[Seb is the earth; Plutarch calls Seb Chronos.  He is often spoken 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.”

Nebsecht gave the old man his hand.

“That I will,” said he, “and I should have chosen as you did.  Now take this draught, divide it in four parts, and give it to Uarda for four evenings following.  Begin this evening, and by the day after to-morrow I think she will be quite well.  I will come again and look after her.  Now go to rest, and let me stay a while out here; before the star of Isis is extinguished I will be gone, for they have long been expecting me at the temple.”

When the paraschites came out of his but the next morning, Nebsecht had vanished; but a blood-stained cloth that lay by the remains of the fire showed the old man that the impatient investigator had examined the heart of the high-priest during the night, and perhaps cut it up.

Terror fell upon him, and in agony of mind he threw himself on his knees as the golden bark of the Sun-God appeared on the horizon, and he prayed fervently, first for Uarda, and then for the salvation of his imperilled soul.

He rose encouraged, convinced himself that his granddaughter was progressing towards recovery, bid farewell to his wife, took his flint knife and his bronze hook,

   [The brains of corpses were drawn out of the nose with a hook. 
   Herodotus ii. 87.]

and went to the house of the embalmer to follow his dismal calling.