Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1888-07-29

summoned anybody 10 him, they come
10 hin, their hearts disturbed by the fear
OF him, for nobody darss look up
at him from amongst gods and men. The
great are to him the same as the small,
and he spares not who loves him, but
tears the nursing from the mother % no
does the old man, and everybody who
meets him is filed with alright. AL the
men who beseech before him. he never
attends to them nobody goes to impiore
him. for be never listens to those who
implore him, and heneyer looks to those
who bring him presents OF all sorts OF
things
The second tradition, which spread
very carly all over Egypt, took more
cheerful view OF the conditions OF disem-
bodied souls 1t held that the Land OF
Osiris. which supplanted the Land OF
Sokaris, consisted of several islands
hidden away in the marshes OF the Delta.
and made inaccessible TO the living by
mud, quickssnd, and thickets OF giant
buIrushes. The dead, previously in
structed BY the priests, went up to
spot where spectral ferry-bOat waited to
take them across, if they proved to be
true followers of Osiris. This boat
theory was not universally accepted
como thought that souls coming
to the brink OF the water found
there Thot, the 1bisgod, who took
them upon his wings and bore
them over 10 Osiris. Each Of the islands
had its own name, and the whole was
known ss the Field OF Asphodel. There
the souls lived their second existence In
the light of sun and moon, working and
resting alternately, fishing and hunting,
playing chess, making love, and even
reading books. But this paradise was
not secluded enough to prevent intrusion,
as it turned out and so OSIRIS departed
from the world and settled. islands and
all, in the neighborhood Of the Great
Bear, in the northern part Of the Milky
Way. At first it must have been diff
cult for the Egyptians TO contriye means
of lifting 30 high souls endowed with
body; but they we're practical people
and the puzzle was duly solved. Mr..
Maspero says:
Earth was not TO The Egyptians what it
is to US, q globe carried safely through
space by The laws OF grayitalion; every
body in Egypt knew that it Yves flat,
oblong, quadrangular slab, More like the
upper board OF table than anything
they could imsgise. Itwas surmouuted
by fat iron roof stretching at some
distance from it and supported by four
strong pillars which prevented it from
falling and crushing what was under
meath. Thus the world was like two
stored house, the various parts OF which
might be connected, rs they are in our
houses, by q staircase or by n ladder.
The Egyptians supposed that there
was somewhere III the West a
tall ladder which went up straight
from eerth TO heaven. Gods and
eoddesscs watched it day and night.
Nobody was allowed 10 climb 1t unless
be knew the password, and, even after
giving IL, those POOR souls were IN
danger of never reaching the top who
were not helped by the hand of some
piteous divinity. Once on the solid
floor OF the armament, they travelled
northvard until they came TO the brink
of the boreal ocean there they found the
ferry. boat or the ibis OF Ihot, the Judge
Osiris and his assessors, the Islands OF
the Happy, where they settled forever
and ever amongst the indestructible
stars, as indostructible rs any of them
Osiris could not remain long in Heaven
without meeting khontsmentit, the dead
form of solar divinity, Anhouri, or OF
q solar divinity coupled with g cosmic
one. Anhour-Shou. Khontamentit had
a kingdom in the West, and knew how
TO escape the common fate OF all living
beings He subsisted in regular ex-
changes from life to death and from
death to life, typifed in the setting and
rising of the sun. The place where the
sun passed from the world OF the living
TO the world of the dead was described
as q slit in the mountain, through which
the perennial stream that ran In Heaven,
floating the golden barges Of the gods,
flowed from light INTO darkness.
The ark OF the sun, coming up
to it, met tho crowd Of souls
every evening from Egypt, and such as
had been faithful were borne away to tho
happy land. The way led near the
region OF the sky which was occupied by
Osiris, anL shus it came about through
fortunate affinity, that there was first a
connection, and soon an identification,
accomplished between Osiris and Khon-
tsmentit, as there had previously been
between Osiris and Sokaris. This sb-
sorption Of the three gods in one served
70 confuse the several creeds in q most
novel and irreooncilable way, but the
EgyptiAns did not mind that. Things
relating to the other life were not so
much matter of reSson with them as
matter OF faith, and they accepted tho
theories Of their philosophers without
analysis.
But as time passed there arose @ class
Of thinkers whe sought to harmonic the
various prevailing conceptions OF the fu-
ture life, or, where this Was otpossible,
TO tone down and even to suppress en-
tirely such a. could not be made to agree
with their creed. They lived under the
great Thsban dynssties at the time that
the worship OF Amoura had nesrly sue
ceeded in establishing all over Egypt tho
belief in ono angle god, and that a
solar one. They were convinced that
the only way for q soul to at
tain perpetual bliss was to become
ss one with the sun, and this
conviction was so strong in them that,
instead Of giving tho dead the name OF
Osiris, which had until then been re-
served for them, they identified them
with Ra, the Sun-god. They described
the travels OF the dead sun, Afou-the
flesh, the corpse of Rain the hidden
part of the world, named Douaout. The
Kingdom of Douaout was realm of
night, divided into twelve districts. cor
resnonding TO the twelve black
hours, over which ruled gods who
recognized the supremacy OF the
sun as the princes of Egypt acknow-
lodged the sovereignty of Pharaoh. Afou
inspected them every night. floating
down the dark river in them like living
Pharaoh on tho Nile, and stopping in
each OF them TO deliver addresses, to in
vest them with lands, and to infuse them
with new hfe-s very picturesque pro-
ceeding, and one which gave evidence Of
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