464^ THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XVI. 



The formula, according to Euphantus who trans- 

 lated it from the original into Greek, was as fol- 

 lows : — ' O thou Sun, our sovereign lord ! and 

 all ye Deities who have given life to man ! re- 

 ceive me, and grant me an abode with the eternal 

 Gods. During the whole course of my life I 

 have scrupulously worshipped the Gods my fathers 

 taught me to adore ; I have ever honoured my 

 parents, who begat this body ; I have killed no 

 one ; I have not defrauded any, nor have I done 

 an injury to any man ; and if I have committed 

 any other fault during my life, either in eating or 

 drinking, it has not been done for myself, but for 

 these things.' So saying, the embalmer pointed 

 to the vessel containing the intestines, which was 

 thrown into the river ; the rest of the body, when 

 properly cleansed, being embalmed." 



Plutarch * gives a similar account of their 

 " throwing the intestines into the river," as the 

 cause of all the faults committed by man, " the 

 rest of the body when cleansed being embalmed ;'* 

 which is evidently borrowed from the same autho- 

 rity as that of Porphyry t, and given in the same 

 words. But the positive evidence of the tombs, as 

 well as our acquaintance with the religious feelings 

 of the Egyptians, sufficiently prove this to be one of 

 the many idle tales by which the Greeks have shown 

 their ignorance of that people ; and no one who 

 considers the respect with which they looked upon 



* Pint. Sept. Sap. (Jonviv., and Orat. 2. dc Esu. Carn. 

 f Plutarch lived in the time of Trajan ; Porphyry died in tiie reign 

 of Diocletian. 



