Egyptian belief and modern thought / by James Bonwick.

  • James Bonwick
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Egyptian belief and modern thought / by James Bonwick. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    food, a,nd cups of oil were thrown upon the flames. The silicernium was the feast in honour of the dead. Shows and combats took place at funerals. The souls were treated as gods, and regaled with offerings called inferice and parentalia. There were oblations of food, wine, flowers, etc. At the end of February was the feast of feralia, when food was presented to the dead. »The Latin Immare, from humus the earth, indicates the original pro- cess of burial. With the Egyptians, the funeral service was serious and as became a religious people. A ceremony, called “the opening of the mouth of the mummy,” was performed by the priest applying to the lips the nou, an iron instrument sacred to Anubis. The mourning was natural, and was accompanied by the tearing of the hair and clothing. The hair of friends was left dishevelled, and the dress was soiled, while dust and ashes were cast upon the person. Prayers and a funeral service, of course, followed. The body, first laid upon a lion-shaped couch, was borne on the stream to the nearest point of sepulture. We have pictures representing the priest reading the burial service. M. De- veria, in referring to a papyrus treating of this subject, says, “ This manuscript, in giving us a part of the funeral rites, establishes in a convincing manner the fact that extracts from the Book of the Dead (the Ritual) were recited or read by a priest during the funeral ceremonies.” The persistence of custom is seldom better illustrated than in the English casting earth upon the coffin, as ashes to ashes and dust to dust, after the fashion of Egypt so long ago, when sand was three times cast upon the re- mains. A certificate of character is sometimes discovered in the coffin. One reads thus, “ I, the undersigned, hereby attest that led a just life in .” The reintroduc- tion of this practice might prove an additional check for