Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-04-21
VIII YEGYPTIANS PRESERVED
DEAD.
Ancients Regarded Soul As An Exact
Reproduction of the Body.

Why the Egyptian devoted so much
care to the preservation Of their dead
has interested scientists for centuries.
Why they wrapped their bodies in
hundreds of yards of spiced and oiled
cloths, secreted them at the bottoms of
inaccessible caverns and provided them
with food and the wealth Of life is re-
lated by Sir CASTOR Maspero, of Great
Britain in his most recent work,
Egyptian Art This is what Sir Gas
ton tells US:
The Egyptians formed a somewhat
coarse idea of. the human soul. They
regarded 1t as an exact reproduction of
the body of each individual, formed of
substance less dense than flesh and
bones, but susceptible to sight, feeling
and touch.
The double, or to call it by the name
they gave it. the ka, was subject,
though in a lesser degree than its ter
rcstrial type. to all the infirmities of
our life; 1t drank, ate, clothed itself,
anointed itself with perfumes, came
and went in its tomb, required furni-
ture, house, servants, an income
A man must be assured beyond the
tomb of the possession of all the wealth
he had enjoyed in the world, under the
renalty of being condemned to an eter-
r!ty of unspeakable misery. His fam
iiy's first obligation toward him was to
provide him with a durable body, and
they therefore mummified his mortal
remains to the best of their ability,
buried the mummy at the bottom of a
pit where it could only be reached with
the greatest difficulty.
The body, however, in spite of the
care taken in preparing it, only very
remotely recalled the form of the living
person. 1t was, besides, unique, and
easily destroyed; it could be broken.
methodically dismembered and the
pieces scattered or burned. If it disap-
peared, what would become of the
double? For it's support statutes were
provided, representing the exact form
of the individual.
Effigies in wood, limestone, hard
stone, bronze, were more solid than the
mummy, and there was nothing to pre-
vent any number of them desired being
manufactured. One body was single
chance of durability for the double;
twenty gave it twenty chances. And
that is the explanation of the aston
ishing number of statues sometimes
found in one tomb.
The piety of the relatives multiplied
the images. and consequently the sup
ports, the imperishable bodies, of the
doubles would, themselves alone, al
most assure him immortality.
Both in the temples and hypogeums
the statues of private persons were in
tended to serve as support to the soul.
The conservation they received ami
mated them, SO to speak, and made
them substitutes for the defunct; the
offerings destined for the other world
were served to them.
The tomb of rich man possessed
veritable chapel, to which a special
body of priests was attached, formed
| of honka, or priests of the double. AT
the sacramento festivals the priests
OF the double performed the necessary
rites, they looked after the upkeep of
the edifice and administered the rev.
enues. The statues of the tombs them
selves demanded particular care.
| Indeed. the clergy of the temple in
/ which they were placed claimed their
part in the benifices received from
ancestor worship; veritable acts of do
nation were drawn up in their favor
in which were specified the part they
were to play in the ceremonies, the
| quantity of the offerings that fell to
their share for the service rendered,
the number of days in the year con-
secrated to each statue.
The ceremonial is set out in detail,
and we are shown how, and under
what conditions, a dead person was
fed in Egypt. The rolls, meat and
corn were placed in front of the
statue by the priests; thence they
reached the gods, who, after taking
their part transmitted the rest to the
double.
We now understand that the stat
ues that do not represent gods are al
ways and uniquely portraits as exact
as the artists could render them. Each
was stone body; not an ideal body
! in which only the beauty of form or
expression was sought, but real body
as to which care should be taken nei-
Their to add nor to take away any
thing.
| If the body of flesh had been ugly,
INC pouy VI S'oue must ne ugly III tHe
same way, otherwise the double would
not find the support he needed. The
statue from which the head preserved
in the Louvre was broken off was I'M
doubtedly the faithful portrait of the
| individual whose name was engraved
on 1t; If the realism of the expression
is somewhat brutal, it is the fault Of
the model, who had not taken care to
be handsome, and not that of the
sculptor, who would have been guilty
| OF sort of impiety if he had altered
the physiognomy of his model in the
least detail.-New York Press.
"WiII- a. the .Wisns"