the Facsimile [2] of the Papyrus of Peta-Amen-neb-nest-taui [3] by
M. Cadet in 1805 made a long hieroglyphic text and numerous coloured
vignettes available for study, and the French Egyptologists described
it as a copy of the "Rituel Funéraire" of the ancient Egyptians. Among
these was Champollion le Jeune, but later, on his return from Egypt,
he and others called it "Le Livre des Morts," "The Book of the Dead,"
"Das Todtenbuch," etc. These titles are merely translations of the
name given by the Egyptian tomb-robbers to every roll of inscribed
papyrus which they found with mummies, namely, "Kitâb-al-Mayyit,"
"Book of the dead man," or "Kitâb al-Mayyitun," "Book of the dead"
(plur.). These men knew nothing of the contents of such a roll, and
all they meant to say was that it was "a dead man's book," and that
it was found in his coffin with him.


CHAPTER II

The Preservation of the Mummified Body in the Tomb by Thoth.

The objects found in the graves of the predynastic Egyptians, i.e.,
vessels of food, flint knives and other weapons, etc., prove that
these early dwellers in the Nile Valley believed in some kind of a
future existence. But as the art of writing was, unknown to them their
graves contain no inscriptions, and we can only infer from texts of
the dynastic period what their ideas about the Other World were. It is
clear that they did not consider it of great importance to preserve
the dead body in as complete and perfect state as possible, for in
many of their graves the heads, hands and feet have been found severed
from the trunks and lying at some distance from them. On the other
hand, the dynastic Egyptians, either as the result of a difference in