The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia

62 The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia

time showing the coffer in which the stomach was. And having
said this, he throws it into the river, and embalms the rest of
the body as being pure. Thus they thought that they needed to
excuse themselves to God for what they had eaten and drunken,
and therefore so reproach the stomach.”^33
Now and then, however, the heart and intestines were replaced
in the mummy, but under the protection of wax images of the
four genii of the dead—the four Khu of the Book of the Dead.
More often they were put into four vases of alabaster or some
other material, which were buried with the dead.^34 Though the
latter practice was not very common, probably on account of
its expense, it must go back to the very beginnings of Egyptian
history. The hieroglyphic symbol of the heart is just one of these
vases, and one of the two names applied to the heart was%ati,
“that which belongs to the vase.”After ages even endeavoured
to draw a distinction betweenab“the heart”proper, and%ati“the
heart-sack.”^35
From the time of the Twelfth Dynasty^36 onwards, the place
of the material heart in the mummy was taken by an amulet,
through the influence of which, it was supposed, the corpse
would be secured against all the dangers and inconveniences
[066] attending the loss of its heart until the day of resurrection. The
amulet was in the form of a beetle or scarab, the emblem of
“becoming”or transformation, and on the under side of it there
was often inscribed the 30th chapter of the Book of the Dead, to

(^33) Cf. also Plutarch,De Esu carnium Or.ii. p. 996, andSept. Sapient. Conviv.
p. 159 B.
(^34) The four vases were dedicated to the man-headed Amset (or Smet), the
jackal-headed Dua-mut-ef, the ape-headed Hâpi, and the hawk-headed Qeb%-
sonu-f, who are identified with the planets in the Pyramid texts (Maspero,
“Pyramide du roi Ounas”in theRecueil de Travaux, iii. p. 205).
(^35) See the Book of the Dead, chs. xxvi. and sqq.
(^36) It is still a moot question whether any scarabs go back to the age of the
Old Empire. Personally, I am inclined to agree with Prof. Flinders Petrie in
thinking that they do so.