Book of the Dead

a collection of directions for the souls of the dead. It was compiled by the priests of Egypt--just when, it is impossible to say--but during the period of pyramid building, the period of the sphinx, say 4000-2000 B. C. The Book of the Dead was a "collection (ancient Egyptian) of prayers and exorcisms composed at various periods for the benefit of the pilgrim soul in his journey through Amenti (the Egyptian Hades), and it was in order to provide him with a safe conduct through the perils of that terrible valley that copies of this work, or portions of it, were buried with the mummy in his tomb. Of the many thousands of papyri which have been preserved to this day, it is perhaps scarcely too much to say that one-half, if not two-thirds, are copies, more or less complete, of the Book of the Dead."

When the soul was brought before Osiris, the Judge of the Dead, and was questioned as to his past life, the Book of the Dead gave him the answer his life on earth should enable him to make:

"I have not blasphemed; I have not deceived; I have not stolen; I have not slain any one treacherously; I have not been cruel to any one; I have not caused disturbance; I have not been idle; I have not been drunken; I have not issued unjust orders; I have not been indiscreetly curious; I have not multiplied words in speaking; I have struck no one; I have caused fear to no one; I have not eaten my heart through envy; I have not reviled the face of the king, nor the face of my father. . . . I have not ill-used my slaves; I have not killed sacred beasts; I have not defiled the river. . . . I have made it my delight to do what men command, and the gods approve. I have offered to the deities all the sacrifices that were their due; I have given bread to the hungry and drink to him that was athirst; I have clothed the naked with garments. . . ."

A similar declaration may be found in the "Repudiation of Sins" to be made before Osiris' forty-two assistants, the judges of the dead:

"Hail unto you, ye lords of Truth! hail to thee, great god, lord of Truth and Justice! . . . I have not committed iniquity against men! I have not oppressed the poor! . . . I have not laid labor upon any free man beyond that which he wrought for himself! . . . I have not caused the slave to be ill-treated of his master! I have not starved any man, I have not made any to weep, . . . I have not pulled down the scale of the balance! I have not falsified the beam of the balance! I have not taken away the milk from the mouths of sucklings! . . . There is no crime against me in this land of the Double Truth! . . .

"Grant that he may come unto you--he that hath not lied or borne false witness, . . . but who feedeth on truth, . . . he that hath given bread to the hungry and drink to him that was athirst, and that hath clothed the naked with garments; . . . his mouth is pure; his two hands are pure."