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The Liturgy of Funerary Offerings

By E. A. Wallis Budge

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The Third Ceremony

The third ceremony of purification was performed by means of water, in which two different kinds of incense had been dissolved. The rubric in the text of Unas mentions "two balls" of incense, but that of the text of Peta-Amen-apt says that one ball shall be of incense of Shet pet, i.e., of the incense prepared from the salt found in the Natron Valley, and the other of the salt which is found near the city of Nekheb, or Eileithyiapolis. Shut pet was a portion of the Sekhet-Hemam, or "Field of Salt," known to-day as the "Wadi an-Natrun," which lies about forty-five miles to the northwest of Cairo, and the incense made from the salt deposits here was called "Incense of the North." The incense made from the salt deposits near Nekheb was called "Incense of the South." The KA whose statue had been purified by incense from each place was free to journey through the North and South of Egypt, and in a sense it made him "lord of the Two Lands," i.e., of all Egypt. The priest, having dissolved the balls of natron in the water in the vessel, poured it out into

The Sem priest pouring water from a libation vase into a libation bowl held by a ministrant.

a bowl held by an assistant. He then took the bowl, and, going round the statue four times, sprinkled it with the water of the natrons of the South and North, whilst the Kher heb repeated the following words four times:--

"This libation is for thee, O Osiris, this libation is "for thee, O Unas; it cometh forth from thy son, it cometh forth from Horus.

"I have come and I have brought unto thee the Eye of Horus, that thy heart may be refreshed therewith. I have brought it [and placed it] under thee, [under] thy sandals, and I have presented unto thee that which floweth forth from thee. Whilst it is with thee there shall be no stoppage of thy heart, and it shall be with thee with the things (or, persons) which came forth at the [sound of the] voice."

The libation now poured forth represents the moisture which Horus sends forth from himself and from his Eye, and is intended to take the place in the body of the deceased of that which flowed forth from him before death, or during the process of mummification. The deceased is identified with Osiris, and Horus therefore becomes his son. This fluid of Horus will make the heart of the deceased to live again, just as the water in which the heart of Bata was placed in the Tale of the Two Brothers, having been absorbed, made it to live. So long as a supply of it exists in the body of the deceased his heart shall not stop, and this supply was provided among the "things which come forth at the voice," i.e., the offerings. We have already seen that pert kheru is a name given to offerings, because they were believed to appear when the deceased, or the priest, ordered them to appear, and it is clear that the words pertha nek kheru in the text here refer to the offerings. The Egyptians attached great importance to spoken words, and they regarded the power of speech and the gift of the voice as mighty weapons, both for the living and the dead. The KAU, or Doubles, of the dead who had learned to utter words correctly, and who knew the proper tones to employ in uttering them, were in a position to go where they pleased and to do what they liked, for no god, spirit, fiend, or devil, and no inanimate object, could help obeying the commands which they uttered. The order for food or water having been given by them, food or water appeared forthwith.

In the passage translated above are the words "that which floweth forth," which I have used as the equivalent of the Egyptian word ertu. The exact meaning of the word is "effluxes," or "outflowings," and the determinatives show that by ertu we are to understand the strong-smelling liquid which exudes from a dead body. Several passages in the Book of the Dead support this view, as the following examples will prove. In Chapter LXIIIB. 2, we have, "I have lifted up the efflux from Osiris;" in Chapter CXIX., "Pure are the effluxes which are borne away from thee;" in Chapter CXLVII. 6, "I have come unto thee, Osiris, pure one of effluxes;" in Chapter CXLIX. (Aat XIII.), "Like the stream from the effluxes coming forth from Osiris;"

and in Aat XIV. of the same Chapter, "I shall not be destroyed by the effluxes which come forth from Osiris." The effluxes of Osiris here referred to are undoubtedly the humours which were believed to have drained out of the body of Osiris when Horus and his "sons" were embalming it. From the above passages it is clear that the Egyptians regarded these humours as pure or holy, for they represented the very essence of the god. Now the Egyptians were not the only people in the world who attached mystic power and importance to the fluid which ran out from the dead, but though the texts make it certain that they did, we cannot learn from them exactly why they should do so. The reason is, however, not far to seek. Mr. Crawley tells us (Mystic Rose, p. 287) that communion with the dead is most exactly reached, and the identity of eating with a person and eating him most clearly shown, in the common Australian practice in which mourners drink the humours of the decaying corpse, or eat its flesh. The Kurnai anoint themselves with decomposed matter from the dead. It is done in the Kingsmills to "remember him." So in Timorlaut mourners smear themselves with the fluids of the corpse. The Aru islanders drink them "to effect union with the dead man." Some of the liquid is kept in order to injure enemies. The object of drinking the liquid is, clearly, to obtain the qualities of the dead man, his strength, and, perhaps, his vital power, and it is possible also that those who indulged in such practices did so with the idea of avoiding injury from the departed spirit. What the Egyptians did with the humours of the dead is unknown, but in the case of great and holy men, that which drained from their bodies was certainly turned to some good account by the living. The custom of draining the dead body of its moisture is common enough among modern peoples of Central Africa, as we may see from the account of a great Baluba chief's death quoted by Sir H. Johnston (Grenfell and the Congo, ii., p. 655). "When an important Luba chief expires, every one, great and small, must mourn in a subdued tone; the members of all the brotherhoods come before the house where the body lies to perform dances; the women violently strike their hatchet and hoe against each other. This deafening hubbub lasts a day. . . . During this time a young slave is obtained, his neck is broken by a heavy blow, and he is laid by the corpse for two days. He is the chiefs boy attendant. His wives, squatting near him, do not cease their lamentations. Some days pass in this way without other incidents, after which the stiffened limbs are forcibly bent, and the body placed in the wicker 'coffin. In the house two stages are raised, one above the other; on the upper one is placed the coffin, on the lower one a large earthen pot. The body decomposes; a noxious liquid infested with maggots escapes from it and falls into the receptacle; it is left there for several weeks." The Belgian missionary who describes the chief's burial does not tell us what was done with the "noxious liquid," but, as human flesh and bones form an important element in the "medicines" which are prescribed by medicine men in Central Africa, we are probably justified in assuming that the liquid was used in the same way.