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”

indissolubly united with him whose name, says the Egyptian Ritual, is ‘ Light, Great Creator’.” And that path which the Book gives in writing, the “ Pyramid of Light ” materializes in its masonry. So closely indeed do these two paths correspond, that the traveller who to-day penetrates the mysterious recesses of the Great Pyramid may follow, almost step by step, the mystical progress of the holy departed through the grave and gate of death to the final resurrection of the open tomb.

Of the origin of the Book of the Dead little can be said, since this is lost in the mists of antiquity, the Egyptians themselves ascribing it to Thoth, the god of writing, in which form he is represented in the Ritual itself, holding the reed and palette of the scribe, and noting in his tablets the record of the deceased whose heart is being weighed in the scales in his presence. It was in this capacity as recorder of souls before Osiris that Thoth was looked upon as one of the most important deities in the Egyptian pantheon. He was able to impart the correct manner in which the prayers and incantations of the Book should be recited, as upon this depended success or failure in the deceased reaching his journey’s end in safety, or being cast to the “‘ Devourer of the unjustified” (Amam), a monster which stands immediately behind Thoth, represented with the head of a crocodile, mane and forepart of a lion, and hindquarters of a hippopotamus. To Thoth was also ascribed the sciences of astronomy, geometry, and mathematics, as well as the letters of the alphabet and the art of writing (see Note R). It was probably his association with these sciences, coupled with the idea that such were enshrined in, or connected with, the Great Pyramid that gave rise to the tradition preserved by the Arab writer Ibn Batuta (Seiss), that ‘‘ the pyramids (Great,

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