Read about It. Рахимбергенова М.Х. - 23 стр.

                               TEXT VII                                                It was conceived that the ka could leave the human body during
                                                                               sleep or while the subject lay in a trance. It then wandered about and
      Read the text and do all the tasks given below.                          visited people and places, and its experiences survived in the memory.
                                                                               Dreams were accounted for in this way as actual happenings. When a
                 DEATH AND THE JUDGMENT                                        man dreamt of a dead friend, he believed that his ka had met with the ka
                                                                               of the dead, talked with it and engaged in the performance of some Oth-
      Chapter 1.                                                               erworld duty. Sometimes the wandering ka could be observed at a dis-
                          The human triad                                      tance from where the sleeper lay. It had all the appearance of the indi-
                                                                               vidual, because it was attired in the «doubles» of his clothing and might
                                                                               carry the «double» of his staff. Ghosts, therefore, included «the spirits
                                                                               of the living», which were not recognised to be spirits until they van-
                                                                               ished mysteriously. They might also be simply heard and not seen.
                                                                                       During normal life the ka existed in the human body. It was sus-
                                                                               tained by the «doubles» of everything that was partaken of. After death
                                                                               it required food and drink, and offerings were made to it at the grave.
                                                                                       In ancient times a cult believed that the ka could be fed by magic.
                                                                                       It was essential that the dead should receive the service of the liv-
       In the maze of Egyptian beliefs there were diverging views re-          ing, and those who performed the necessary ceremonies and made the
garding the elements that constitute the human personality. One triad          offerings were called the «servants». Thus the Egyptian word for
was a unity of the ka (spirit), the khu (soul) and the khat (the body).        «priest» signified a «servant». If the ka or ghost were neglected and al-
Another grouped khaybet (the shadow) with ka (the spirit) and sahu (the        lowed to starve, it could leave the grave and haunt the offenders. Primi-
mummy). The physical heart was called hati – it was supposed to be the         tive people had a genuine dread of spirits, and their chief concern was
seat of the intelligence, and its «spirit» was named ab, which signified the   always to propitiate them, no matter how great might be the personal
will and desires. The «vital spark», or controlling force, was symbolised      sacrifice involved.
as the sekhem, and the ran was the personal name.                                      Sometimes a small «soul house» was provided by the wayside for
       The ka of the first triad is the most concrete conception of all. It    the wandering ka, but more often an image of wood or stone was placed
was probably, too, the oldest. The early people appear to have believed        for its use in the grave. The statues of kings, which have been found in
that the human personality combined simply the body and the spirit. In         their tombs, were constructed so that their disembodied spirits might be
those tomb scenes that depict the birth of kings, the royal baby is repre-     given material bodies, and those that they caused to be built in various
sented by two figures – the visible body and the invisible «double». The       parts of the kingdom were primarily intended for a similar purpose and
ka began to be at birth; it continued to live on after death.                  not merely to perpetuate their fame, although the note of vanity is rarely
       But a human being was not alone in possessing a ka. Everything          absent in the inscriptions.
that existed was believed to have its «double». A fish or other animal                 The ba of the second triad was a concept uniting both the ka and
had a ka; so also had a tree; and there were spirits in water, in metals, in   the khu. It is represented in bird form with a human head hovering over
stone, and even in weapons and other manufactured articles. These spir-        the sahu, or mummy, on which it gazes wistfully, always seeking to re-
its were invisible to all except seers, who were those individuals able to     enter the bandaged form. Like the ka, it required nourishment, which
exercise on occasion the «faculty» that Scottish Highlanders call «sec-        was provided, however, by the goddess of the consecrated burial
ond sight».                                                                    ground.

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