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

“THE BOOK OF THE DEAD”

cultured class was one prolonged preparation for death. It is probable, however, that he was, through force of custom and environment, unaware of the circumstance. It is dangerous to indulge in a universal assertion with reference to an entire nation. But if any people ever regarded life as a mere academy of preparation for eternity, it was the mysterious and fascinating race whose vast remains litter the banks of the world’s most ancient river... .’’ (Myths of Ancient Egypt, Spence, p. 32.)

Book of the Dead is merely a translation of the name given by Egyptian tomb-robbers to the rolls of inscribed papyrus which they found buried with mummies. They knew nothing of the contents of these rolls, and all they intended was that it was a “ dead man’s book ” they had found in his coffin. There were other similar funerary works in existence in ancient Egypt which might equally well be called “ Books of the Dead ”’, but none bore a name which could be so translated, while the title which this particular collection claims for itself is the Book of the Master of the Hidden Places (or Temple), and is found at the close of the Rubric at the end of the x62nd chapter, which was the final chapter of a series not originally connected with the Book of the Dead, and ends up with the words, “ Here endeth the Book.” (See Note Q.)

The appropriateness of such a title is apparent in a literature which reveals in writing the allegory of the secrets contained in the hidden passages and chambers of that House of Mystery—the Great Pyramid. Where else, if not in these concealed chambers, such as are found in no other edifice, shall we look for those “ hidden places ”’, the master of which is claimed for its own master by the Book of the Dead?

Herein also lies a significance in the name by which the Great Pyramid was known to the ancient Egyptians—

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