as but an ameliorated earthly life, divested of all suffering under
the rule and by the favour of the true-voiced Onnophris. The feudal gods
promptly adopted this new mode of life.

[Illustration: 279.jpg BOAT OF A FUNERARY FLEET ON ITS WAY TO ABYDOS. 1]

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Einil
Brugsch-Bey. The original was found in the course of M. de
Morgan's excavations at Meir, and is now at Gizeh. The dead
man is sitting in the cabin, wrapped in his cloak. As far as
I know, this is the only boat which has preserved its
original rigging. It dates from the XIth or XIIth
dynasty.

Each of their dead bodies, mummified, and afterwards reanimated in
accordance with the Osirian myth, became an Osiris as did that of any
ordinary person. Some carried the assimilation so far as to absorb the
god of Mendes, or to be absorbed in him. At Memphis Phtah-Sokaris
became Phtah-Sokar-Osiris, and at Thinis Khontamentifc became Osiris
Khontamentit. The sun-god lent himself to this process with comparative
ease because his life is more like a man's life, and hence also more
like that of Osiris, which is the counterpart of a man's life.

[Illustration: 280.jpg THE SOLAR BARK INTO WHICH THE DEAD MAN IS ABOUT
TO ENTER. 1]

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a vignette in the Papyrus of
Nebqadn, in Paris.

Born in the morning, he ages as the day declines, and gently passes away
at evening. From the time of his entering the sky to that of his leaving
it, he reigns above as he reigned here below in the beginning; but when
he has left the sky and sinks into Hades, he becomes as one of the dead,
and is, as they are, subjected to Osirian embalmment. The same dangers
that menace their human souls threaten his soul also; and when he has
vanquished them, not in his own strength, but by the power of amulets
and magical formulas, he enters into the fields of lalu, and ought to
dwell there for ever under the rule of Onuophris. He did nothing of the
kind, however, for daily the sun was to be seen reappearing in the east
twelve hours after it had sunk into the darkness of the west. Was it a
new orb each time, or did the same sun shine every day? In either case
the result was precisely the same; the god came forth from death and
re-entered into life. Having identified the course of the sun-god with
that of man, and Ra with Osiris for a first day and a first night,
it was hard not to push the