352 
and much, more wliicli is wholly inexplicable, is derived from 
perhaps the oldest of all uninspired liturgies, that most 
remarkable combination of prayers, incantations, and con- 
fessions, which extends over 166 chapters, and is called m 
hieroo*lvphy,“The Book of the Manifestation to Light, or the 
Ritual of the Dead. This work may be almost certainly 
traced back to the reign of Hesepti, of the first dynasty, 
according to Lenormant,* whose era is 5004 b.c., and to that of 
Menkera, the Mycerinus of Herodotus, of the fourth dynasty, 
4325 B.c.f The names of both of these early Pharaohs occur m 
the text itself, although— and this is a most important incident 
to note— the final revision of the work, and a few additional 
chapters, were added as late as the period of Ethiopian conquest 
of Egypt, under the twenty-sixth dynasty, 665 b.c. Throughout 
this wonderful Ritual the idea of the serpent, as the soul ot the 
world, and another variety of it, the Apophis, as the evil being, 
both antalogues of each other, occurs again and again, the soul 
has to arm itself against its machinations, and the body to be 
protected from its malignity. The deceased, when soul and 
body are reunited in the Amenti, or Egyptian Sheol, has 
to do combat with it, and the aid of every divinity is m turn 
invoked to overcome the enemy of the sun.} This will become 
still more apparent as we proceed to examine the Rnuai, 
following the analysis of M. Lenormant and Dr. Birch, the 
while illustrating our examination by extracts from the myste- 
rious document itself. . , • n . 
13. The opening chapter (1) of this ancient formulary is thus 
headed— “The beginning of the Chapters of the “g ° r 
from the Day of bearing the Dead (spirits) m Hades v Ker- 
neter) said on the day of the funeral . . . . by M ^ 
the Osirian deceased” In this prefatory portion of the Ritual 
the deceased, addressing the deity Ox Hades, y e . m , . 
Thoth,6 the god of writing, enumerates all his claims to ms 
favour, and asks for admittance into his dominions. He 
at once appears the first indication of the contest against 
* Manual of the Ancient History of the 
a fair via media between the extravagancies of the French, and the mcrea 
ascribed by 
empire is neither generally accepted or even avowed, as the materials are 
too few to fix a chronological table with any certain y themselves in 
t The modern Jews recite many blessings as they cl« sthe te 
the morning on rising, a system apparently borrowed fromt 
Liturgy.— Anquetil du Perron, Adoration of Ormuzd. 
§ Mercury, or Hermes Psychopompos, of the Greek Pantheon. 
