Chapter 53

So in the month Hator, after thirty-four years of rule, died the Pharaoh Mer-Amen-Ramses XII, the ruler of two worlds, the lord of eternity, the giver of life and every happiness.

He died because he felt that his body was growing weak and useless. He died because he was yearning for his eternal home and he wished to confide the cares of earthly rule to hands that were more youthful. Finally he died because he wished to die, for such was his will. His divine spirit flew away, like a falcon which, circling for a time above the earth, vanishes at last in blue expanses.

As his life had been the sojourn of an immortal in the region of evanescence, his death was merely one among moments in the existence of the superhuman.

Ramses XII woke about sunrise; leaning on two prophets, surrounded by a chorus of priests, he went to the chapel of Osiris. There, as usual, he resurrected the divinity, washed and dressed it, made offerings, and raised his hands in prayer. Meanwhile the priests sang:

Chorus I. "Honor to thee who raisest thyself on the horizon and coursest across the sky."

Chorus II. "The pathway of thy sacredness is the prosperity of those on whose faces thy rays fall."

Chorus I. "Would that I might go as Thou goest, O sun! without halting."

Chorus II. "Mighty wanderer in space, Thou who hast no lord, for thee hundreds of millions of years are merely the twinkle of an eye."

Chorus I. "Thou goest down, but endurest. Thou multipliest hours, days, and nights, and remainest in solitude according to thy own laws."

Chorus II. "Thou dost illumine the earth, offering thy own self with thy own hands, when under the form of Ra Thou comest up on the horizon."

Chorus I: "O star, emerging great, through thy light, Thou thyself formest thy own limbs."

Chorus II. "And, not begotten of any, Thou givest birth to thyself on the horizon." [Authentic hymn]

At this point the pharaoh spoke:

"O Thou radiant in the heavens! Permit that I enter eternity. Let me join the revered and perfect shadows of the upper land. Let me, together with them, behold thy rays in the morning, and in the evening, when Thou joinest thy mother Nut. And when Thou turnest thy face to the West let my hands join while praying in honor of life, which is going to sleep beyond the mountains." [Authentic]

Thus spoke the pharaoh with upraised hands, surrounded by a cloud of incense. All at once he ceased, and dropped into the arms of the priests behind him.

He was no longer living.

Intelligence of the pharaoh's death flew through the palace like lightning. Servants left their occupations, overseers ceased to watch over their slaves, the guard was roused; all entrances were occupied.

In the main court a throng began to gather; cooks, cellarers, equerries, women of his holiness, and their children. Some inquired: "Is this true?" Others wondered that the sun shone in heaven, but all cried at once in heaven-piercing voices,

"O our lord! O our father! O beloved! Can it be that Thou hast gone from us? Oh it is true, he is going to Abydos! To the West, to the West, to the land of the just ones! The place which Thou hast loved groans and weeps for thee!" [Authentic]

Terrible uproar was heard throughout all the courts, throughout the whole park. It was echoed from the eastern hills, on the wings of the wind it flew across the Nile, and disturbed the city of Memphis.

Meanwhile, the priests, amid prayers, placed the body of the deceased in a rich closed litter. Eight stood at the poles of the litter; four took ostrich feather fans in their hands, others censers, and they prepared to go forth.

At this moment Queen Niort's ran in, and, seeing the remains in the litter, threw herself at the feet of the dead pharaoh.

"O my husband! O my brother! O my beloved!" cried she, carried away with weeping. "O beloved, remain with us, remain in thy house, withdraw not from this place on earth in which Thou art dwelling!" [Authentic.]

"In peace, in peace, to the West," sang the priests. "O mighty sovereign, go in peace to the West."

"Misfortune," said the queen, "Thou art hastening to the ferry to pass to the other shore! O priests, O prophets, hasten not, leave him; for ye will return to your houses, but he will go to the land of eternity."

"In peace, in peace to the West," sang the priestly chorus. "If it please the god, when the day of eternity comes, we shall see thee, O sovereign! For now Thou art going to the land which brings all men together."

At a sign given by the worthy Herhor, the attendants drew the queen from the feet of the pharaoh, and led her by force to her chambers.

The litter, borne by priests, moved on, and in it the sovereign, dressed and surrounded, as if living. On the right, and on the left, before and behind him, went generals, treasurers, judges, chief scribes, the bearers of the mace and the bow, and above all a throng of priests of various dignities.

