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Updated: June 24, 2025
Women, as graceful as statues, come and go, holding the end of their veil between their teeth so as to conceal one half of the face, and bearing on their heads Theban jars or copper vases; while the men, squatting on the ground or on small carpets, their knees up to their chins, forming an acute angle like the legs of locusts, in an attitude which no European could assume, and recalling the judges of Amenti ranged in rows one behind another on the papyri of funeral rituals, preserve that dreamy immobility so dear to Orientals when they have nothing to do; for to move about merely for exercise, as Christians do, strikes them as utter folly.
What they require is that he shall have been merciful to his fellow creatures, true to himself. Only when it is proven that he has done his duty to man, is he permitted to show that he has done his duty to gods. The appeal continues: "I fed the hungry, clothed the naked, I gave water to them that thirsted. O ye that dwell in Amenti! I am unpolluted, I am pure." But is it true? The scales decide.
"The plunder of Khafra and Sigur, by my mummy!" Kenkenes ejaculated. "Will they return?" Rachel asked, in a voice full of fear. "They are gathered to Amenti for their misdeeds many months agone," he explained. "See how thickly the dust lies here without a print upon it. They were tomb-robbers. None of the authorities could discover their hiding-place, and lo! here it is."
But man returned to his wicked way, and then the bright Spirit of Good, who is of us called Osiris, but who has many names, offered himself up for the evil-doing of the race that had dethroned him. And from him and the Divine Mother, of whom all nature is, sprang another spirit who is the Protector of us on earth, as Osiris is our justifier in Amenti. For this is the mystery of the Osiris.
There ye can abide till I go to Tape and return. What sayest thou?" The old woman looked at him quietly for a moment. "Is this place safe?" she asked. "The forty-two demons of Amenti could not drive an Egyptian into this tomb." "How comes it that thou art not afraid?" "I have no belief in spirits." "Nor have we. Why need we go hence? We shall abide here till thou shalt return." "In this place!"
The next case contains the coffin and mummy of a priestess of Amoun, named Kotbti. The next case is the highly decorated coffin of the incense-bearer of the abode of Noumra. Here the judgment scene of the Amenti is pourtrayed; Osiris, in the shape of a sphinx; and other sacred figures.
The lids of these vases were fashioned to represent the heads of the four genii of Amenti, Hapi, Tûatmûtf, Kebhsennef, and Amset; i.e. the Ape-head, the Jackal-head, the Hawk-head, and the human head.
When we consider that the Coptic hell was little more than a modified form of the ancient Egyptian Amenti, or Amentet, it is difficult to believe that it was the name of the Egyptian underworld only which was borrowed, and that the ideas and beliefs concerning it which were held by the ancient Egyptians were not at the same time absorbed.
"They are called Amenti," said Darius, falling into his friend's merry mood; but you must know that the history of this divine pair represents not only the life of nature, but also that of the human soul, which, like the murdered Osiris, lives an eternal life, even when the body is dead." "Thank you," said the other; "I'll try to remember that if I should chance to die in Egypt.
And he replied, slowly and sadly: "Yes, it is true, Nitocris, true that thou art now Queen in the land by the will of the great Rameses; and true also it is that the shade of Nefer is now waiting in the halls of Amenti till his murderers shall be sent by the hand of a just vengeance into the presence of the Divine Assessors."
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