ame into being along with the child a
"twin" whose destinies were closely linked with the child's.

(c) As the result of animating the statue the deceased also has restored
to him his character, "the sum of his attributes," his individuality,
later raised to the position of a protecting genius or god, a Providence
who watches over his well-being.[82]

The _ka_ is not simply identical with the breath of life or _animus_, as
Burnet supposes (_op. cit. supra_), but has a wider significance. The
adoption of the conception of the _ka_ as a sort of guardian angel which
finds its appropriate habitation in a statue that has been animated does
not necessarily conflict with the view so concretely and unmistakably
represented in the tomb-pictures that the _ka_ is also a double who is
born along with the individual.

This material conception of the _ka_ as a double who is born with and
closely linked to the individual is, as Blackman has emphasized,[83]
very suggestive of Baganda beliefs and rites connected with the
placenta. At death the circumstances of the act of birth are
reconstituted, and for this rebirth the placenta which played an
essential part in the original process is restored to the deceased. May
not the original meaning of the expression "he goes to his _ka_" be a
literal description of this reunion with his placenta? The
identification of the _ka_ with the moon, the guardian of the dead man's
welfare, may have enriched the symbolism.

Blackman makes the suggestion that "on the analogy of the beliefs
entertained by the Hamitic ruling caste in Uganda," according to Roscoe,
"the placenta,[84] or rather its ghost, would have been supposed by the
Ancient Egyptians to be closely connected with the individual's
personality, as" he maintains was also the case with the god or
protecting genius of the Babylonians.[85] "Unless united with his twin's
[i.e. his placenta's] ghost the dead king was an imperfect deity, i.e.
his directing intelligence was impaired or lacking," presumably because
the placenta was composed of blood, which was regarded as the material
of consciousness and intelligence.

In China, as the quotations from de Groot (see footnote) show, the
placenta when placed under felicitous circumstances is able to ensure
the child a long life and to control his mental and physical welfare.

In view of the claims put forward by Blackman to associate the placenta
with the _ka_, it is of interest to note Moret's sug