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crown of Egypt upon liis head, the crook of authority and cross 
of life in his hands, and the flabellum of justice resting upon his 
shoulders, sits Osiris Rhotamenti, the inflexible judge of the dead. 
Beneath his footstool is the opening of hell, — a cavern where, 
bound and tortured, the wicked bewail their punishment with 
piteous and unregarded wailings.* * * § At the right and left hand of 
Osiris stand the sister goddesses, Isis and !Nephthys,the goddesses 
of the upper and lower heavens respectively; in front of him 
crouches the horrible Typhonic monster guai’ding the mouth of 
hell ; f and ranged in two rows around the judgment-hall sit the 
forty-two deities or assessors, J who are to interrogate the de- 
ceased, and individually to acquit or condemn him. In the centre 
of the hall stands a small altar, and beside it a large pair of scales, 
guarded by the goddess of truth, and the monkey deity sacred 
to Thoth. Between the deceased and his judges the four 
deities § of the dead range themselves, each presenting his 
offering on behalf of the deceased, and blest above all, Horus 
takes the suppliant by the hand, and pleads his merits for 
acceptance on his behalf with his father. || Stern and im- 
passible, Thoth, the Recorder, holds out to Osiris the tablet on 
which is inscribed all the actions of the victim, and Anubis 
guards the door by which he entered, making retreat impossible. 
Then, delay and excuse being alike unavailing, the deceased 
supplicates the court of justice in the following terms : — 
“ O ye lords of truth, 
oh thou great God, 
lord of truth, 
I have come to thee my lord, 
I have brought myself to see thy blessings, 
I have known thee, 
I have known thy name, 
I have known the name of the forty-two of the gods who are 
with thee in the hall of Two Truths, 
living by catching the wicked, 
fed off their blood, 
the day of reckoning words before the good being, 
* Bonomi, Sarcophagus of Oimcnepthah I., plate 5. 
f From which the Greeks derived their triple-headed dog Cerberus. 
I One for every nome of Egypt. 
§ The Cabeirii of the Greeks were derived from these deities in their 
punitive office. 
|| On the later sarcophagi, Anubis represents Horus in this scene. Hence 
we shall presently find in the Alexandrian period Anubis substituted for 
Horus by the Egyptians, and by a parity of reasoning identified with Christ, 
also by the Egyptian Christians. 
