a certain number of words whose due sequence and harmonies might not
suffer the slightest modification whatever, even from the god himself,
under penalty of losing their efficacy.[*]

* The Purification Ritual for officiating priests is
contained in a papyrus of the Berlin Museum, whose analysis
and table of chapters has been published by Herr Oscar von
Lemm, _Das Bitualbuch des Ammonsdienstes_, p. 4, et seq.

They were always recited with the same rhythm, according to a system of
chaunting in which every tone had its virtue, combined with movements
which confirmed the sense and worked with irresistible effect: one
false note, a single discord between the succession of gestures and the
utterance of the sacramental words, any hesitation, any awkwardness in
the accomplishment of a rite, and the sacrifice was vain.

Worship as thus conceived became a legal transaction, in the course of
which the god gave up his liberty in exchange for certain compensations
whose kind and value were fixed by law. By a solemn deed of transfer the
worshipper handed over to the legal representatives of the contracting
divinity such personal or real property as seemed to him fitting payment
for the favour which he asked, or suitable atonement for the wrong which
he had done. If man scrupulously observed the innumerable conditions
with which the transfer was surrounded, the god could not escape the
obligation of fulfilling his petition;[*] but should he omit the least
of them, the offering remained with the temple and went to increase
the endowments in mortmain, while the god was pledged to nothing in
exchange.

* This obligation is evident from texts where, as in the
poem of Pentauirit, a king who is in danger demands from his
favourite god the equivalent in protection of the sacrifices
which he has offered to that divinity, and the gifts
wherewith he has enriched him. "Have I not made unto thee
many offerings?" says Ramses II. to Amon. "I have filled
thy temple with my prisoners, I have built thee a mansion
for millions of years.... Ah if evil is the lot of them who
insult thee, good are thy purposes towards those who honour
thee, O Amon!"

Hence the officiating priest assumed a formidable responsibility
as regarded his fellows: a slip of memory, the slightest accidental
impurity, made him a bad priest, injurious to himself and harmful to
those worshippers who had entr