n affectionate care of the corpse ensures at least a
quiet repose.

Such a one rests on a couch and drinks pure water;
But he whose shade has no rest in the earth, as I have seen and
you will see,
His shade has no rest in the earth
Whose shade no one cares for ...
What is left over in the pot, remains of food
That are thrown in the street, he eats."[250]

_Gilgamesh Epic_.

By disseminating the belief that the dead must be buried with much
ceremony, the priests secured great power over the people, and
extracted large fees.

In Egypt, on the other hand, the teachers of the sun cult sold charms
and received rewards to perform ceremonies so that chosen worshippers
might enter the sun-barque of Ra; while the Osirian priests promised
the just and righteous that they would reach an agricultural Paradise
where they could live and work as on earth, but receive a greater
return for their labour, the harvests of the Otherworld being of
unequalled abundance.

In the sacred books of India a number of Paradises are referred to. No
human beings, however, entered the Paradise of Varuna, who resembles
the Sumerian Ea-Oannes. The souls of the dead found rest and enjoyment
in the Paradise of Yama, while "those kings that yield up their lives,
without turning their backs on the field of battle, attain", as the
sage told a hero, "to the mansion of Indra", which recalls the Valhal
of Odin. It will thus be seen that belief in immortality was a tenet
of the Indian cults of Indra and Yama.

It is possible that the Gilgamesh epic in one of its forms concluded
when the hero reached the island of Pir-napishtim, like the Indian
Yama who "searched and spied the path for many". The Indian "Land of
the Pitris" (Ancestors), over which Yama presided, may be compared to
the Egyptian heaven of Osiris. It contains, we are told, "all kinds of
enjoyable articles", and also "sweet, juicy, agreeable and delicious
edibles ... floral wreaths of the most delicious fragrance, and trees
that yield fruits that are desired of them". Thither go "all sinners
among human beings, as also (those) that have died during the winter
solstice"[251]--a suggestion that this Paradise was not unconnected
with the Tammuz-like deity who took up his abode in the spirit land
during the barren season.

The view may be urged that in the Gilgamesh epic we have a development
of the Tammuz legend in its heroic form. Like Ishtar, when