And then they
set there a double of the dead in the form of a statue in wood or
stone carved in his likeness. At last the opening to the vault was
sealed; the double was enclosed, but the living still provided for
him. They brought him foods or they might beseech a god that he supply
them to the spirit, as in this inscription, "An offering to Osiris
that he may confer on the Ka of the deceased N. bread, drink, meat,
geese, milk, wine, beer, clothing, perfumes--all good things and pure
on which the god (_i.e._ the Ka) subsists."
=Judgment of the Soul.=--Later, originating with the eleventh
dynasty, the Egyptians believed that the soul flew away from the body
and sought Osiris under the earth, the realm into which the sun seemed
every day to sink. There Osiris sits on his tribunal, surrounded by
forty-two judges; the soul appears before these to give account of his
past life. His actions are weighed in the balance of truth, his
"heart" is called to witness. "O heart," cries the dead, "O heart, the
issue of my mother, my heart when I was on earth, offer not thyself as
witness, charge me not before the great god.
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