of as the "father of the gods" on the monuments. He is the god of
time, and as the Egyptians regarded matter as eternal, it is not by
accident that the sign which represented the earth was also used for
eternity.]

perhaps she may find compensation and peace in the other world if you do
not mutilate her; and when I turned to the mason's lean corpse, and
looked at his hands, which were harder and rougher than my own, the demon
whispered the same. Then I stood before the strong, stout corpse of the
prophet Rui, who died of apoplexy, and I remembered the honor and the
riches that he had enjoyed on earth, and that he at least for a time had
known happiness and ease. And as soon as I was alone, I slipped my hand
into the bag, and changed the sheep's heart for his.

"Perhaps I am doubly guilty for playing such an accursed trick with the
heart of a high-priest; but Rui's body will be hung round with a hundred
amulets, Scarabaei

[Imitations of the sacred beetle Scarabaeus made of various
materials were frequently put into the mummies in the place of the
heart. Large specimens have often the 26th, 30th, and 64th chapters
of the Book of the Dead engraved on them, as they treat of the
heart.

will be placed over his heart, and holy oil and sacred sentences will
preserve him from all the fiends on his road to Amenti,--[Underworld]--
while no one will devote helping talismans to the poor. And then! thou
hast sworn, in that world, in the hall of judgment, to take my guilt on
thyself."