matter further, and identify them for all
succeeding days and nights, affirming that man and Osiris might, if they
so wished, be born again in the morning, as Ra was, and together with
him. If the Egyptians had found the prospect of quitting the darkness of
the tomb for the bright meadows of Ialu a sensible alleviation of their
lot, with what joy must they have been filled by the conception which
allowed them to substitute the whole realm of the sun for a little
archipelago in an out-of-the-way corner of the universe. Their first
consideration was to obtain entrance into the divine bark, and this
was the object of all the various practices and prayers, whose text,
together with that which already contained the Osirian formulas, ensured
the unfailing protection of Ra to their possessor. The soul desirous of
making use of them went straight from his tomb to the very spot where
the god left earth to descend into Hades. This was somewhere in the
immediate neighbourhood of Abydos, and was reached through a narrow
gorge or "cleft" in the Libyan range, whose "mouth" opened in front
of the temple of Osiris Khontamentit, a little to the north-west of the
city. The soul was supposed to be carried thither by a small flotilla of
boats, manned by figures representing friends or priests, and laden with
food, furniture, and statues. This flotilla was placed within the
vault on the day of the funeral, and was set in motion by means of
incantations recited over it during one of the first nights of the year,
at the annual feast of the dead. The bird or insect which had previously
served as guide to the soul upon its journey now took the helm to show
the fleet the right way, and under this command the boats left Abydos
and mysteriously passed through the "cleft" into that western sea which
is inaccessible to the living, there to await the daily coming of the
dying sun-god.

[Illustration: 282.jpg THE SOLAR BARK PASSING INTO THE MOUNTAIN OF THE
WEST. 1]

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a very small photograph
published in the Catalogue of the Minutoli Sale.

As soon as his bark appeared at the last bend of the celestial Nile,
the cynocephali, who guarded the entrance into night, began to dance and
gesticulate upon the banks as they intoned their accustomed hymn. The
gods of Abydos mingled their shouts of joy with the chant of the sacred
baboons, the bark lingered for a moment upon the frontiers of day, and
initiated souls seiz