ich the
theories propounded by scholars have been built up. It seemed to be
worth while to attempt to read afresh the voluminous mass of old
documents with the illumination of this new information.

The other reason for making such an attempt is that almost every modern
scholar who has discussed the matters at issue has assumed that the
fashionable doctrine of the independent development of human beliefs and
practices was a safe basis upon which to construct his theories. At best
it is an unproven and reckless speculation. I am convinced it is utterly
false. Holding such views I have attempted to read the evidence afresh.

APPENDIX A.

On re-reading the discussion of the significance of the _ka_ I realize
that, in striving after brevity and conciseness--to keep the size of my
statement within the limits of the _Bulletin of the John Rylands
Library_, generously elastic though it is--I have left the argument in a
rather nebulous form.

It must not be imagined that a concrete-minded people like the ancient
Egyptians entertained highly abstract and ethereal ideas about "the
soul". They recognized that all the expressions of consciousness and
personality could cease during sleep; and at the same time the phenomena
of dreams seemed to afford evidence that these absent elements of the
individual's being were enjoying real experiences elsewhere. Thus there
was an _alter ego_, identified by this matter-of-fact people with the
twin (placenta) which was born with the child and was clearly concerned
with its physical and intellectual nourishment--for it was obviously
connected by its stalk to the embryo like a tree to its roots, and it
seemed to be composed of blood, which was regarded as the vehicle of
mind. But this intellectual "twin" kept pace in its growth with the
physical body. When a statue was made to represent the latter the _ka_
could dwell in the real body or the statue.

The identification of the placenta with the moon helped the growth of
the conception that this "birth-promoter" could not only bring about a
re-birth in the life to come, but also facilitate a transference to the
sky-world. The placenta had already been superintending the deceased's
welfare upon earth and would continue to do so when he rejoined his _ka_
in the sky world.

The complexity of the conception is due to the fact that the simple
early belief in "a double" was gradually elaborated, as one new idea
after another became added to it, an