Of course, each little city and every small village continued to worship
a few divinities of their own. But generally speaking, all the people
recognized the sublime power of Osiris and tried to gain his favor.

This was no easy task, and led to many strange customs. In the first
place, the Egyptians came to believe that no soul could enter into the
realm of Osiris without the possession of the body which had been its
place of residence in this world.

[Illustration: HOW THE PYRAMIDS GREW.]

Whatever happened, the body must be preserved after death, and it must
be given a permanent and suitable home. Therefore as soon as a man had
died, his corpse was embalmed. This was a difficult and complicated
operation which was performed by an official who was half doctor and
half priest, with the help of an assistant whose duty it was to make the
incision through which the chest could be filled with cedar-tree pitch
and myrrh and cassia. This assistant belonged to a special class of
people who were counted among the most despised of men. The Egyptians
thought it a terrible thing to commit acts of violence upon a human
being, whether dead or living, and only the lowest of the low could be
hired to perform this unpopular task.

Afterwards the priest took the body again and for a period of ten weeks
he allowed it to be soaked in a solution of natron which was brought for
this purpose from the distant desert of Libya. Then the body had become
a "mummy" because it was filled with "Mumiai" or pitch. It was wrapped
in yards and yards of specially prepared linen and it was placed in a
beautifully decorated wooden coffin, ready to be removed to its final