# Books on Egypt and Chaldaea/Collection 7/Volume 25/Third Ceremony

Layout 2
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 Unȧs mentions “two balls” of incense, but that of the text of Peṭā-Ȧmen-ȧpt 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
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 ḥeb repeated the following words four times:--
“This libation is for thee, O Osiris, this libation is ​for thee, O Unȧs; 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 perthȧ uck 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.
​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.