t
to his mother. Come thou to them, for their hearts are sad, and make
them to rejoice. The lands of Horus exult, the domains of Set are
overthrown because of their fear of thee. Hail, Osiris Khenti Amentiu! I
am thy sister Isis. No god and no goddess have done for thee what I have
done. I, a woman, made a man child for thee, because of my desire to
make thy name to live upon the earth. Thy divine essence was in my body,
I brought him forth on the ground. He pleaded thy case, he healed thy
suffering, he decreed the destruction of him that caused it. Set fell
under his knife, and the Smamiu fiends of Set followed him. The throne
of the Earth-god is thine, O thou who art his beloved son.... There is
health in thy members, thy wounds are healed, thy sufferings are
relieved, thou shalt never groan again in pain. Come to us thy sisters,
come to us; our hearts will live when thou comest. Men shall cry out to
thee, and women shall weep glad tears, at thy coming to them.... The
Nile appeareth at the command of thy mouth; thou makest men to live on
the effluxes that proceed from thy members, and thou makest every field
to flourish. When thou comest that which is dead springeth into life,
and the plants in the marshes put forth blossoms. Thou art the Lord of
millions of years, the sustainer of wild creatures, and the lord of
cattle; every created thing hath its existence from thee. What is in the
earth is thine. What is in the heavens is thine. What is in the waters
is thine. Thou art the Lord of Truth, the hater of sinners, whom thou
overthrowest in their sins. The Goddesses of Truth are with thee; they
never leave thee. No sinful man can approach thee in the place where
thou art. Whatsoever appertaineth to life and to death belongeth to
thee, and to thee belongeth everything that concerneth man."

During the period of the occupation of Egypt by the Romans, the three
last-named works were still further abridged, and eventually the texts
that were considered essential for salvation were written upon small
sheets of papyrus from 9 to 12 inches high, and from 5 to 10 inches
wide.

CHAPTER VI

THE EGYPTIAN STORY OF THE CREATION

If we consider for a moment the vast amount of thought which the
Egyptian gave to the problems of the future life, and their deep-seated
belief in resurrection and immortality, we cannot fail to conclude that
he must have theorised deeply about the