In the courtyard, the servants fell on their faces, groaning and weeping, but the troops presented arms and the trumpets sounded, as if to greet a living pharaoh.

Between Memphis and the "Tableland of Mummies," lay a peculiar division of the city. All its buildings were devoted to the dead, and it was inhabited only by dissectors and embalmers.

This division was the forecourt as it were, of the cemetery proper, the bridge which joined living society with the city of endless rest. To this place were brought corpses, and mummies were made of them; here families stipulated with priests, touching the cost of funerals. Here were prepared sacred books and bandages, coffins, implements, vessels, and statues for the departed.

This district was a couple of thousand yards from Memphis. It was surrounded by a long wall provided with gates here and there.

The retinue bearing the remains of the pharaoh halted before the richest gate, and one of the priests knocked at it.

"Who is there?" inquired those within.

"Osiris-Mer-Amen-Ramses, the lord of two worlds, has come and desires that ye prepare him for his eternal journey," replied the priests.

"Is it possible that he, the sun of Egypt, is quenched? That he is dead who himself was breath and life?"

"Such was his will," answered a priest. "Receive, then, the lord with due honor and render all service to him, as is befitting, lest punishments meet you in this and the coming life."

"We will do as ye say," said a voice from within.

The priests left the litter, and went away hurriedly, so that the evil odor of remains accumulated in that place should not fall on them. Only civil officials under the lead of the supreme judge and treasurer remained there.

'After they had waited a considerable time, the gate opened, and from ten to twenty persons showed themselves. They wore priestly garments and their faces were covered.

"We give you," said the judges, on seeing them, "the body of our lord and yours. Do with it what the rules of religion enjoin, and omit nothing, so that the great deceased may not experience unquiet in that world through your fault."

The treasurer added,

"Use gold, silver, malachite, jasper, emerald, turquoise, and the most rare kinds of incenses for this lord, so that nothing be lacking that he may have whatever is best. I, the treasurer, say this to you. And if the wretch should be found who, instead of noble metals, gives counterfeit, and instead of genuine stones, gives Phoenician glass, let him remember that his hands will be cut off and his eyes dug out."

"It will be as ye wish," replied one of the veiled priests.

Others raised the litter and bore it to the interior of the district of the dead.

"Thou art going in peace to Abydos! Mayst Thou go in peace to the Theban West. To the West, to the West, to the land of the just ones!"

The gate closed, the supreme judge, the treasurer, and the officials accompanying them returned to the palace.

The hooded priests bore the litter to an immense building where only the remains of pharaohs were embalmed, or those of high dignitaries who had gained the exceptional favor of a pharaoh.

The priests stopped in the antechamber, where stood the golden boat on wheels, and took the corpse from the litter.

"Look ye!" cried one of the cowled priests, "are they not criminals? The pharaoh died in the chapel of Osiris, so he must have been in ceremonial costume, while here oh! instead of gold ornaments bronze; the chain is bronze, too, and on his breast false jewels!"

"True," said another. "I am curious to know who fitted him out thus: priests, or scribes?"

"Surely priests. Oh, would that your hands withered, ye scoundrels! And some wretch they are all such dared command us to give the deceased what was best."

"It was not they, but the treasurer."

"They are all rogues."

Thus discoursing, the embalmers took from the deceased his garments of a pharaoh, put on him a gown of cloth of gold and bore the remains to the boat.

"Thanks to the gods," said one of the cowled men, "we have a new pharaoh. He will bring the priests to order. What they have taken with their hands they will bring back with their mouths."

"Uuu! they say that he will be a shrewd ruler," put in another. "He is friendly with the Phoenicians; he passes time willingly with Pentuer, who is not of priestly family, but of such poor people as we. But the army, they say the army would let itself be burnt and drowned for the new pharaoh."

"Besides, he conquered the Libyans most gloriously a few days ago."

"Where is he now, that new pharaoh?" asked another. "In the desert? I am afraid that misfortune may meet him before he comes back to us."

"What will any one do to him when he has an army behind him? May I not live to an honest burial if the young lord will not treat the priests as a buffalo treats growing wheat."

"O Thou fool!" interrupted an embalmer who had been silent till that moment. "The pharaoh conquer the priests!"

"Why not?"

"But hast Thou ever seen that a lion tore down a pyramid?"

"Nonsense!"

"Or that a buffalo tossed it apart?"

