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The ancient Egyptian doctrine of the immortality of the soul

Note 12 — PREFACE.

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Such prayers were also inscribed on funerary stelæ in order that passers-by might repeat them for the benefit of the dead. These inscriptions vary but little. The prayer on the funerary tablet of Khemnekht (now in the Agram Museum) dates from the Thirteenth Dynasty, and runs as follows: “O every scribe, every Kherheb (lector, priestly reciter), all ye who pass by this stele, who love and honour your gods, and would have your offices to flourish (shine) for your children, say ye: ‘Let royal offerings be brought unto Osiris for the Ka of the priest Khemnekht’”: For an account of the development of the formulæ on funerary stelæ, see Wiedemann, Observations sur quelques stèles funéraires égyptiennes, Le Muséon X., 42, 199 et seq.

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