Page:The Religion of Ancient Egypt.djvu/203

 god is sometimes named who is never mentioned elsewhere, and whose name was so little familiar to the copyists of the book that they write it in very different ways. Our ignorance here is of very trifling importance.

The preliminaries to the beatification of the dead consisted in the removal of all physical or moral obstacles originating either in himself or in others. Those things of which death had deprived him are restored to him. His soul, his ka and his shadow are given back to him. There is a chapter, with a vignette, representing the soul uniting itself to the body, and the text promises that they shall never again be separated. The use of his mouth, hands and other limbs are given to him. There is a series of chapters relating to the restoration and protection of the heart, two forms of which, the ab and the hāti, are distinctly and repeatedly mentioned. The next eleven chapters have reference to combats which the deceased has to encounter with strange animals—crocodiles, serpents, tortoises—and to the sacred words in virtue of which he may confidently rely upon success. The chapter for repelling all reptiles is a short one. "O serpent Rerek! advance not! the gods Seb and Shu are my protection; stop! thou who hast eaten the rat which the sun-god abhors, and hast chewed the bones of a rotten cat."

Another series of eleven chapters is intended to