to the fiery pains of hell. Each man, after death, was called upon to
make the "Negative Confession," to prove that he had not sinned against
his fellows, that he had not oppressed or taken bribes, had not judged
wrongfully, had not injured a slave or overtasked the poor man, had not
murdered or stolen, lied or committed adultery, had not given short
weight or robbed the gods and the dead, had made none to "hunger" or
"weep." Only when all the questions of the awful judges in the
underworld had been answered satisfactorily was he allowed to pass into
the presence of Osiris and to cultivate the fields of Alu with his own
hands.

This was the last trial demanded from the justified Egyptian, and it was
a hard one for the rich and noble who had done no peasants' work in this
present life. Accordingly, small images of labourers were buried with
the dead, and it was supposed that their "doubles" or shadows would
assist him in his labours. The supposition rested on a theory which
ascribed to all things, whether animate or inanimate, a double or
reflection which corresponded to the thing itself in every particular.
It was like a shadow, except that it was invisible to mortal eyes, and
did not perish with the object which had projected it.

The "double" was called _ka_, and the _ka_ of a man was his exact
representation in the other world, a spiritual representation, it is
true, but nevertheless one which had the same feelings, the same needs,
and the same moral nature as himself. It thus differed from the _ba_ or
"soul," which flew away to the gods on the dissolution of the body. It
was, in fact, the Personality of the man.

From the outset the Pharaonic Egyptians were a nation of readers and
writers. Nothing is more astonishing than the way in which the simplest