"Of course he cannot toss it."

"Or that a tempest overturned it."

"What has this man begun at today?"

"Well, I tell thee that sooner will a lion, a buffalo, or a tempest overturn the great pyramid than the pharaoh put an end to the priesthood. Even if that pharaoh were a lion, a buffalo, and a tempest in one person."

"Hei ye, there!" cried men from above. "Is the corpse ready?"

"Yes, yes; but its jaw has fallen," answered they at the entrance.

"All one give it up here, for Isis must go to the city an hour from now."

After a while the golden boat with the dead pharaoh was raised by means of ropes to an internal balcony.

From the entrance it went into a great hall, painted in the color of the sky, and ornamented with golden stars. Through the whole length of the hall, from one wall to the other, was fixed a balcony in the form of an arch the ends of which were one story high and the centre a story and a half.

The hall represented the dome of heaven, the balcony the road of the sun in the sky. The late pharaoh was to represent Osiris, or the sun, which passes from the east to the west.

On the pavement of the hall stood a throng of priests and priestesses who, while waiting for the solemnity, conversed about indifferent subjects.

"Ready!" cried they from the balcony.

Conversation ceased. Above was heard the sound of a metal plate beaten thrice and on the balcony appeared the golden boat of the sun in which the late pharaoh was advancing.

Below sounded the hymn in honor of the sun:

"Behold he appears in a cloud to separate the sky from the earth, and later to connect them.

"Hidden unceasingly in all things, he alone lives, in him all things exist through eternity."

The boat moved gradually upward on the balcony; finally it halted at the highest point.

Then at the lower end of the arch appeared a priestess, arrayed as the goddess Tsis, with her son Horus, and with equal slowness she began to ascend. That was an image of the moon, which follows the sun.

Now the boat from the top of the arch began to go toward the west, and the chorus below sang again:

"The god incarnate in all things, the spirit of Shu in all gods. He is the body of a living person, the creator of the tree which bears fruit, the causer of fertilizing overflows. Without him nothing lives in the earthly circle." [Authentic hymn.]

The boat vanished at the western termination of the balcony, Isis and Horus stopped at the summit of the arch. A crowd of priests ran to the boat, took out the corpse of the pharaoh and placed it on a marble table, as Osiris to rest after his toils of the day.

Now to the dead man came the dissector, dressed as the god Typhon. On his head were a horrid mask and a red tangled wig, on his shoulders the skin of a wild boar, and in his hand an Ethiopian stone knife.

With this knife he began quickly to cut off the soles of the dead pharaoh's sandals.

"What art Thou doing, O Typhon, to thy sleeping brother?" asked Isis from the balcony.

"I am scraping the feet of my brother Osiris, so that he may not befoul heaven with earthly dust," replied the dissector dressed as Typhon.

When he had cut off the soles, the dissector took a bent wire, thrust it into the nostrils of the deceased and began to extract his brains. Next he made an opening in his body, and through that opening drew out quickly the heart, lungs, and viscera.

During this time the assistants of Typhon brought four great urns adorned with the heads of the gods Hape, Emset, Duamut and Quebhsneuf, and in each of those urns he placed some internal organ of the deceased pharaoh.

"But what art Thou doing, O brother Typhon?" inquired Isis a second time.

"I am purifying my brother Osiris of earthly things, so that he may become more beautiful," replied the dissector.

At the side of the marble table was a vat of water with soda in solution. The dissectors, when they had cleaned the body, put it into the vat where it was to soak seventy days.

Meanwhile Isis, when she had passed over the entire vault, approached the chamber where the dissectors had cleaned the pharaoh's body. She looked at the marble table, and, seeing that it was empty, inquired in terror,

"Where is my brother? Where is my divine consort?"

Thereupon thunder roared, trumpets and bronze plates sounded; the dissector disguised as Typhon burst into laughter, and cried,

"O beautiful Isis, who in company with the stars delightest the night, thy consort exists not. Never again will the radiant Osiris sit in the golden boat, never again will that sun appear on the firmament. I have done this, I, Set, and I have hidden him so deeply that none of the gods, nor all the gods together will find him."

At these words the goddess rent her garments, she groaned and tore her hair. Again sounded trumpets, thunder, and plates; among the priests and priestesses an uproar began, then shouting and curses. Suddenly all rushed at Typhon crying,

"Cursed spirit of darkness! Thou rousest the whirlwinds of the desert, Thou rousest the sea, darkenest the light of day! Mayst Thou fall into the pit from which the father of the gods himself could not free thee. Cursed! Cursed Set! May thy name be a disgust and a terror!"

