Who was he, himself, a
strange little creature surrounded on all sides by death and sickness
and yet happy and full of laughter?

He asked these many questions and certain people obligingly stepped
forward to answer these inquiries to the best of their ability. The
Egyptians called them "priests" and they became the guardians of his
thoughts and gained great respect in the community. They were highly
learned men who were entrusted with the sacred task of keeping the
written records. They understood that it is not good for man to
think only of his immediate advantage in this world and they drew his
attention to the days of the future when his soul would dwell beyond the
mountains of the west and must give an account of his deeds to Osiris,
the mighty God who was the Ruler of the Living and the Dead and who
judged the acts of men according to their merits. Indeed, the priests
made so much of that future day in the realm of Isis and Osiris that
the Egyptians began to regard life merely as a short preparation for the
Hereafter and turned the teeming valley of the Nile into a land devoted
to the Dead.

In a strange way, the Egyptians had come to believe that no soul could
enter the realm of Osiris without the possession of the body which had
been its place of residence in this world. Therefore as soon as a man
was dead his relatives took his corpse and had it embalmed. For weeks
it was soaked in a solution of natron and then it was filled with pitch.
The Persian word for pitch was "Mumiai" and the embalmed body was called
a "Mummy." It was wrapped in yards and yards of specially prepared linen
and it was placed in a specially prepared coffin ready to be removed to
its final home. But an Egyptian grave was a real home where the body was
surrounded by pieces of furniture and musical instruments (to while away
the dreary hours of waiting) and by little statues of cooks and bakers
and barbers (that the occupant of this dark home might be decently
provided with food and need not go about unshaven).

Originally these graves had been dug into the rocks of the western
mountains but as the Egyptians moved northward they were obliged to
build their cemeteries in the desert. The desert however is full of
wild animals and equally wild robbers and they broke into the graves and
disturbed the mummy or stole the jewelry that had been buried with the
body. To prevent such unholy desecration the Egyptians used to build
small mounds of st