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68 CATALOGUE OF EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES.

arms, in the prescribed position of one in the pre-
sence of Majesty. Next, on an altar sits a female
hippopotamus, her head decorated with the feathers
of Truth, and in her paw the pointed knife. This
large jawed monster is in some of these significant
pictures called the Devourer.

Then follows the ceremoney of weighing the heart
of the deceased, which is supposed to be contained
in, or represented by the heart-shaped vase placed in
one scale, while in the other is the counterpoise, an
image of Truth. On the side of the heart stands
Anubis, and on the other side, the side of the weight,
the god Ra. Both these divinities are employed like
counsel, on opposite sides, addressing the Jury, or
what is analagous to it, adjusting the balance which
is to decide on the future condition of the soul of the
deceased. Placed in artistic antagonism to the figure
of the hippopotamus, on an altar, is a bird with human
head and arms, a personification of the soul of the
deceased, with out-stretched arms, as if in adoration,
or supplication, or asserting its innocence, for in the
more ancient pictures on this subject, the deceased is
represented standing at the entrance of the Hall of
Judgment, making a kind of negative confession, de-
claring that he was not guilty of any of the forty-
two crimes personified by the forty-two little figures,
usually placed in one or two rows in the Hall of
Judgment. Finally, Anubis appears again as the
faithful guardian of the dead, ushering into the pre-
sence of the dread judge, Osiris, or as here, Osiris-
Ra, the now justified (or mummified) person of the
deceased.
 
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