Note 232 — Chapter XXI · THEBES.

Impossible from the Egyptian point of view. “That the body should not waste or decay was an object of anxious solicitude; and for this purpose various bandlets and amulets, prepared with certain magical preparations, and sanctified with certain spells or prayers, of even offerings and small sacrifices, were distributed over various parts of the mummy. In some mysterious manner the immortality of the body was deemed as important as the passage of the soul; and at a later period the growth or natural reparation of the body was invoked as earnestly as the life or passage of the soul to the upper regions.”—See “Introduction to the Funereal Ritual,” S. Birch, LL.D., in vol. v, of Bunsen’s “Egypt:” Lond. 1867.