representation of this scene, we must have recourse to the best of the
illustrated papyri of the latter half of the XVIIIth and of the XIXth
dynasties. The details of the Judgment Scene vary greatly in various
papyri, but the essential parts of it are always preserved. The
following is the description of the judgment of Ani, as it appears in
his wonderful papyrus preserved in the British Museum.

In the underworld, and in that portion of it which is called the Hall of
Ma[=a]ti, is set a balance wherein the heart of the deceased is to be
weighed. The beam is suspended by a ring upon a projection from the
standard of the balance made in the form of the feather which is the
symbol of Ma[=a]t, or what is right and true. The tongue of the balance
is fixed to the beam, and when this is exactly level, the tongue is as
straight as the standard; if either end of the beam inclines downwards
the tongue cannot remain in a perpendicular position. It must be
distinctly understood that the heart which was weighed in the one scale
was not expected to make the weight which was in the other to kick the
beam, for all that was asked or required of the deceased was that his
heart should balance exactly the symbol of the law. The standard was
sometimes surmounted by a human head wearing the feather of Ma[=a]t;
sometimes by the head of a jackal, the animal sacred to Anubis; and
sometimes by the head of an ibis, the bird sacred to Thoth; in the
Papyrus of Ani a dog-headed ape, the associate of Thoth, sits on the top
of the standard. In some papyri (_e.g._, those of Ani [Footnote: About
B.C. 1500.] and Hunefer [Footnote: About B.C. 1370.]), in addition to
Osiris, the king of the underworld and judge of the dead, the gods of
his cycle or company appear as witnesses of the judgment. In the Papyrus
of the priestess Anhai [Footnote: About B.C. 1000.] in the British
Museum the great and the little companies of the gods appear as
witnesses, but the artist was so careless that instead of nine gods in