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matter becomes more complicated if we remember that the picture of the Psyschostasia has the right to be considered as a part of the chapter. The texts which are written upon it differ, indeed, according to the taste of the artist, and can therefore claim no canonical authority. But the question as to the order of succession in the trials, or the precise moment at which the deceased person is finally freed from all anxiety as to his fate, cannot be satisfactorily solved on the supposition that all these documents form parts of a consistent whole. It seems much more natural to consider them as really independent compositions brought together in consequence of their subject matter. The artists of the Ramseside period (in the papyri of Hunefer and Ani) add another scene * in which the deceased is judged not by the forty-two assessors of Osiris but by a smaller company of gods (twelve or fourteen), sitting on thrones and bearing the names of well known divinities.

The essential notion was that of a trial before Osiris, in which the man's conduct or conscience was weighed in the Balance. This trial is referred to in various chapters of the Book of the Dead and in other texts which prove that, with reference to the details, free scope was allowed to the imagination of the scribes or artists.

The number of the Forty-two assessors might be thought connected with that of the Nomes of Egypt. But this number is only certain for the later periods of Egyptian history, and is not true for earlier times. Moreover the localities in which the gods are said to make their appearances do not correspond to the nomes, or places within them. Some of the localities occur more than once, and some of them, if not all, are localities not upon earth. Heaven occurs twice, the eleventh god makes his appearance at Amenta and the forty-second in the Netherworld. But the names which have a more earthly sound may have a mystical meaning. The first god makes his appearance in Annu, so does the seventeenth and so does the twenty-fourth. But does this mean Heliopolis of Egypt? On referring to an important text in Mariette's Monuments Divers, pl. 46, it will be seen that Annu is the Eastern Solar Mountain where the Sun rises, and where he is saluted by the Powers of the East. There cannot be a more striking illustration of "the

*

Apparently suggested by the scene in the tomb of Hor-em-heb (see Denkm., III, 78), in the time of Amenophis III. (Plate XXXII, fig. 15.)

Divine Babe who maketh his appearance in Annu" (the twentyfourth Assessor), than the picture I refer to.*

And Chemunnu,, is surely not the Hermopolis of Egypt, but the place of the Eight gods, four to the Left and four to the Right of the rising sun, who hail his coming. and help him to rise; where Shu, according to the MSS. of the 17th Chapter, raises up the Sky, and where "the children of Failure," (that is, shades of darkness) are exterminated. It is not simply of

Hermopolis nor yet of Lake Moeris that one may say

011

'it is the place of the Eight deities

where Ra riseth (Zeitschr., 1872, p. 8).

The same considerations apply to such names as those of Sutenhunen and Tattu.

The presence of the divine "Babe," of the god "of long strides" (Ra), of the god "of Lion form," of the goddess Bast, of Nefertmu, of the "Striker" (Ahi, a name of Horus), and of Nehebkau, not to mention others, among the Assessors, would of itself be sufficient to convince us that, in spite of the strange and terrific names of some of these personages, they are not to be looked upon as fiends, like Malacoda, Scarmiglione, and the rest of the demon crew in the Inferno of Dante. They are not evil spirits, but gods, all of them, "subsisting on righteousness;" there is "nothing wrong about them." They are the gods who accompany Osiris, and,

The picture of the Babe lifted up into the upper world by two divinities speaks for itself. Of the birth of the Sun as the Winged Scarab at the beginning of the first hour of the day, M. Maspero, in his description of the text, says: "Il est salué à ton apparition par les huit. . . . 'les esprits d'Orient, dieux du ciel, des terres, des pays étrangers, de la montagne d'horizon orientale qui est On.'"

