Photo from Egypt Exploration Fund 



SECTION OF IBIS CEMETERY AND ITS POTTERY VASES, AEL ElEEED WITH BIEiD 



MUMMIES 



raculous bird was beneficent in all his 

 ways, destroying locusts, scorpions, ser- 

 pents, and the noxious creatures which 

 infested the country, and its searching 

 out and destruction of these enemies to 

 the growing crops and to man himself 

 led to the profound respect which this 

 messenger of a god enjoyed. 



The 85th chapter of the Book of the 

 Dead, called "The chapter of making the 

 transformation into a living soul and of 

 not entering into the Chamber of Tor- 

 ture," concludes : "I have done away 

 Avith all my iniquity and I shall see my 

 divine Father, the Lord of Eventide, 

 whose body dwelleth with the god of 

 light by the western region of the ibis." 

 Hence this vast bird cemetery, 2,700 feet 

 square, was established at Abydos, the 

 vestibule on earth from whence to enter 

 the kingdom sacred to Osiris and to the 

 mysteries of the future world, and es- 

 pecially to the cult of the resurrection. 



The discovery of the several crowns 



of Osiris, wonderfully worked, above 

 some of these mummies favors this con- 

 clusion. It is also favored by the posi- 

 tion which the ibis held in the Egyptian 

 religion and by the fact that the two 

 chief burials of ibises previous to this 

 have both been in cities dedicated to the 

 Osiris cult. 



Every hope of immortality held by the 

 ancient Egyptians rested upon Osiris, 

 who had been killed by Set and his 

 62 fellow - conspirators, but had been 

 brought back to life by the efforts of his 

 wife Isis and his son Horus. The same 

 magic which had brought Osiris to life 

 again, if it could be exactly reproduced, 

 could bring others from death to life. 

 All the funeral ceremonies, all the pic- 

 tures on the tombs, and all the chapters 

 copied there from the Book of the Dead 

 and the Book of Am-Tuat are for the 

 purpose of imitating correctly these suc- 

 cessful magical ceremonies which re- 

 vivified Osiris. 



1045 



