s
into any modern European language. But it is absurd to talk of almost
the whole text of the Book of the Dead as being utterly corrupt, for
royal personages, and priests, and scribes, to say nothing of the
ordinary educated folk, would not have caused costly copies of a very
lengthy work to be multiplied, and illustrated by artists possessing the
highest skill, unless it had some meaning to them, and was necessary for
the attainment by them of the life which is beyond the grave. The
"finds" of recent years in Egypt have resulted in the recovery of
valuable texts whereby numerous difficulties have been cleared away; and
we must hope that the faults made in translating to-day may be corrected
by the discoveries of to-morrow. In spite of all difficulties, both
textual and grammatical, sufficient is now known of the Egyptian
religion to prove, with certainty, that the Egyptians possessed, some
six thousand years ago, a religion and a system of morality which, when
stripped of all corrupt accretions, stand second to none among those
which have been developed by the greatest nations of the world.

E. A. WALLIS BUDGE.
LONDON,
_August 21st_, 1899.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER

I. THE BELIEF IN GOD ALMIGHTY

II. OSIRIS THE GOD OF THE RESURRECTION

III. THE "GODS" OF THE EGYPTIANS

IV. THE JUDGMENT OF THE DEAD

V. THE RESURRECTION AND IMMORTALITY

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

CHAPTER

I. THE CREATION

II. ISIS SUCKLING HORUS IN THE PAPYRUS SWAMP

III. THE SOUL OF OSIRIS AND THE SOUL OF R[=A] MEETING IN TATTU. R[=A],
IN THE FORM OF A CAT, CUTTING OFF THE HEAD OF THE SERPENT OF
DARKNESS

IV. THE JUDGMENT OF THE DEAD IN THE HALL OF MA[=A]TI

V. THE DECEASED BEING LED INTO THE PRESENCE OF OSIRIS

VI. THE SEKHET-AARU OR "ELYSIAN FIELDS"--

(1) FROM THE PAPYRUS OF NEBSENI
(2) FROM THE PAPYRUS OF ANI
(3) FROM THE PAPYRUS OF ANILAI

CHAPTER I.

THE BELIEF IN GOD ALMIGHTY.

A study of ancient Egyptian religious texts will convince the reader
that the Egyptians believed in One God, who was self-existent, immortal,
invisible, eternal, omniscient, almighty, and inscrutable; the maker of
the heavens, earth, and underworld; the creator of the sky and the sea,
men and women, animals and birds, fish and creeping things, trees and
plants, and the incorporeal beings who were the messengers that
fulfilled his wish and word. It is necessary to place this definition of