Read about It. Рахимбергенова М.Х. - 24 стр.

        The khaybet, or shadow, is evidently the survival of an early be-     cepted. This process is clearly indicated by the various burial customs
lief. It is really another manifestation of the ka. Like all primitive peo-   and the complex religious ceremonies that prevailed in different ages.
ples, the ancient Egyptians believed that their shadows were their souls.            The early people buried their dead crouched up in shallow graves
Higher concepts evolved in time, but their cultured descendants clung to      with due provision of nourishment and implements. They appear to
the old belief, which was perpetuated by folk customs associated with         have believed that the ka remained beside the body until the flesh de-
magic practices. Spells were wrought by casting shadows on a man, and         cayed.
he might be insulted or injured if an offence were committed against his             The Horus-worshipping, or Dynastic, Egyptians who pressed
shadow.                                                                       northwards on their gradual campaign of conquest, introduced a new
        The ran, or name, was also a manifestation of the ka. Power could     burial custom. Instead of digging shallow graves, they erected brick-
be exercised by uttering the name, because there was magic influence in       lined tombs in which the dead were laid on their backs, fully extended,
those words, which were believed to have spiritual «doubles». A per-          clad in state and adorned with articles of jewellery. In the inscriptions,
sonal name was the spirit identified; its service was secured when the        the ka and khu are referred to, but no attempt was made, even in the
name was uttered. The spirit was the name and the name was the spirit.        First and Second Dynasties, to preserve the body from decay, and
If a magician wished to work evil against an individual, he made use of       sumptuous offerings were placed in the tombs.
the name when uttering potent magical formulae. The dead were simi-                  Another burial custom involved secondary interment, as was the
larly conjured up when their names were spoken in invocations; evil           case in those European districts where early graves have been found to
spirits were cast out by those who knew their names. To guard himself         contain disconnected skeletons. In Egypt attempts were sometimes
against wizards who uttered «words of power», or verbal spells, the           made to arrange the bones in proper position, but they were often
Egyptian therefore considered it necessary to have two names – the big        heaped in confusion. It appears that temporary interment was a cere-
name and the little name, or the true name and the good name. He kept         mony of riddance, the object being probably to hasten the departure of
his «big, true name» secret because it was the ran; his «good little          the ka. Dismemberment was also practised, and many graves show that
name» was his nickname and was not a part of his living being.                decapitation was carried out after death.
                                                                                     The revolt against dismemberment took place at the beginning of
      Chapter 2.                                                              the Third Dynasty, about 2700 B.C. Massive stone tombs were then
                                                                              constructed and the bodies of the dead were mummified. The idea was
                        The burial customs
                                                                              either that the ka would ultimately return and cause the dead to live
        The diverging concepts regarding the soul in Egyptian religion        again or that the existence of the soul in the nether world depended on
arose from the mingling of beliefs caused by the mingling of peoples,         the existence of the body upon earth. The embalming of the dead ulti-
and also the Egyptian tendency to cling to every belief, or form of be-       mately became general throughout Egypt, but the belief in dismember-
lief, that evolved in the course of time in Egypt. A people who believed      ment survived in the practice of disjointing one of the mummy’s feet.
in the existence of «doubles» and in the transmigration of souls had                 Embalmers were licensed to practise their profession, and they
many vague and complex concepts. Incoherencies were a feature of              displayed much ingenuity and surgical skill. When a body was taken to
their religious beliefs. It must be borne in mind, at the same time, that     them, they produced models of mummies and arranged a price. The
this review covers a vast period of time, during which various religious      quality of their work depended on the amount of money spent by the
cults exercised supreme influence in moulding Egyptian thought. One           dead person’s friends.
cult predominated at one period; another cult arose in turn to teach its             The costliest method of embalming was as follows. The brain
own peculiar tenets, with the result that all beliefs were ultimately ac-     was extracted through the nostrils with the aid of instruments. The liver,

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