Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life eBook

E. A. Wallis Budge
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 167 pages of information about Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life.

Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life eBook

E. A. Wallis Budge
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 167 pages of information about Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life.
and they immediately acquainting the people with the news gave the first occasion to the name Panic Terrors, which has ever since been made use of to signify any sudden affright or amazement of a multitude.  As to Isis, as soon as the report reached her she immediately cut off one of the locks of her hair, [Footnote:  The hair cut off as a sign of mourning was usually laid in the tomb of the dead.] and put on mourning apparel upon the very spot where she then happened to be, which accordingly from this accident has ever since been called Koptis, or the city of mourning, though some are of opinion that this word rather signifies deprivation.  After this she wandered everywhere about the country full of disquietude and perplexity in search, of the chest, inquiring of every person she met with, even, of some children whom she chanced to see, whether they knew what was become of it.  Now it happened that these children had seen what Typho’s accomplices had done with the body, and accordingly acquainted her by what mouth of the Nile it had been conveyed into the sea—­For this reason therefore the Egyptians look upon children as endued with a kind of faculty of divining, and in consequence of this notion are very curious in observing the accidental prattle which they have with one another whilst they are at play (especially if it be in a sacred place), forming omens and presages from it—­Isis, during this interval, having been informed that Osiris, deceived by her sister Nepthys who was in love with him, had unwittingly united with her instead of herself, as she concluded from the melilot-garland, [Footnote:  i.e., a wreath of clover.] which he had left with her, made it her business likewise to search out the child, the fruit of this unlawful commerce (for her sister, dreading the anger of her husband Typho, had exposed it as soon as it was born), and accordingly, after much pains and difficulty, by means of some dogs that conducted her to the place where it was, she found it and bred it up; so that in process of time it became her constant guard and attendant, and from hence obtained the name of Anubis, being thought to watch and guard the gods, as dogs do mankind.
“At length she receives more particular news of the chest, that it had been carried by the waves of the sea to the coast of Byblos, [Footnote:  Not the Byblos of Syria (Jebel) but the papyrus swamps of the Delta.] and there gently lodged in the branches of a bush of Tamarisk, which, in a short time, had shot up into a large and beautiful tree, growing round the chest and enclosing it on every side, so that it was not to be seen; and farther, that the king of the country, amazed at its unusual size, had cut the tree down, and made that part of the trunk wherein the chest was concealed, a pillar to support; the roof of his house.  These things, say they, being made known to Isis in an extraordinary manner by the report of Demons, sue immediately
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Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.