ed him, and bore
him away on his wings;[***] another, no less ancient but of more lasting
popularity, declared that a ferry-boat plied regularly between the solid
earth and the shores of paradise.

*** It is often mentioned in the Pyramid texts, and
inspired one of the most obscure chapters among them
(_Teti_, 11. 185-200; cf. _Recueil de Travaux_, vol. v. pp.
22, 23). It seems that the ibis had to fight with Sit for
right of passage.

The god who directed it questioned the dead, and the bark itself
proceeded to examine them before they were admitted on board; for it
was a magic bark. "Tell me my name," cried the mast; and the travellers
replied: "He who guides the great goddess on her way is thy name." "Tell
me my name," repeated the braces. "The Spine of the Jackal Uapuaitu is
thy name." "Tell me my name," proceeded the mast-head.

[Illustration: 267.jpg THE GOOD COW HATHOR CARRYING THE DEAD MAN AND HIS
SOUL. 1]

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coloured facsimile
published by Leemans, _Monuments Egyptiens du Musee d'
Antiquites des Pays-Bas a Leyden_, part iii. pl. xii.

"The Neck of Amsit is thy name." "Tell me my name," asked the sail.
"Nuit is thy name." Each part of the hull and of the rigging spoke
in turn and questioned the applicant regarding its name, this being
generally a mystic phrase by which it was identified either with some
divinity as a whole, or else with some part of his body.

When the double had established his right of passage by the correctness
of his answers, the bark consented to receive him and to carry him to
the further shore. There he was met by the gods and goddesses of the
court of Osiris: by Anubis, by Hathor the lady of the cemetery, by Nit,
by the two Maits who preside over justice and truth, and by the four
children of Horus stiff-sheathed in their mummy wrappings. They formed
as it were a guard of honour to introduce him and his winged guide into
an immense hall, the ceiling of which rested on light graceful columns
of painted wood.

[Illustration: 268.jpg ANUBIS AND THOT WEIGHING THE HEART OF THE
DECEASED IN THE SCALES OF TRUTH. 1]

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from pl. cxxxvi. Ag of
Naville's _Das Thebanische Todtenbuch_.

At the further end of the hall Osiris was seated in mysterious twilight
within a shrine through whose open doors he might be seen wearing a red
necklace over his close-fitting case of white band