While cursing in this way they all attacked Typhon with fists and clubs; the red-haired god fled, and rushed at last out of the building.

Again the bronze plates sounded thrice, and the solemnity was ended.

"Well, that is enough!" cried the senior priest to the assembly which had begun to fight in earnest. "Thou, Isis, mayest return to the city, but the rest of us must go to other departed ones who are waiting for our services. We must not neglect the ordinary dead, for it is unknown how much they will pay us for this one."

"Not much indeed!" interrupted the embalmer. "People say that there is nothing in the treasury, while the Phoenicians threaten to cease lending unless new rights are given them."

"May death destroy all those Phoenicians! Soon a man will be forced to beg a barley cake of them; even now they have snatched away everything."

"But unless they lend the pharaoh money we shall get nothing for the funeral."

Conversation ceased gradually, and those present left the heavenly hall. Only at the vat where the body of the pharaoh lay steeping was a guard left.

All this solemnity, representing the legend of the slaying of Osiris (the sun) by Typhon (the god of night and crime), served to open and clean the body of the pharaoh, and in this way prepare it for the embalming proper.

During seventy days the departed must lie in a solution of soda, in memory, it seems, of this, that the wicked Typhon had sunk the body of his brother in the Soda Lakes. During all these days a priestess, dressed as Isis, came to the heavenly hall, morning and evening. There, groaning and tearing her hair, she inquired of all present whether any one had seen her divine consort and brother.

At the expiration of that time of mourning, Horus, the son and heir of Osiris, with his suite appeared in the hall, and they were the first to see the vat with the solution.

"Might we look here for the remains of my father and brother?" asked Horus.

So they searched and found; amid the immense delight of the priests, with sounds of music, they removed the body of the pharaoh from the strengthening bath.

The body was put into a stone cylinder through which passed a hot breeze for a number of days, and, when the body was dried they gave it to the embalmers.

Now began the most important ceremonies, which were performed by the supreme priests of the court of the dead:

The body of the departed, turned head southward, they washed with consecrated water and the interior with palm wine. On the pavement, which was sprinkled with ashes, sat wailing women who tore their hair and scratched their faces; they bewailed the late pharaoh. Around the couch where the body lay were assembled priests dressed as gods. These were Isis naked with a crown of the pharaohs, the youthful Horns, Anubis with a jackal head, bird-headed Tot with tablets in his hands, and many others.

Under the inspection of this worthy assembly, specialists began to fill the body with strongly odorous plants and sawdust, they even poured in odorous resin, all amid prayers. Then in his eye-sockets they inserted glass eyes set in bronze. After that the whole body was sprinkled with powdered soda.

Another priest appeared now who explained to those present that the body of the departed was the body of Osiris, that his qualities were the qualities of Osiris. "The magic qualities of his left temple are the qualities of the god Turn and his right eye is the eye of the god Turn, whose rays pierce through darkness. His left eye is the eye of Horus, which dazzles every living creature; the upper lip that of Isis, and the lower that of Nefthys. The neck of the departed is the goddess, his hands are divine spirits, his fingers the heavenly serpents, sons of the goddess Setkit. His sides are the two feathers of Amon, his back the backbone of Sib, his belly is the good Nue." [Maspero]

Another priest spoke,

"A mouth was given me for speaking, feet for walking, hands to overturn my enemies. I rise from the dead, I exist, I open heaven; I do what has been commanded me in Memphis." [Authentic]

Meanwhile on the neck of the departed they hung a scarab made of a precious stone, on which was this inscription: "O my heart, heart which I received from my mother, which I had when I was on earth, O heart do not rise against me and do not give evil witness in the day of judgment." [Authentic]

Next priests wound around each arm and foot, each finger and toe of the dead, strips on which were written prayers and spells. Those strips they fastened with gum and balsam. On the breast and on the neck they placed complete manuscripts of the Book of the Dead with the following meditations which the priests read aloud over the body,

"I am he before whom no god puts an obstacle.

"Who is that?

"He is Turn on his shield, he is Ra on his shield, which rises in the east of heaven.

"I am Yesterday and I know Tomorrow.

"Who is he?

