epresent about nine-tenths of
the papyri hitherto discovered. They are not all equally
full; complete copies are still relatively scarce, and most
of those found with mummies contain nothing but extracts of
varying length. The book itself was studied by Champollion,
who called it the _Funerary Ritual_; Lepsius afterwards gave
it the less definite name of _Book of the Dead_, which seems
likely to prevail. It has been chiefly known from the
hieroglyphic copy at Turin, which Lepsius traced and had
lithographed in 1841, under the title of _Das Todtenbuch der
AEgypter_. In 1865, E. du Rouge began to publish a hieratic
copy in the Louvre, but since 1886 there has been a critical
edition of manuscripts of the Theban period most carefully
collated by E. Naville, _Das Mgyptische Todtenbuch der XVIII
bis XX Dynastie_, Berlin, 1886, 2 vols, of plates in folio,
and 1 vol. of Introduction in 4to. On this edition see
Maspero, _Etudes de Mythologie et d'Archeologie
Egyptiennes_, vol. i. pp. 325-387.

By accepting these gifts he became the guest of the goddess, and could
never more retrace his steps[*] without special permission. Beyond
the sycamore were lands of terror, infested by serpents and ferocious
beasts, furrowed by torrents of boiling water, intersected by ponds and
marshes where gigantic monkeys cast their nets.

* Maspero, _Etudes de Mythologie et d'Archeologie
Egyptiennes_, vol. ii. pp. 224-227. It was not in Egypt
alone that the fact of accepting food offered by a god of
the dead constituted a recognition of suzerainty, and
prevented the human soul from returning to the world of the
living. Traces of this belief are found everywhere, in
modern as in ancient times, and E. B. Tylob, has collected
numerous examples of the same in Primitive Culture, 2nd
edit., vol. ii. pp. 47, 51, 52.

[Illustration: 264.jpg THE DECEASED AND HIS WIFE SEATED IN FRONT OF THE
SYCAMORE OF NUIT AND RECEIVING THE BREAD AND WATER OF THE NEXT WORLD. 2]

2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coloured plate in
Rosellini, _Monumenti civili._,pl. cxxxiv. 3.

Ignorant souls, or those ill prepared for the struggle, had no easy work
before them when they imprudently entered upon it. Those who were not
overcome by hunger and thirst at the outset were bitten by a urasus, or
horned viper, hidden with evil intent below