Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-04-13
OLD EGYPT'S CREEDS.
The Progress of the Soul After Its
Release From the Body.
IDEAS INVOLVED IN EMBALMING.
How Mummies We're Made and the Base
Uses to Which They We're Put.
DEVELOPMENT OF ART AND SCIENCE
WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH. 1

WRITTEN FOR THE DIsPATCH.1
| Egypt of all the ancient kin gdoms is the
most attractive to the student. In the
thousands of years which have passed, the
amazing works which line and beautify the
Nile with their ruins and hieroglyphic his
tories, with the deep obscurity of the gray
mists of Time, solemn. romantic mystery
has been given to that country, which was a
| populous powerful empire even when
faithful Abraham wandered into it, and
when his great-grandson, Joseph, was Gov
ernor of it. And during the time of the
| Patriarchs these won dertul temples, pyra-
mids and colossal monoliths were coming
| into shape on the Nile.
The great shadow of obscurity and silence
has fallen on its past, and very little of
| it gives sound now. except the voice of vocal
Memnon, whose musical tones it is said can
yet be heard. Great lapses are met with in
connecting its history, but the hero
| glyphs give some idea of their gods, their
religion, solemn rites and forms and cere-
monies which they necessarily, as a great
nation, observed. The human mind cannot
help being fascinated and awestricken by its
colossal status, its pyramids and obelsks.
Its antiquity is so far back that the priests,
according to Herodotus, endeavored to make
it appear that the gods were its first kings,
who had ruled Il, $40 wears; but according
to others its beginning was under Misraim
or Meneon 21SS B. G.
RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT.
The theology of the ancient Egyptians is
| still a mystery as far as any writing is
concerned-for' it was evidently the object
| of the priests to hide the character of their
| religious rites. Mysticism was the princi-
pal part of their religion-no religious be-
| lief was brought down to exact form.
Names were given by which the gods were
to be invoked, and the prayers and cere-
monies to be used in addressing them were
| fixed by positive regulation-but the ideas
of the penitent as regards the deities he was
| addressing varied according to his culture,
Manetho, a priest of Heliopolis, wrote an
account of the Egyptian religion in B. c. 261.
which was culled from all of the authors who
preceded him. He denied the divinity of
the Egyptian gods, and declared that they
had all lived upon the earth as human
beings.
Osiris, the chief god of the Egyptians,
was the son of Saturn by Rhca. At his
| birth there was heard voice proclaiming
that the Lord of all was coming to light.
| He was the brother and husband of Isis
(the Moon), by whom he had son, Horos
| (Apollo). He was, in some instances, iden-
titled with the Sun, or the creative power.
He was cousin to the Day, kinsman of Light
and Morning, and so his murderer and
brother (Typhon) was god of the Eclipses,
darkness of the Shadow, and personifcation
of Evil. Osiris became King of the Egyp-
tians, and taught them husbandry and wine
making, and then travelled over the world,
extending the knowledge of civilization.
While on his long journey Isis governed
his kingdom and repelled the onslaughts of
Typhon (the Evil principe). Osiris had
many names, "The Meek-Hearted, ""Mani-
festor of Good" "Lord of the East" But
in his higher attributes and sacred and mys-
terious office as superior to every other deity,
his name was not mentioned. Herodotus
says, alter describing the sacrifcial rights
at the feast of Isis, that he was not permitted
to say in whose honor they were. He never
spoke of Osiris by name.
In the earlier and purer days of Egyptian
worship Osiris represented the UNNAMED
Goodness of the Supreme Being" 1t was
believed that he quilted his celestial throne
and assumed the human form without be-
coming human, for the benefit OF mankind,
and that on earth he was vauquished by the
Power of Evil; that he rose again to con-
quer evil by his resurrection, and that he
was then appointed Judge of the Dead and
Lord Of the Celestial Region" He was the
only manifestation on earth of "the Su-
preme God"
Isis, who was the wife of Osiris, was
called in different places the "Eve of the
Sun, Mistress of Heaven" ""Regent of
the Gods" and the mysterious rites of her
worship were confined TO only few of the
initiated. Her shrine was always veiled,
which no mortal ever lifted. She was the
colleague of Osiris in the solemn judgment
of the dead. Horos was their son and rep
resented childhood, the emblem OF repro
duction. To these three the beautiful
island of Phile, in the Nile. was dedicated.
1t was to the ancient Egyptian simply the
most sacred place on earth, and pilgrimages
were made to Phil@ as to Jerusalem and
Mecca Of later days. The most solemn oath
an Egyptian could make was "By Him, the
Unnamed and Unnamable, that sleeps in
Phila." 1t was profane for any person but |
priests to approach it, and many thought |
that even the birds would not fly over it nor
the fishes approach its shores. ''The souls of
the blessed went off the earth, and entering |
the boat Of the God Ra, there enjoy the per-
petual streams of light which emanate from |
his orb" Each deity had a sacred animal |
which received local worship.
BELIEFS AS TO THE SOUL.
The Egyptians believed in the transmit |
grafton of souls, and all not sufficiently |
pure to be admitted Into the Courts of the |
Sun, or whose bodies had perished before |
the expiration of 5000 years, passed from
body to body, having first descended to the
Hades and passed through the appointed |
trials and regions, endeavoring to reach the |
Manifestation Of Light. In this progress
the soul was required to know and tell the
names of the regions and the doors and |
their guardian demons through which it
had to pass. The preservation of the body
was necessary for the return of the soul to
the human form alter it had completed its
cycle of from 1000 to 10000 years.
The art of embalming must have been
very old as Cheops and others were en-
balmed 1000 years, B. c., and so were
Jacob and Joseph embalmed. 1t was the
custom for relatives of the dead to pass
through the streets wailing for the dead. II
undertakers; if female the body was kept
at home until decomposition had COM
menced. The body was then taken to an
establishment, where an official marked
red line along the lett side beneath the ribs,
down which line a deep incision was made
by an officer called Paraschstes. He was
then driven away by stones and curses, and
another embalmer removed the entrails and
lungs, leaving the kidneys and heart The /
brain was removed through the nose by
crooked instrument, and then the body was
ready for the embalming process of sailing
and spicing and other operations which de-
pended on the amount OF money which was
to be paid for it.
COSTLY PROCESS.
Herodotus says that the wealthy had
peculiar drugs inserted into the skull
through the nostrils. The cavity of the
body was washed out with palm wine, filled
with rasins and cassia. The incision in the