"Yesterday is Osiris, Tomorrow is Ra on the day when he annihilates the enemies of the Lord who is above all and when he consecrates his son Horus. In other words, in the day when his father Ra meets the coffin of Osiris. He conquers the gods at command of Osiris, the lord of the mountain Amenti.

"What is that?

"Amenti is a creation of the soul of the gods, at command of Osiris, the lord of the mountain.

"In other words, Amenti is that impulse roused by Ra. Every god who arrives there carries on a battle. I know the great god who dwells there.

"I am from my country, I come from my city, I destroy evil, I set aside that which is not good, I remove uncleanness from myself, I betake myself to the country of dwellers in heaven, I enter through the mighty gate.

"O ye comrades, give me a hand, for I shall be one of you." ["Book of the Dead."]

When every member of the departed was covered with prayer bandages, and furnished with amulets, when he had a sufficient supply of meditations to find the way in the region of the gods, it was proper to think of a document which would open the gate of that region. For between the tomb and heaven forty-two terrible judges were waiting for the dead man; these, under presidency of Osiris, examined his earthly life. Only when the heart of the departed, weighed in the scales of justice, appeared equal to the goddess of truth, when the god Dutes, who writes on his tablets the deeds of the dead, considered it just, only then did Horus take the soul by the hand and lead it before the throne of Osiris.

So that the dead might be able to justify himself before the court it was necessary to wrap the mummy in a papyrus on which was written a general confession. While they were winding him in this document the priest spoke clearly and with emphasis, so that the dead might not forget:

"Lords of truth, I bring thee truth itself. I have not done evil to any man treacherously. I have not made any one near me unfortunate. I have not permitted myself any lewdness or abusive word in the house of veracity. I have had no intimacy with evil. I have committed nothing bad. As a superior I have not commanded my subordinates to work beyond their strength. No one through my fault has become afraid, poor, suffering, or unhappy. I have done nothing of any kind which the gods would despise. I have not tormented a slave. I have not killed him with hunger. I have not forced tears from him. I have not slain. I have not commanded to kill a slave treacherously. I have not lied, I have not plundered the property of temples. I have not decreased incomes devoted to the gods. I have not taken away the bread or the bandages of mummies. I have not committed sin with the priest of my district. I have not taken from him or decreased his property. I have not used false weights. I have not snatched away an infant from the breast of its nurse. I have never committed anything bestial. I have not caught in nets birds devoted to the gods. I have not hindered the inundation of water. I have not turned away the course of canals. I have not quenched fire at a time that was improper, I have not stolen from the gods offerings which they had chosen. I am pure I am pure I am pure." ["Book of the Dead." This is one of the loftiest documents left us by antiquity.]

When the departed was able, thanks to the Book of the Dead to help himself in the region of eternity, and above all when he knew how to justify himself before the court of the forty-two gods, the priests furnished him still further with an introduction to this book, and explained to him orally its immense importance. In view of this the embalmers who surrounded the fresh mummy of the pharaoh withdrew and a high priest of that quarter came and whispered into the ear of the departed:

"Know that through the possession of this book Thou shalt belong to the living and attain to great significance among gods. Know that, thanks to it, no one will dare to oppose thee. The gods themselves will approach thee and embrace thee, for Thou wilt belong to their company.

"Know that this book informs thee of what was at the beginning. No man has uttered it, no eye has seen it, no ear has heard it. This book is truth itself, but no one has ever known it. Let it be seen only through thee and through him who will behold thee in it. Add to it no commentary which thy memory or imagination might suggest to thee. It is written entirely in the hall where the departed are embalmed. It is a great secret which no common man knows, not one in the world.

"This book will be thy nourishment in the lower region of spirits, it will give thy soul means of sojourn on the earth, it will give it life eternal, and effect this, that no one will have power over thee." ["Book of the Dead."]

The remains of the pharaoh were arrayed in costly garments, with a gold mask on the face, with bracelets on the wrists, and with rings on the hands, which were crossed on the breast. Under the head was put a support of ivory, such as Egyptians were accustomed to sleep on. Finally the body was enclosed in three coffins: one of paper covered with inscriptions, one of cedar which was gilt, and one of marble. The form of the first two corresponded accurately to the form of the body; even the sculptured face was like the original, though smiling.

After a stay of three months in the quarter of the dead the mummy of the pharaoh was ready for a solemn funeral; therefore it was taken back to the palace.