himself there. This misfortune has
struck me, and struck just when I thought myself more powerful than any
save the pharaoh."

"Thou hast inquired, lord," began Mentezufis, "as to the difference
between burning the dead and embalming them. We find the same
difference that there is between destroying a garment and preserving it
in a closet. When the garment is preserved it may be of use frequently;
and if a man has only one garment it would be madness to burn it."

"I do not understand this," interrupted Ramses. "Ye do not explain it
even in the higher schools."

"But we can tell it to the heir of the pharaoh. Thou knowest,
worthiness," continued the priest, "that a human being is composed of
three parts: the body, the divine spark, and the shade, or Ka, which
connects the body and the divine spark.

"When a man dies his shade separates from his body as does the divine
spark. If the man lives without sin the divine spark and the shade
appear among the gods to live through eternity. But each man sins,
stains himself in this world; therefore his shade, the Ka, must purify
itself, for thousands of years sometimes. It purifies itself in this
way, that being invisible it wanders over our earth among people and
does good in its wandering, though the shades of criminals, even in
life beyond the grave, commit offences, and at last destroy themselves
and the divine spark contained in them.

"Now and this is no secret for thee, worthiness this shade, the Ka, is
like a man, but looks as though made of most delicate mist. The shade
has a head, hands, body, it can walk, speak, throw things or carry
them, it dresses like a man, and even, especially during a few hundred
of the earlier years after death, must take some food at intervals. But
the shade obtains its main strength from the body which remains on the
earth here. Therefore if we throw a body into a grave it spoils quickly
and the shade must satisfy itself with dust and decay. If we burn the
body the shade has nothing but ashes with which to gain strength. But
if we embalm the body, or preserve it for thousands of years the shade
Ka is always healthy and strong; it passes the time of purification in
calmness, and even agreeably."

"Wonderful things!" whispered the heir.

"Priests in the course of investigations during thousands of years have
learned important details of life beyond the grave. They have convinced
themselves that if the viscera are left in the body of a