The true title of this great book is "Per-em-hou", "The book of the coming forth by

day", from the title of the first chapter. Several chapters are devoted to amulets. For

example, a ladder symbolized the ladder by which Osiris ascended to heaven. When the

deceased needed a ladder, he simply recited the chapter of the ladder, and he has a ladder

to hand as long as he may need. Man in the Egyptian conception is a very complex

organization.  The material part of man was called the khat or body, through

mummification and the due recitation of prayers that body became possessed of

knowledge, power, and glory whereby it became incorruptible. This glorified body was

called a sãku. One text from this section reads, "my flesh germinateth". A man also had

an abstract personality, a ghostly double, a genius. This was called ka. Provision was

made in the tomb for the ka, in the shape of food and drink. A statue was made to

represent the deceased, and after a ceremonial, the ka was supposed to enter it. This ka or

double could leave the statue and wander abroad. It could even take up its abode in the

body of a man from whom his own ka had temporarily gone forth. Thus spiritism and

demon possession were rendered quite easy. It is very probable that a reference to the ka

is found in Jer. 7: 18, and 44: 19, the "cakes" or small images of dough are in the

Hebrew khavan, Greek khapanos or khabon, which through the Latin still exists in the

"hot cross bun" of so called "Good Friday". Lev. 19: 28 says, "Ye shall not imprint

upon yourselves any tracing of an image", the word "marks" (A.V.) being qa-qa.

The hearts or ab was the seat of life and fountain of good and evil thoughts. This

heart was dual, material and spiritual. The spiritual could be stolen by magic. Connected

with the ka was the sekhem or vital power, while the mental and spiritual attributes were

grouped in the khu. The khu seems to have been a shining intangible essence, and seems

to correspond to our word spirit.

The ba was the everlasting part of man and meant the soul. A text of the fifth dynasty

reads, "Ba ar pet, sat ar ta," "Soul to heaven, body to earth." The souls was usually

accompanied by the khaibit or shadow. This sevenfold division of man, subdivided into

many mysterious and conflicting functions, gave scope for the lengthy rituals and

observances that accompanied the embalming and entombment of the dead. The tradition

that man possesses an immortal soul lies at the basis of Egyptian belief. One text reads,

"Thou shalt exist for millions of millions of years". Another approximating to many a

modern utterance says, "My soul is God, my soul is eternity."

It is of course utterly impossible to deal with the Book of the Dead in these pages, the

interested reader will find the subject elaborately treated in the publications of the British

Museum authorities, but we hardly think the study would be profitable, the Word of truth

is our "book of life", and we need no "Book of the Dead".