76 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. 



the Egyptians *, and whose president, or arch- 

 judge, corresponded to Osiris. They may perhaps 

 call to mind the four-and-twenty elders mentioned 

 in Revelations t, as the four Genii of Amenti ap- 

 pear to bear some analogy to the four beasts who 

 were present with them before the judgment seat. 



The Assessors were represented in a human 

 form with different heads. The first had the 

 head of a hawk, the second of a man, the third of 

 a hare, the fourth of a hippopotamus, the fifth of 

 a man, the sixth of a hawk, the seventh of a fox, 

 the eighth of a man, the ninth of a ram, the tenth 

 of a snake, and the others according to their pe- 

 culiar character. But, to avoid a tedious detail, I 

 refer the reader to the Plate, from which it will be 

 seen that they varied in different rituals, though 

 the number, when complete, was always the same. 



They are supposed to represent the forty-two 

 crimes, from which a virtuous man was expected 

 to be free when judged in a future state, or rather 

 the accusing Spirits, each of whom examined if 

 the deceased was guilty of the peculiar one which, 

 it was his province to avenge. They were distinct 

 from the thirty-six Daemons mentioned by Origcn. 

 These presided over the human body, which was 

 divided into the same number of parts, each ap- 

 propriated to one of them ; and they were often 

 invoked to cure the infirmities of the peculiar 

 member immediately under their protection. 



* Fide Vol. II. p. 2A'. t Rev. iv. 4., and xix. 4. &c. 



