The corpse has therefore to be kept for a considerable time. To this end a grave-like hole, two or three feet deep, is dug in the house in which a man dies. The body is placed in the hole, and over the hole a mat is spread ; the mat is then covered with an inch and a half of earth. Fires are lighted by the sides of the hole, and are tended night and day by the wives of the deceased, who ought not to leave the house until the funeral. For the first few days the house is crammed with wailing women. The heat of the fires, the closeness of the crowded hut, combine with the smell of the decomposing body to create an atmosphere almost indescribable ; but fifty or or sixty women will crowd in, and sit with tearful eyes, wailing and chanting their mournful dirges night and day.
After a day or two the wailing moderates, but at ten o'clock at night, and at five o'clock in the morning, a special wailing is set up, to the beat of the native gong and a small drum. In the early night the young people take the great town drum to the house, and dance for some hours ; so that with laughter at the antics of a dancer outside, and tears as the wail surges and falls, the hours pass. The wives put on an old cloth, and sit and sleep on the ground. They never wash, nor comb or cut their hair for months ; pot black and oil are rubbed into their skin and hair. A few yards of cloth are wrapped round the corpse before it is put into the drying pit. The heat of the fires goes down into the ground, and so a slow dry heat is set up ; in time most of the moisture of the body evaporates or runs into the soil. It is then removed from the pit, wrapped in more cloth, and placed on a shelf in the house. In the dry season the body may be buried by the side of the house six or eight inches below the surface, and the place covered with the thorny bases of palm fronds to keep the jackals away.
Meanwhile the relatives of the deceased have been doing their utmost to raise money for the funeral, and the younger members of the family are often pawned. As the day for the funeral approaches the wailing is resumed. The drum is beaten nearly all night, and in the early
African Burials 107
morning the gong and the chant can be heard. At dawn for several days there is heavy firing. The body is then wrapped in its shroud, and around this a " glorious cloth " is wound, and then with the thunders of the big drums and a dirge, it is brought to the great square of the town so that all may see it. Six strong men raise the body as high as they can to "show" it, in different parts of the square. It is then taken to the grave amid screams and wailings, and when the women have laid their hands on it, two men jump into the grave to receive the body and put it carefully in its final resting-place. As soon as this is done, all weeping and wailing and tears cease as if by magic. The daughter turns aside, dries her streaming tears, and walks away chatting lightly.1
The Bateke, who live to the north of Stanley Pool, often bury a man in the floor of his own house. The shroud is cut over the mouth, and in filling up the grave, after the interment, a pole is placed with one end on the mouth of the body, and the other end sticking out from the grave. When the earth is properly filled in and trodden down, the pole is withdrawn, and so a clear hole is left to- the mouth of the body. Into this hole, from time to time, palm wine is poured, that the deceased may not lack the liquor which used to gladden his heart when living.
On the Upper Congo a man of importance has a number of slaves, who follow him about, paddle his canoe, and generally serve him. When he dies, it is not fitting that he should enter the Spirit-world unattended, as though he were only a slave. Wives will be needed to cook and care for him ; so, when the time for burial comes, these conveniences are provided for him. The dead man is washed, rubbed with oil and powdered cam wood, which makes him red all over. His face is decorated, one eye and cheek being made yellow with ochre, and the other white with pipeclay ; coloured lines are drawn on the forehead. A broad line in white, bordered with black, is brought down each of his red arms. Dressed in fine cloth, his hair well braided, his body sits in state on his stool, his pipe in his mouth. Men and women come to look at him, while the wives and their friends sing a dirge, rattle their rattles, and beat 1 Bentley, Pioneering on the Congo, Vol. I, p. 176 ff.
io8 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
the gongs. In a house near by are ten men, their necks secured in forked sticks *fc ~* and firmly tied ; they
are to accompany him. Among the weeping wives are three or four who are chosen to attend him in the Spirit- world. Great crowds assemble on the day of the funeral, and each person is in full paint and finery, and several people dance. The body is brought out, and the crowd gathers in an open space where there is a strange wooden seat. The ten slaves are brought, and one of them is placed in the seat and fastened to it. A tall flexible pole is stuck into the ground, at some distance behind the seat, and from its top is suspended by a cord a sort of cage. The pole is bent down, and the cage is fitted to the man's head. He is blindfolded, and the executioner commences to dance, and make feints, and at last, with a fearful yell, he decapitates his victim, with one sweep of the huge knife. The pole, thus released, springs into the air. The crowd yells with delight and excitement. The body is unbound, and a new victim is placed on the seat, and this horror is repeated, until the ten slaves have joined their dead master. The heads are thrown into a pool of water beside the river, until the flesh comes off, and then the skulls are placed in the house over the master's grave. The bodies of the slaves are carried to the grave, and laid in order on the bottom. Four women are then seized, and their arms and legs are broken with blows from a heavy stick, and then, still alive, they are placed in the grave. The body of their lord is laid upon them, and the grave is then filled in. Higher up the river these customs would be considered poor and mean without a cannibal feast, and the body would be kept until a hunt for victims could be organized. Among the Bakuba on the Upper Kasai, three hundred slaves have been killed at the death of the king or his sister.1
THE BALUBA BuRiAL.2 — The dead man is buried in a wicker basket with a lid, the body being in the position of a man squatting and embracing his knees. The grave
1 Bentley, Pioneering on the Congo, Vol. I, p. 253.
2 The facts given in the following nine paragraphs are taken from Johnston's George Grenfell, Vol. II, p. 646 ff.
African Burials 109
is dug in the forest in the evening, and the body is hurriedly buried. The house of the deceased is burnt down, but a small hut is built near the place where it stood, and there the spirit of the dead man will come to hold converse with the living. Before the hut a ditch is dug, which is filled with flour and water. By its side is dug another, in which is placed a pot pierced at the bottom ; in this palm wine is poured.
