The mystery of the Great pyramid : traditions concerning it and its connection with the Egyptian Book of the dead : with numerous illustrations

MYSTERY OF THE GREAT PYRAMID

the representation of Thoth in the Book of the Dead, the following excerpt from The Riddle of the Earth (Chapman and Hall) by ““ Appian Way ”’ is of interest: ‘‘ The isle of Iona is not only the most sacred pre-historic part of Scotland, but it has associations of a strange Egyptian character, its street of the dead, and a carving in the ruined cathedral of Thoth, or Hermes, weighing souls... . Originally, also, in Iona stood a temple of 360 upright stones . . . These matters all point to a very ancient civilization whose priests understood the science of the heavens and based their religion on it.”

Similar evidence is given by Mr. Spence regarding the connection in the past between Egypt and Britain. In his Mysteries of Britain (Rider & Co.) he tells us, on the authority of Sanconiathon, the Carthaginian writer, that “ the cult of the Cabiri, a mysterious religion, originated in North-West Africa, and was delivered amongst others ‘ to the Egyptian Osiris’ . . . If Osiris was one of its apostles, then the religion of the Cabiri was merely the cult of the Dead . . . This Cabirian cult, then, is evidently nothing but a dim survival or memorial of the ancient civilized race of that region (North-West Africa), which made its way into Spain, and . . . gradually found its way, or sent its doctrine of the cult of the Dead to Egypt on the one hand and to Britain on the other. This theory explains in a word all the notions of Egyptian influence in Britain, and the many apparent resemblances between Egyptian and British mysticism and folk-belief”’ (pp. 31-2).

Elsewhere Mr. Spence states that “both Druidism and the Osirian cult were connected with megalithic building and monumental architecture”, such as is exemplified in Stonehenge in one case and in the Great Pyramid, as the “‘ House of Osiris ’’, in the other.

Note S: Tue Srxty-FourTH CHAPTER OF THE “‘ Book OF THE DeEaD”’ (page 64)

The sixty-fourth chapter is found in the papyrus of Nu in two versions, one much longer than the other, and

124