SERPENT WORSHIP.

67

Beneath, immediately over the entrance, are the figures of two other goddesses, seated opposite each other on a kind of stool, holding the point of the mystic symbol of the gods in their hands; and, on either side of the doorway, is a female kneeling, who seems to be rolling before her a circle or hoop. The mitre of the one on the left is a kind of chair resting against a pillar; that of the other consists of two pillars, one of which is surmounted by the mystic basin. Over their heads is the couching figure of a wolf or jackal, with a rich collar, and a riband or fillet hanging loosely over his neck, and the mystic vau, or sceptre of Osiris, by his side.

CCCCLI. Advancing into the next corridor, we find the walls covered with the figures of boats, serpentformed, with a head, like the amphisbæna, at either end, and the tongue or sting darted forth. The strange combinations of figures now become eminently unintelligible. That curious emblem*, the horse's head with the human eye, is seen in a boat, having eight figures, perhaps the Dii Cabiri, or eight principal gods of Egypt, and drawn along with a cord by four men. A group next occurs representing the union of the worship of the serpent with that of the phallus and kteis; for, while the Uræus rears its body, as if in wonder and adoration, before these united symbols, a man is seen to approach the serpent itself with offerings. Behind the votary is the three

This symbol has been thought, by the Comte de Caylus, to resemble the head of a cock. — Antiquités, &c. t. iii. p. 39. pl. viii. No. 4.

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ANIMATED CORPSE.

headed serpent, with wings, and two pair of human legs. Is this a form of Kneph or Agathodæmon? Many figures of gods and goddesses succeed; but, with the exception of Bouto, I know neither their names nor offices.

CCCCLII. In the compartment below, we find a representation of one of the most remarkable fables in the Egyptian mythology; Thoth Psychopompos conducting the soul to Hades. The spirit, which still wears, in those nether regions, the form of a mummy, is presented by Thoth to Serapis, the king of hell. The horse's head with the human eye is between them. Immediately after this group there follows a male figure with black hair and lofty mitre, who seems to lead in a headless trunk, -a corpse endued with locomotive power, - with two things, like the fillets of Athor or Venus, springing forth from the section of the windpipe. May not this represent a man executed on earth, and condemned by the priests to pass an eternity in Hades, gifted with consciousness and volition, but deprived of his head, and tormented everlastingly by thoughts which he cannot utter? To these succeed several other figures, souls who have happily passed their examination, following a deity with a club into the presence of a god, by whom they are presented with the emblem of eternal life. In their train are another troop of blessed spirits, bearing this mysterious symbol in their hands. All these are on the road to Elysium. On the opposite wall is the descent into hell; gods, boats,

NOTIONS OF A FUTURE STATE.

69

serpents, unhappy souls, hurrying towards that place whither "hope never comes."

CCCCLIII. But, perhaps, if we here trace a rapid sketch of the notions which the Egyptians had formed of a future state, their sepulchral paintings may seem more intelligible. If, as Diodorus asserts, they regarded life as a passage, and their earthly dwellings as inns, it is equally certain that no Epicurean or Hedonic philosopher could have sought more eagerly to strew that passage with flowers, or to crowd their inns with more images and instruments of pleasure. In what consisted the happiness reserved for the pious in the next world, antiquity has furnished us with no means of discovering. Whatever it may have been, the soul was not permitted to taste of it until it had undergone two examinations, the one on earth, before mortal judges; the second in the vestibule of the spiritual world, before Osiris-Serapis, the supreme judge and sovereign of the dead. The doctrine of transmigration is mingled up with these fables, and the form it assumed in the hands of the Egyptians shows how gross, adulatory, and unjust their priestly teachers

were.

The migration of the spirit of man into the bodies of inferior animals, could only be regarded as a punishment. But this punishment might long be averted by the rich and powerful, while the souls of the poor, in whose fate the priests were but little interested, after enjoying a short respite from the toils and evils of mortal existence, were again im

*70

TRANSMIGRATION OF SOULS.

mured in material forms, and condemned to work their way through the bodies of bats and owls to the mansions of the blessed in the sun or the dog-star. This is not a satirical view of the matter. The soul subsisted in a separate state, emancipated from the degrading progress of the metempsychosis, so long as the body could be preserved from dissolution; but the inferior mode of embalming, calculated to resist but for a short time the invasion of corruption, could alone be practised by the poor, the expensive drugs and perfumes, and bandages and sarcophagoi, by which the corpses of their superiors were defended from the action of the air, being entirely beyond their reach : their bodies, therefore, soon returned to dust, thus exposing their souls to the penal migrations above described. These ideas may have had some connection also with the worship of animals. The children of a rapacious landlord may have thought they recognised in the vulture or the crocodile the well-known disposition of their deceased parent, condemned at once to commence his transmigrations, and have connected the adoration of this brute with that of the Manes. Those spirits which were most happy dwelt near the body, in the cities of the dead, where, wandering invisible through their vast and silent mansions, lighted, perhaps, by the brightness of their own eyes, they watched with intense interest over the decay of their ancient earthly companions, into which, on the festivals of the Manes, they may have been permitted to enter, that by the aid of material organs they might snuff up the savours

exhaling from the delicious viands devoured in their honour by their descendants. The number of years to be thus passed by the spirit is not known with certainty; some imagining they were excluded from final beatitude in the celestial mansions during a whole revolution of the great cycle of three thousand years, after which, having undergone a palingenesia, or second birth, they ascended to the stellar spheres, from which they originally came. But Pindar*, who is supposed to have been an adept in these mystic doctrines, reduces the period to nine years.

CCCCLIV. Traces of the above doctrine are found in the sculptures on the walls of this tomb. Spirits which come up for judgment in the human shape, depart transformed into birds or hogs, the latter shipped in a small bark, under the direction of Hanuman, the monkey-god, to be conveyed back to the scene of this world. We now arrive at the bottom of the descent, and enter into the first chamber, where the same series of mysterious paintings is continued. Beginning with the wall left of the doorway, we discover the figure of a black wolf, couchant, with collar and fillet as above described, and the sceptre of Osiris, the king of Hades, by his side. As Anubis is represented with the head of this animal, it has been conjectured that the wolf may be a form of Anubis, placed here on the confines of

Olymp. ii. 109. — Virgil, who also had studied the ancient mythologies, represents the departed spirits as returning, after the revolution of a thousand years, through the river of oblivion, to their palingenesia. Æneid. vi. 713, 714.