of Totou, the region of stability: the emblems of this divinity, and those of the ibis-headed Thoth, are enclosed in a serpent biting its own tail, the symbol of eternity. Afterwards he prays to all the divinities presiding over the judgment of souls, and concludes with short ejaculations to Osiris, and the sacred cow of Hathor, or

Nofre Tmou,

Venus.

There is a fine transcription of the ritual in the British Museum,* in which the deceased dedicates his heart to his mother and his ancestors, immediately after his adoration of the god Ptah.

The second part of the ritual consists of eleven liturgical prayers to Thoth, the guide of souls, and, as we have already said, the impersonation of the Divine wisdom. The soul implores this divinity to undertake for him to cast down his enemies, to plead his cause with the gods of the various regions through which he has to travel, and finally to open for him the gates of the great hall of judgment, that he may pass through them in safety.

This formidable array of gods and monsters, however, was but introductory to the still more fearful ordeal that awaited the soul on its arrival at the terrible portal of the judgment hall, where all the actions of its life while in the body were examined. This scene is by no means confined to the ritual we are now considering. Its frequent occurrence on mummy-cases, votive tablets, boxes, and funeral remains of every description, sufficiently attest the very high importance that was attached to it by the Egyptians, and the conspicuous place that it occupied in their creed.

* Anastasy, No. 35.

Many of these pictures are much curtailed and abbreviated, according to the custom of the scribes on all occasions. In the most perfect of them the deceased is represented standing immediately before the entrance of a vast hall in the attitude of supplication, and addressing a long prayer to the divinity who presides in it, Osiris, the supreme judge. He has for his assessors the two goddesses who are both named Thmei,

(the Themis of the Greeks.) They probably were impersonations of justice and truth. The first of them, who was called the Themis of the left, because she occupied the left side of the hall, was the president over the first twentyone avengers, the lower row of figures in the engraving on p. 158: the other, the Themis of the right, had the charge of the remainder of the forty-two demons by whom the wicked were hereafter to be tormented. The prayer to Osiris at the entrance of the hall reads thus:-"O thou avenger, lord of justice, great god, lord of the two Themes, (justice and truth,) I worship thee, O my lord. I have spoken, speak thou to me thy name: tell me the names of the forty-two gods who are with thee in the great hall of justice and truth, living guardians of the wicked, fed with their blood: bring forward my righteousnesses, search out my sins.” deceased then proceeds to enumerate the moral offences of which he has not been guilty :-"I have defrauded no man: I have not slaughtered the cattle of the gods, I have not prevaricated at the seat of justice, I have not made slaves of the Egyptians, I have not defiled my conscience for the sake of my superior, I have not used violence, I have not famished my household, I have not made to weep, I have not smitten privily, I have not changed the measures of Egypt, I have

The

not grieved the spirits of the gods, I have not committed adultery, I have not forged signet rings, I have not falsified the weights of the balance, I have not withheld milk from the mouths of my children." The offences that follow are peculiar to the climate and to the idolatry of Egypt. "I have not pierced the banks of the Nile in its annual increase, I have not separated to myself an arm of the Nile in its advance." These passages render it probable that in ancient as in modern times, an important part of the revenue of Egypt was raised by imposing a tribute upon the lands overflowed by the annual inundation; so that to obtain any portion of these fertilizing waters secretly was to defraud the state. This singular disavowal concludes thus: "I have not disturbed the gazelles of the gods in their pasturage, I have not netted the waterfowl of the gods, I have not caught the sacred fishes." It may be inferred from this and other passages, that there were parks or preserves around the Egyptian temples, where the sacred animals were kept; and that it was sacrilege to take them. "I have not despised the gods in their offerings;" in other words, “ I have not offered to the gods that which is imperfect," I have not bound the cattle of the gods, I have not pierced the god in his manifestation," as a sacred animal. The prayer concludes with petitions for purification and illumination.

The deceased then entered the great hall of judgment, and, kneeling before the forty-two avengers, protested to each his innocence of the sin of which he was the minister of vengeance. The names of these terrible beings are descriptive of their appearance or qualities. The soul says to the first of them, "O thou that hast long legs, (art swift to pursue,) I have not sinned." To the second, "O thou that

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dost try with fire, I have not been gluttonous." To the fourth, "O thou that devourest tranquillity, (that is, with whom there is no peace,) I have not stolen." To the fifth, "O thou that smitest the heart, I have done no murder." To the sixth, "O thou with the two lions, (heads,) I have not falsified measures." To the seventh, "O thou that hast piercing eyes, I have not acted the hypocrite." To the ninth, "O thou that dost make limbs to tremble, I have not lied." To the sixteenth, "O thou that dost delight in blood, I have not slain the cattle of the gods." To the twenty-second, "O thou that dost consume creation, I have not been drunken." The foregoing may suffice as specimens of what has generally been termed the negative confession. Some parts of it remain still in much obscurity as to their import; others allude to offences of which it is a shame even to speak.* The declaration of the apostle regarding the ancient world was perfectly true,

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They knew the judgment of God, that they who did such things were worthy of death."

The perusal of this most ancient code of morals accords with the inspired declaration, that the heathen of old were a law unto themselves. The moral law of God, which was written on their hearts, evidently embraced the entire compass of the duties of social relation? Or who shall dare to charge God foolishly, in that the heathen who sinned without the law of Moses also perished without it?

The judgment hall in which this great scene occurs, which terminates the third section of the ritual, is the palace

* The author has to express his deep obligations to Samuel Birch, Esq., the senior assistant of the British Museum, for the kind and very efficient aid afforded him in these translations.