ward off the attacks of these from his tomb, and his mummified body,
and his spirit, the priest composed spells of various kinds, and the
utterance of such, in a proper manner, was believed to render him immune
from the attacks of foes of all kinds. Very often such spells took the
form of prayers. Many of the spells were exceedingly ancient, even in
the Pyramid Period; they were, in fact, so old that they were
unintelligible to the scribes of the day. They date from the time when
the Egyptians believed more in magic than religion; it is possible that
when they were composed, religion, in our sense of the word, was still
undeveloped among the Egyptians.

When the Pyramid Texts were written men believed that the welfare of
souls and spirits in the Other World could be secured by the prayers of
the living. Hence we find in them numerous prayers for the dead, and
hymns addressed to the gods on their behalf, and extracts from many
kinds of ancient religious books. When these were recited, and offerings
made both to the gods and to the dead, it was confidently believed that
the souls of the dead received special consideration and help from the
gods, and from all the good spirits who formed their train. These
prayers are very important from many points of view, but specially so
from the fact that they prove that the Egyptians who lived under the
sixth dynasty attached more importance to them than to magical spells
and incantations. In other words, the Egyptians had begun to reject
their belief in the efficacy of magic, and to develop a belief of a more
spiritual character. There were many reasons for this development, but
the most important was the extraordinary growth of the influence of the
religion of Osiris, which had before the close of the period of the
sixth dynasty spread all over Egypt. This religion promised to all who
followed it, high or low, rich or poor, a life in the world beyond the
grave, after a resurrection that was made certain to them through the
sufferings, death, and resurrection of Osiris, who was the incarnation
of the great primeval god who created the heavens and the earth. A few
extracts illustrating the general contents of the Pyramid Texts may now
be given.

I. Mention has already been made of the "opening of the mouth" of the
dead king: under the earliest dynasties this ceremony was performed on a
statue of the king. Water was sprinkled before it, and incense was
burnt, and the statue was anoint