Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-09-18
ANCIENT EGYPTIANS.
NOTIONS OF THE PEOPLE WHO
BUILT THE PYRAMIDS.

gin of the Practice of Embalming.
Bodies of Stone or wood-Why Egyp-
tians Are So Frequently Mutilated.
The oldest form the ancient Egyptians at
tributed to the soul was that of q shadows |
double born with each person, and following |
him through the various stages of life, grow |
ing as lie grew and declining as he declined. |
They applied this theory not only to human |
beings but also to gods and animals. trees |
and stones Everybody and everything was
held to have its double, even beds. chairs and |
knives The component particles of these |
doubles were so minute and subtle that or
binary people could not perceive them Only |
special order of priests or seers, gifted or
trained for the purpose, could identify the
doubles of the gods and obtain from them a
knowledge of past and future events The
doubles Of men and inanimate objects re-
manned securely hidden from sight in the or
binary course of life. Still, they sometimes
left the body, endowed with color and voice,
and went away to manifest themselves at a
distance, after the manner of modern ghosts.
THE DOUBLES" AFTER DEATH
After death the doubles maintained not
only the characteristics of the particular
man they had been associated with while in
| the flesh, but were subjected to the common
wants and pains of humanity-to hunger
| and thirst, to heat and cold to fatigue and
| nlness-with the aggravation that, whereas
| the living have ways and means of self pro-
lection against the evils which hefall them,
the dead are utterly destitute Ii left to
themselves they were doomed to roam about
the places they had inhabited and feed upon
the refuse OF houses with certainty of per-
ishing after prolonging their miserable ex-
istence for a short time If properly at
tended to-if provided with food and other
necessaries-they had fair chance to live
on and on for an indefinite period. They
did not become immortal, the splendid in
vention of Immortality" as prominent
American statesman has called it, was IN
known in primitive Egypt; but at least they
often had facilities for survival that were al
most equivalent to immortality, as is pointed
out by Mr. G. Masporo, in an interesting
contribution to The Princeton Review, emit
tied Egyptian Souls and Their Worlds"
from which the facts in this article are
mainly derived 1t IS easy to believe that
the germ of the latter conviction of another
and everlasting life was present in this crude
notion of a double-a soul apart from the
I
under favorable conditions, for an unlimited
| time.
Since the double was a perfect image Of
the being to which it had been linked at
birth, it was natural that it should remain
near where the corpse was buried, and par
ticipate in its destinies, Having grown with
the body, it ought logically to decay with the
body, and thus there was reason to believe
that the natural term of its existence after
the body's death might be measured by the
time required for the human frame to disin-
tegrate completely Therefore, the Egyptian
savants decided the best means OF arresting
the decomposition of the soul was to stop
the decomposition of the flesh, and to this,
Mr.. Maspero suggests, we probably owe the
practice of embalming. The driving up and
hardening Of the mummy enabled it to last
for centuries, and to serve as a kind OF stay
for its double
STONE OR WOODEN BODIES
But this expedicnt was not wholly salts
factory. since even the best of mummies
could not endure forever-and then what
would become of the double! The only way
they found out of this difficulty was to pro-
vide stone or wooden bodies against the pos
sibility of the mummy molderiug away.
Most of the statues discovered in Egyptian
tombs, Mr.. Maspero assures Us, were only
bodies for the doubles of the men buried in
them. To prevent them from being broken
to pieces or carried away, they walled them
up in dark cels-some standing, some sitting,
some squatting, according to taste or con-
venience; and all were as like the model as
fst could make them, that the soul might
more easily adapt itself to them.
There was no limit to the number of such
efigies but the piety or wealth of the surviv-
ing relatives; the more numerous they were
J the better it was for the dead One statue
was, after all, only one chance of perpetuity
: and p g. 10 or % statues gave the double Sc
many chances more. The statues in the TEN
piles had the same meaning as those in the
tombs; TIE doubles OF kings or gods-not the
whole, but certain particles-were fixed upor
, them by prayers and conservation, and ami
, mated them. Thus it was that they were abb
to move head or arms, to answer questions
and to give forth orlcleS, Statues were mo-
, mere works of art, they were things alive
and are even to this day. Mr.. Maspero de
clares only the double Of old has turned int
: bad spirit in modern Egypt, and haunt
. the spot where il was revered ages ago as
e sanity soul or god It is wont to frightel
men out Of their wits, TO drive them raving
= mad, and sometimes TO kill them. But /
loses its power when the body Of stone witt
which it cousorts has been mutilated. Tha
4 is the reason. Mr.. Maspero informs Us, VIII,
, so many statues in our museums display
: broken nose or battered cheek; the feila
:, heen who found them defacad them in orde
= to lame the double in them and prevent
y from doing any harm The tomb was tn
t house of the double, and there on certai
J. days the family brought provisions of a
= kinds--a custom which ultimately took tn
= form of offerings that were mere painted G
3 carved limitations of natural meat and drinl
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