Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1898-06-05

Judge had many assistants, or a large
| jury. Osiris had thus forty-two asses
sors-twenty-one in each row. Before
| them the deceased kneels in the attitude
! OF prayer. These sQuatting demon-like
judges have human body, though many
Of them have the heads of snakes, hawks
vultures, and rams. Every one Of
them, like our ladies', wear an ostrich
/ feather as a head ornament. Each OF
! them presides over a particular sin, and
| the deceased addresses each and declares
his innocence. This is "the Negative Con-
| fession." Here are some of these
confessions q omit the fantastic titles
| given to the judges: "Oh,
have not boasted; not lied; not stolen;
| not deflled myself; not corrupted women
| or men; not defled the river; not burned
| with rage: not blasphemed; not been an
| eaYesdropper; not oppressed the poor;
not starved any man; not made any TO
weep; not falsified the beam OF the bal
! ance." Here are two of these con-
| LESSONS in full: "Oh, stripper Of words.
! have not dawdled or made delays"
"Oh, Lord Of purity, coming out Of Sais,
| l have not multiplied words in speak
! ing" 1t is affecting TO note that YER
| bosity was one of the forty-two deadly
! sins, and so common as TO require the
| undivided time Of a judge. These an
| clients must have suffered much from this
| oecumenical plague.
SUPREME CRISIS.
Next came the supreme crisis, the real
| dOomsday in a mans history. In the
centre of the hall stands a pair Of scales
In the right-hand scale is a so-calied
canopic jar. 1t contains the heart OF the
deceased. In the Egyptian Bible, as in
the Hebrew, the heart means a mans
ar,fi 70 not nd
heart is weighed against the figure OF
Ma or Mat, the goddess Of righteousness
who wears the ostrich feather. Three
gods of the highest rank very carefully
superintend the weighing. This is too
solemn a work for the lessor gods or the
angels Another god and two goddesses
also lend their aid. The hawk-headed
Horus, son of Osiris, is steadying the in
dicator Of the balance and with his left
hand mercifully gives the scale a touch
in favor of the deceased, though, per-
haps, he is only steadying 1t. The jackal-
headed Anubis watches the other scale.
Ibis-headed Thoth, the thrice greatest"
god of letters, Registrar of Hades. with
his wooden tablet and reed pen, is writing
down the decision, that he may
report it TO the judge. The Egyptians
were very clerkly race. The god Asten,
the divine symbol of equity and equili-
brium, is seated on the middle of the
balance, to secure that no mistake is
made. In the right-hand corner stands
tho deceased between two figures of the
goddess OF law and right. All possibility
Of error was thus removed.
other vignettes Of the judgment scene
contain interesting peculiarities though
they teach substantially the same truths.
In one scene twelve gods and goddesses
occupy the place of the forty-two as
SCISSORS. Ami and Tutu, his wife, watch
the weighing with bowed heads. The de-
ceased Is sometimes represented as car
rying into the hall, in his outstretched
hands, the images of his heart and eyes,
the agent and accomplices Of his sins
and virtues-a very subtle and suggestive
touch. In front of Ami stand two little
goddesses, who were the guardian angels
of his birth and infancy. Before them
stands another little goddess, who repre-
sents Anis, Luck" or Destiny" Above
are what we may call the totems Of Ami,
an unknown object and a bird, both hui
man-headed. Anubis, 1.-The director of
the balance" is weighing the heart. He
has only the ostrich feather in the scale.
Everything here is supernatural and awe
inspiring. The genius of truth is sup
posed to live In, or perhaps to be, the
balance, and sometimes its delicate little
head appears at the top of the upright
stand. The cords Of the scales are made
of the emblems of life and stability. The
mongTel female Cerberus is part croco-
die, part leopard, and part hippopotamus.
1t is ready to deyour the heart II, when
weighed in the balance" it should be
found wanting"
In another picture the throne Of Osiris |
is adorned with lotus pillars and the |
sacred asps, the emblem of power. His |
wife Isis and her sister Nephthys are |
tenderly supporting him with their
hands-a proof this, by the way, that |
woman held a higher position in Egypt |
than in any other nation Of antiquity. |
IN front Of Osiris is large lotus BIOS
som supporting the four genii OF the
north, south, east, and west. They were
the mummy wrappings which are the /
livery of the underworld. They are the
children OF Osiris, the lord Of Hades, and
the guardians of the dead. Some believe
that they are also merciful mediators for
the souls OF men.
This pictured creed is very notable
to the study of religions. Its
shell is grotesque and absurd but Its kerr
mel is agreeable to the instincts of uni
versal humanity. In two respects 1t sur
passes every other non-biblical religion
auLluullH.
of the world and final retribution with a
and sureness which we search
for in vain among the great poets and
thinkers OF Greece. To these ancient
jewellers on the Nile judgment to come
was no divine peradventure' or grand,
Their very pictures show that
they did not regard themselves as deal
ing with guesses at truth or at the mercy
Of mere conjecture. Evidently they are
setting forth what they believe TO be
eternal certainties; they have no doubt
that retribution lies at the core OF both
worlds And what profound faith they
have in the unerring balance OF Osirisl
Our scientists, in some of their most
critical experiments, put their balances
IN a glass case lest some breath or
theirs or some stray particle
IF dust should spoil their calcula-
ions. The pictures which adorn this
article show that a similar care was ex-
srcised when the actions and hearts OF
men were weighed. Not less than seven
,r eight gods were employed in this mo-
nentous decision. Here We have one or
he highest products, IL not the very
highest product, or that theology OF the
natural conscience, which Is always ana
everywhere the same. Separating their
eligion from their mythology, we can
hake hands with these hoary teachers .