As experience proved more and more that mum- mies did not leave the sepulchres, a distinction was drawn between the mummy (cha) and the Osiris; the former remained in. the coffin, the latter passed to the Plain of Aalu. All the same, however, the two were thought of as essen- tially identical. The mummy was equipped for the jour to the world beyond, the necessary amulets and magical formule were given to it, the tomb was so arranged that it could serve as a dwelling-place of the Osiris, and offerings of food and drink were put in it.
While, on the above view, the immortal part of the deceased, his soul as we should say, was an Osiris, thought of as with an earthly human form, in other ee the soul was quite differently con- ceived. But these divergent views were, even at an early, and still more fully at a later, period amalgamated with the Osiris conception just men- tioned, without on that account being completely
RELIGION OF EGYPT
given up. Thus it came about that a man was ' credited with a number of souls that pursued their course side by side. It was then supposed that in the man’s lifetime these souls were united, while at death they forsook the corpse and sought, each one independently, the way to the next world. If they succeeded in this, and if the deceased was found righteous when tried before Osiris, his souls once more united within him and lived with him in the Plain of Aalu, as they had once done on earth. The fact that these part-souls are bor- rowed from originally independent doctrines, ex- plains how the views of their nature frequently clash and contradict one another, and, above all, how a number of attributes are ascribed to several of the part-souls. Here, again, there is a complete lack of any systematic harmonizing of the various doctrines, which must of necessity be logically contradictory. Besides, it is to be remarked that the texts in general do not introduce all the part- souls at once, and that now one and now another, according to place and time, came more to the front. The following is a list of the most im- portant of them, along with some notes on the main significance attributed to each of them (cf. Wiedemann, The Ancient Egyptian Doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul, London, 1895, and ‘Le Livre des Morts’ in the Muséon, xv. 40 ff.) :—
Ka had the same form as the man, and corre- sponded to the Osiris, standing in much the same relation to the man as that in which the word stands to the thing, the name to the person. The ka was born with the man, and could, even during his lifetime, separate itself from him to a certain extent : thus Amenophis 111. honoured his own ka as a god. After a man’s death, the ca could at any time return into the mummy, animate it, and assume the dignity of the ‘ ka living in his coffin.’ For the most part, the cult of the dead recognized in the ka the essential personality of the deceased, the sacrificial formule were addressed to it, the tomb is its house, its temple, etc.
Ba has the form of a bird, mostly with human head and arms. At death it takes flight from the body, but visits it occasionally, and brings it food and drink. The 6a itself, like the ka, also re- quires nourishment, being thus as little as the rest of the part-souls thought of as an immaterial being.
Ab or hati is the heart. At death it leaves the man and goes by itself into the next world. In the Hall of Judgment it encounters its former possessor, and gives evidence, if need be, against him. In the event of his being pronounced right- eous, it was restored to him ; in the opposite case, the heart was supposed to live on in the Dwelling-
lace of Hearts. The deceased being bereft of his
eart was thereby consigned to annihilation, for without a heart no existence was possible. This notion led to a peculiar practice. In the process of embalming, the readily decomposing heart was removed from the body. But, as neither the latter nor the Osiris could ive without this organ, an artificial heart was substituted for the natural one. For this purpose they selected an amulet in the form of a small vase or of a scwrabeus beetle, the latter symbolizing the notions of Becoming, Being, and Resurrection in general.
Sahu is the form, the envelope of the man, _
Chaibit is the shadow cast by the man, which has an existence of its own, and is depicted as a black human form, or figuratively as a fan. :
Chu (achu) is a shining transfigured soul, which was frequently, it may be assumed, conceived of in bird form. ,
Sechem is the personally conceived strength and power of the man; occasionally it appears to stand also for the form of the dead.
PHILO 197
fen is the name of the man. As long as this survived, and monuments associated with it lasted, as long as sacrificial formule, which commemor- ated it, were uttered, the dead man also continued to live in the other world. In the Saitic period in particular, great importance was attached to the ren, the conception of which at times coincides with that of the ka.