The deceased, having passed the gate, continues to advance, guided by this new Light, to whom he addresses his invocations. He then enters upon a series of transformations, more and more elevated, assuming the form of and identifying himself with the noblest divine symbols. He is changed successively into a hawk, an angel or divine messenger; into a lotus; into the god Ptah; into a heron; into a crane; into a human-headed bird, the usual emblem of a soul; into a swallow; into a serpent, and into a crocodile. Up to this time the soul of the deceased has been making its journeys alone; it has been merely a sort of image; a mere shade, with the appearance of that body now stretched on the bier. After these transformations the soul becomes reunited to its body, which is needed for the rest of the journey. It was on this account that careful embalming was so important; it was necessary that the soul should find the body perfect and well-preserved. “Oh,” cries the body, “that in the dwelling of the master of life I may be reunited to my glorified soul, do not order the guardians of heaven to destroy me, so as to send away my soul from my corpse, and hinder the eye of Horus, who is with thee, from preparing my way.” The deceased traverses the dwelling of Thoth, who gives him a book containing instructions for the rest of his way, and fresh lessons of the knowledge he is soon to require. He arrives on the banks of the subterranean river separating him from the Elysian Fields, but there a new danger awaits him. A false boatman, the envoy of the Typhonic powers, lays wait for him on his way, and endeavors by deceitful words to get him into his boat, so as to mislead him and take him to the east instead of to the west, his true destination, and where he ought to land, and rejoin the sun of the lower world. The deceased again escapes this new danger; he unmasks the perfidy of the false boatman, and drives him away, overwhelming him with reproaches. He at last meets the right boat to conduct him to his destination. But before getting into it, it is necessary to ascertain if he is really capable of making the voyage, if he possesses a sufficient amount of the knowledge necessary to his safety. The divine boatman therefore makes him undergo an examination, a preliminary initiation, seemingly corresponding to the lesser Eleusinian mysteries. The deceased passes the examination; each part of the boat then seems successively to become animated, and to demand of him its name, and the mystical meaning of the name. _The stake for anchoring the boat._ Tell me my name! “The Lord of the earth in thy case,” is thy name. _The rudder._ Tell me my name! “The enemy of Apis,” is thy name. _The rope._ Tell me my name! “The hair with which Anubis binds up the folds of the wrappers,” is thy name; and so on for twenty-three questions and answers.