THE MUYANZI BURIAL. — The body is washed and painted. The legs are bent in such a manner as to raise the knees as high as possible, and are kept in that position by bands of tree bark or native cloth. The body is then dressed in the richest clothes of the deceased, and placed before his hut, where for ten days all come to admire it. The people dance funeral dances, sing songs, fire off guns, and beat drums ; this goes on all day, and palm wine circulates freely. When decomposition is far advanced the body is buried in the entrance to the house, clothes and all.
THE MONGO BURIAL. — The body is washed and placed in a hut for one, or even two months. It is then enclosed in a box, which is carved, painted, and mounted with points resembling horns, and carried through the neighbouring villages with songs and dances, and then buried.
THE BANGATA of the Equator put the dead body in communication with the living by . means of a tube, as do the people of the Cataract region of the Lower Congo.
THE BAPOTO BURIAL. — The body is decorated with collars, bracelets, glass trinkets, etc., and is buried by mourning women who wear bands of green leaves round their bodies.
THE ARUWIMI BURIAL. — The body is buried in a shallow grave made in the house, and one or two slaves are killed, so that their spirits may go to Spirit- land with their master.
THE MANBATTO BURIAL. — The warrior is buried where he falls. A hut is built over him, and there the relatives and friends bring baskets of food and jars of water at intervals, and they keep the grave clean. The bodies of the poor are left for the ants and hyenas.
VOL. II. I
no Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection
THE BANTU BURIAL. — The Ababua and the Baieu (Babati) of the Wele-Bomo-Kandi bury the dead on a bed, at a depth of three feet ; after a month they are exhumed and buried in another place. This ceremony is repeated as long as the parents live, and when the bed is worn out another is provided ; at each exhumation lamentation is made. The gifts to the dead consist of food only, and all the property of the deceased is buried with him. The Baieu eviscerate the body and dry it.
THE NILOTIC-NEGRO BURIAL. — On the north-east Congo the body is buried in a square pit dug in the house, and is placed in a sitting position with the arms folded and wrists fixed to the shoulders. When the pit is filled in, the grave is sprinkled with ox blood or beer.
THE BANZIRI BURIAL. — The body is arranged in a doubled-up position on a kind of gridiron of poles, and a fire is lit under it ; earthen pots are placed to receive the fat which runs out of it. Those present rub their faces and hands with this fat, rinse it off with warm water, and the relatives drink the rinsings, thinking thereby to absorb the virtues of the deceased. What remains of the fat is either sent to absent relatives, or kept in the dead man's house. The body is not buried until decomposition is far advanced.1
THE NDOLO BURIAL. — The body is covered with a coating of red bark paste, and is provided with a new loin-cloth ; the eyebrows are blackened with charcoal. It is then hoisted up on to a platform twelve feet high, and set in a sitting position ; a stick supports the head, and the hands are spread on the knees. The women and girls chant a dirge.2
THE BAHUANA BURIAL. — The body is placed in a sitting position in a grave about five feet deep, with the face towards the west ; food, palm wine, and all the clothes and weapons of the deceased are buried with him. In a small hut above the grave are laid the fragments of his pots, which are broken at the
1 Mr. Torday's information.
2 Father Heymans, of New Antwerp (George Grenfell, Vol. II, p. 652).
African Burials 1 1 1
funeral ; here the brother of the deceased often places an offering of food. Women have their pots buried with them. A man killed by lightning is buried lying on his back. The foreheads of the men mourners are painted black, but the women paint the whole face black.1 The mourning colour of the Bayaka women
is red.3
THE BALUBA BuRiAL.3 — When an important Luba chief expires, every one, great or small, must mourn in a subdued tone ; the members of all the brother hoods come before the house where the body lies to perform dances ; the women violently strike their hatchet and hoe against each other. This deafening hubbub lasts a day. The relatives then make a distribution of beads among all the dancers, and the tumult ceases. During this time a young slave is obtained ; his neck is broken by a blow, and he is laid by the body for two days. He is the chiefs boy attendant. The chiefs wives, squatting near him, do not cease their lamentations. Some days pass in this way without other incidents ; after which the stiffened limbs are forcibly bent and the body placed in its wicker coffin. In the house two stages are raised, one above the other ; on the upper one is placed the coffin, on the lower a large earthen pot. The body decomposes ; a noxious liquid infested with maggots escapes from it and falls into the receptacle ; it is left there for