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f the Ptolemys. At the end of the Ist or beginning of the IInd century A.D., arose the gnostic Egyptian sect called the Basilidians. They introduced an amulet or talisman. It was made oval in the form of the base of the Egyptian scarab. Such talisman were usually made of black Egyptian basalt, sometimes of sard or other hard stones. Upon them were engraved mysterious hieroglyphs and figures, called Abraxas, and they are known as Abraxoides. Among the figures engraved was frequently that of the scarabaeus. Montfaucon has given a number of them in his Antiquities.[117] Chifflet has also given several.[118] FOOTNOTES: [116] Winckelmann, Art. 2, c. 1. [117] Vol. II., part 2, p. 339. Ed. of Paris. [118] Comp. Fosbrooke Encyc. of Antiq. London, 1825, part I., p. 208. APPENDIX A. The heart of man was considered to be the source from whence proceeded, not only the beginnings of life but also the beginnings of thought. It was symbolized by the scarab. Examples of the heart have been found, some with a representation of the human head at the top of them, and of human hands crossed over them; and others, having a figure of the soul in the shape of a hawk with outstretched wings, incised on one side of the model. Since the foregoing chapters were put in type, which were based on the Book of the Dead as published by M. Paul Pierret in a French translation, from the Turin papyrus and the papyri in the Louvre, as mentioned in my Introduction; the Translation and Commentary of "The Egyptian Book of the Dead" by P. Le Page Renouf, Esq.,[A] Parts I. and II., have appeared. Mr. Renouf's translation is based on _Das AEgyptische Todtenbuch der XVIII. bis XX. Dynastie_ by M. Edouard Naville,[B] and is from papyri of the Theban Dynasties and from a very much older period than that of the Turin papyrus. The chapters so far given in Mr. Renouf's translation which relate to the heart, are the 26th, 27th, 28th, 29A, 29B, 30A, and 30B. They are as follows: CHAPTER XXVI. _Chapter whereby the Heart is given to a person in the Netherworld._ He saith: Heart,[C] mine to me, in the place of Hearts! Whole Heart! mine to me in the place of Whole Hearts! Let me have my Heart that it may rest within me; but I shall feed upon the food of Osiris, on the eastern side of the mead of amaranthine flowers. Be mine a bark, for descending the stream and another, for ascending.
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