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+ This is the principle by which to judge the cases of the god of writhing aspect,
serpentine, or crocodile
and of Uammeta

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Hades' (Bonomi, Sarc., pl. II A) has been quoted. The book, of course, is of inferior authority to the Book of the Dead,' but in any case it must be remembered that these names, as appellatives, are common nouns (Uammetu is in the plural number in the passage in question), and may simply mean Serpents. .

according to Egyptian theclogy, are his Nimes is Lambs his Body. If the names of some of them per burst or cre is

The exact scoon of Male in Egroun ters s discussed in

and conformity to be shot Rile of Rym towards one's fellow Then one's own sef and the bervedly poves s voir is meant b

Champollion quoted extracts from it in his Grammar, the difficulties with which he did not attempt to cope have only increased with our knowledge of the language and its scientific treatment. The text is extremely doubtful in many important parts, the forty-two sins are not the same in all the manuscripts, and they are not assigned to the jurisdiction of the same gods. So important a papyrus as that of Sutimes omits some sins of which an Egyptian would certainly be expected to give an account. The same word is made to appear with different meanings in the same passage of the papyri when they are compared together. And there are not a few important words of which the meaning was first only guessed at by the first translators, but has been retained without sufficient warrant by their successors. The present translation is presented under the full consciousness of all its imperfections, and of the difficulties which have yet to be overcome before a version can be called satisfactory.

A very admirable contribution towards our acquaintance with the first part of the chapter was made as far back as 1866 by Dr. Pleyte in his Etudes Egyptologiques. Since then other versions have appeared by MM. Devéria, Lefébure and Pierret.

The Demotic text of the chapter, first published by Brugsch, and now more recently, with a complete translation, by M. Révillout, is in itself most interesting, but written, as it is, in the days of imperial Rome, cannot always be appealed to as to an authoritative exposition of the ancient text.

1. The Day of searching examination or reckoning. The word has to be compared with the Coptic Kwt in the sense of search, enquiry, Cyteîv, Cýrnas. This sense is derived from ζητείν, ζήτησις.

a circle sail round) and the notion of going

completely round a thing and approaching it from all sides.

2. Thou [literally he] of the Pair of Eyes

* The

* This title of Osiris is made clear by the 37th

is not to be read fi or fy. The sign \\ is merely the ideogram of the number 2, like the letter in Coptic. The belief in an Egyptian dual with as a final syllable is an illusion, though a very pardonable one, of our grammarians.

chapter, which begins with an invocation to the Sister Pair of Goddesses, Merta

hh, Merta signi

fying Two Eyes, and the divine Sister pair being Isis and Nephthys. In vignettes of the chapter (see, e.g., Pl. XXXIII and XXXIV, figs. 14 and 16 for instances) the two goddesses appear in human form with their brother Osiris within the naos where the judgment is delivered. It is not so easy to recognise them under the form which they have in the vignette of Pb. (see Pl. XXXI), or in the picture which is found in many papyri (e.g., those of Nebseni, Hunefer, Ani and the Turin Todtenbuch), wherein the cornice or top row of the decoration surmounting the forty-two judges has for central figure a man (Osiris) either supporting the Two Eyes or extending his hands above them (see Pl. XXXIV, fig. 14).

We have here a symbolism of such extreme importance as to justify a short excursus on the subject.

The Two Eyes are a most frequent symbol on all funereal monuments; on the most ancient coffins, such as those of Apaanchu, Antuf, Taka (Denkm., II, 98, 146, 147), Mentuhotep (Aelteste Texte, pl. 9 and 25), Sebak-ãa (Gio. d'Athmasi, pl. 3) and Amamu, as on mummy cases generally, and on funereal tablets. Between the Eyes on many tablets we frequently find the sign Q,

and this is often followed by the sign of Water or the Vase □, and very frequently by both. Very often we have two signs Q, one by each Eye, and not less frequently a pair of jackals, facing each other. No two tablets are exactly alike, but the meaning is always the same.

or

Nor is the meaning changed when the tablet is headed by the Winged Disk Os or even though the Eyes are not seen. Their place is supplied by two Uræi, sometimes crowned with the

and the , insignia of Southern and Northern sovereignty.

On a fine tablet of the twelfth dynasty (Denkm., II, 1366), the sign is attached to each Uræus, and this device is repeated on innumerable monuments.

According to another device the Two Eyes are represented within the Winged Disk (see e.g., Leemans, Mon., III, M., Pl. XVI). "He of the Pair of Eyes" is always Osiris. But Osiris is a god