Budge, Ernest A. Wallis: Some account of the collection of Egyptian antiquities in the possession of Lady Meux: of Theobalds Park, Waltham Cross (London, 1896)

THE FUNERAL OF AN EGYPTIAN. II

and the feather p, emblematic of right and truth, in
the other; a cynocephalous ape XJ, sat upon the

support of the beam to watch the indicator on behalf
of Thoth, the scribe of the gods, and to declare to
him whether the beam was exactly straight or not;
Thoth himself stood near to register the result for the
gods, and Anubis, the god of the dead, also carefully
watched the indicator of the balance in order to
dispute the result stated if necessary. Behind these
gods stood a beast, part crocodile, part lion, part
hippopotamus, called Amemit, or "Eater of the
dead," i.e., eater of the damned. On the other side
of the scales were present the soul of the deceased,
his Shai or "luck," an object connected with his
birth, and the two goddesses Renenet and Meskhenet,
who presided over his birth and childhood and
education. When the heart of the deceased exactly
counterbalanced the feather of right and truth, Thoth
declared to the gods that the weighing was satis-
factory, the gods pronounced the deceased victorious,
and he was led into the presence of the god by
Horus, son of Osiris, and was free to go wherever he
pleased in the underworld. Meat and drink were to
be given to him daily, an everlasting estate was to be
allotted to him in the Sekhet-Aanre or Elysian Fields,
together with the necessary corn and barley for