head firmly with a strip of linen two fingers wide, and anoint a
second time, and then fill up all the crevices with the oil already
mentioned. Then say, "O august goddess, Lady of the East, Mistress of
the West, come and enter into the two ears of Osiris. O mighty goddess,
who art ever young, O great one, Lady of the East, Mistress of the West,
let there be breathing in the head of the deceased in the Tuat. Let him
see with his eyes, hear with his ears, breathe with his nose, pronounce
with his mouth, and speak with his tongue in the Tuat. Accept his voice
in the Hall of Truth, and let him be proved to have been a speaker of
the truth in the Hall of Keb, in the presence of the Great God, the Lord
of Amenti."

V. The RITUAL OF THE DIVINE CULT.--This title is commonly given to a
work consisting of sixty-six chapters, which were recited daily by the
high priest of Amen-Ra, the King of the Gods, in his temple at Thebes,
during the performance of a series of ceremonies of a highly important
and symbolical character. The text of this Ritual is found cut in
hieroglyphs on the walls of the temple of Seti I at Abydos, and written
in hieratic upon papyri preserved in the Imperial Museum in Berlin. The
work was originally intended to be recited by the king himself daily,
but it was soon found that the Lord of Egypt could not spare the time
necessary for its recital each day, and he therefore was personified by
the high priest of each temple in which the Ritual was performed. The
object of the Ritual was to place the king in direct contact with his
god Amen-Ra once a day. The king was an incarnation of Amen-Ra, and
ruled Egypt as the representative upon earth of the god. He drew his
power and wisdom direct from the god, and it was believed that these
required renewal daily. To bring about this renewal of the divine spirit
in the god's vicegerent upon earth, the king entered the temple in the
early morning, and performed ceremonies and recited formulae that
purified both the sanctuary and himself. He then advanced to the shrine,
which contained a small gilded wooden figure of the god, inlaid with
precious stones and provided with a movable head, arms, and legs, and
opened it and knelt down before the figure. He performed further
ceremonies of purification, and finally took the figure of the god in
his arms and embraced it. During this embrace the divine power of
Amen-Ra, which was in the gilded figure at that moment, passed into th