Note 16 — Chapter XXII · THE JUDGMENT OF ANÛBIS

Sir E.A. Wallis Budge defines ka (or, more correctly, ku) both as “the double of a man” and “a divine double.” Breasted, explaining the ka, says it was the “vital force” which was supposed to animate the human body and also to accompany it into the next world. G. Elliot Smith calls the ka “one of the twin souls of the dead.” (The other soul, ba, became deified in identification with Osiris.) Ka was the spirit of a mortal person, which remained in the tomb after death; and if the tomb were violated or destroyed, the ka had no resting-place. Our own word “soul” is not quite an accurate rendition of ka, but is perhaps as near as we can come to it in English. The German word Doppelgänger, however, is an almost exact translation. (return)