[Footnote 2: Or Anubis, a very ancient god who presided over embalming;
he appears in the form of a man with the head of a dog or jackal.]

[Footnote 3: The On of the Bible, the Heliopolis of the Greeks. This
city lay a few miles to the east of the modern city of Cairo.]

[Footnote 4: Every living thing possessed a KA or "double," which was
the vital power of the heart and could live after the death of the
body.]

[Footnote 5: The Air-god, the son of Keb and Nut.]

The ceremonies that followed concerned the dressing of the statue of the
king and his food. Various kinds of bandlets and a collar were
presented, and the gift of each endowed the king in the Other World with
special qualities. The words recited by the priest as he offered these
and other gifts were highly symbolic, and were believed to possess great
power, for they brought the Double of the king back to this earth to
live in the statue, and each time they were repeated they renewed the
life of the king in the Other World.


II. The _Liturgy of Funerary Offerings_ was another all-important work.
The oldest form of it, which is found in the Pyramid Texts, proves that
even under the earliest dynasties the belief in the efficacy of
sacrifices and offerings was an essential of the Egyptian religion. The
opening ceremonies had for their object the purification of the deceased
by means of sprinkling with water in which salt, natron, and other
cleansing substances had been dissolved, and burning of incense. Then
followed the presentation of about one hundred and fifty offerings of