History Of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 1 (of 12)Maspero, G. (Gaston)
History
History Of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 1 (of 12)
Maspero, G. (Gaston)
Civilization, Ancient; Egypt -- History -- To 640 A.D.; History, Ancient; Middle East -- History
Here the soul kept the distinctive character and appearance which
pertained to it "upon the earth:" as it had been a "double" before
death, so it remained a double after it, able to perform all functions
of animal life after its own fashion. It moved, went, came, spoke,
breathed, accepted pious homage, but without pleasure, and as it were
mechanically, rather from an instinctive horror of annihilation than
from any rational desire for immortality. Unceasing regret for the
bright world which it had left disturbed its mournful and inert
existence. "O my brother, withhold not thyself from drinking and from
eating, from drunkenness, from love, from all enjoyment, from following
thy desire by night and by day; put not sorrow within thy heart, for
what are the years of a man upon earth? The West is a land of sleep and
of heavy shadows, a place wherein its inhabitants, when once installed,
slumber on in their mummy-forms, never more waking to see their
brethren; never more to recognize their fathers or their mothers, with
hearts forgetful of their wives and children. The living water, which
earth giveth to all who dwell upon it, is for me but stagnant and dead;
that water floweth to all who are on earth, while for me it is but
liquid putrefaction, this water that is mine. Since I came into this
funereal valley I know not where nor what I am. Give me to drink of
running water!... Let me be placed by the edge of the water with my face
to the North, that the breeze may caress me and my heart be refreshed
from its sorrow." By day the double remained concealed within the tomb.
If it went forth by night, it was from no capricious or sentimental
desire to revisit the spots where it had led a happier life. Its organs
needed nourishment as formerly did those of its body, and of itself it
possessed nothing "but hunger for food, thirst for drink."[*] Want and
misery drove it from its retreat, and flung it back among the living.
It prowled like a marauder about fields and villages, picking up and
greedily devouring whatever it might find on the ground--broken meats
which had been left or forgotten, house and stable refuse--and,
should these meagre resources fail, even the most revolting dung and
excrement.[**]
* _Teti_, 11. 74, 75. "Hateful unto Teti is hunger, and
he eateth it not; hateful unto Teti is thirst, nor hath he
drunk it." We see that the Egyptians made hunger and thirst
into two substances or beings, to be swallowed as food is
swallowed, but whose effects were poisonous unless
counteracted by the immediate absorption of more satisfying
sustenance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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