i.e._ silver-gold), which is to be hung by a ring from the neck of the
deceased. Some Rubrics order it to be placed in the breast of a mummy,
where it is to take the place of the heart, and say that it will "open
the mouth" of the deceased. A tradition which is as old as the twelfth
dynasty says that the Chapter was discovered in the town of Khemenu
(Hermopolis Magna) by Herutataf, the son of Khufu, in the reign of
Menkaura, a king of the fourth dynasty. It was cut in hieroglyphs,
inlaid with lapis-lazuli on a block of alabaster, which was set under
the feet of Thoth, and was therefore believed to be a most powerful
prayer. We know that this prayer was recited by the Egyptians in the
Ptolemaic Period, and thus it is clear that it was in common use for a
period of nearly four thousand years. It may well be the oldest prayer
in the world. Under the Middle and New Empires this prayer was cut upon
hard green stone scarabs, but the versions of it found on scarabs are
often incomplete and full of mistakes. It is quite clear that the prayer
was turned into a spell, and that it was used merely as a "word of
power," and that the hard stone scarabs were regarded merely as amulets.
On many of them spaces are found that have been left blank to receive
the names of those with whom they were to be buried; this proves that
such scarabs once formed part of some undertaker's stock-in-trade, and
that they were kept ready for those who were obliged to buy "heart
scarabs" in a hurry.

Another remarkable composition in the Book of the Dead is the first part
of Chapter CXXV, which well illustrates the lofty moral conceptions of
the Egyptians of the eighteenth dynasty. The deceased is supposed to be
standing in the "Usekht Maati," or Hall of the Two Maati goddesses, one
for Upper Egypt and one for Lower Egypt, wherein Osiris and his
Forty-two Judges judge the souls of the dead. Before judgment is given
the deceased is allowed to make a declaration, which in form closely
resembles that made in many parts of Africa at the present day by a man
who is condemned to undergo the ordeal of drinking "red water," and in
it he states that he has not committed offences against the moral and
religious laws of his country. He says:

"Homage to thee, O Great God, thou Lord of Maati. I have come to thee, O
my Lord, and I have brought myself hither that I may behold thy
beauties. I know thee. I know thy name. I know the names of the
Forty-two[1] gods who liv