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preserved the bodies buried in it; and even as late as the time
of the Pyramid texts of the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties, when the
northern sources of natron were known, it was still necessary
for ceremonial purposes that the materials used by the embalmer
should contain some of the natron of El-Kab.^38
What was difficult to harmonise with the belief in the
resurrection of the mummy was the belief which made the
risen man an“Osiris,”identified, that is to say, in substance
with the god Osiris, and not his old material self. In the days,
therefore, when Greek philosophy took it in hand to systematise
and interpret the theology of Egypt, the risen mummy drops
out of sight. The Khu, as we have seen, becomes the divine
intelligence, which for a time is enshrouded in the human soul;
and this again needs the envelope of the spirit, which sends the
breath of life through the veins before it can tabernacle in the
body of man. The Hermetic books tell us that while body, [069]
spirit, and soul are common to man and the beasts, the divine
intelligence is his alone to possess, stripped, indeed, of its native
covering of ethereal fire, but still the veritable spirit of God. Ever
is it seeking to raise the human soul to itself, and so purify it from
the passions and desires with which it is inspired by the body. But
the flesh wages continual war against it, and endeavours to drag
the soul down to its own level. If the soul yields, after death the
intelligence returns to its original state, while the soul is arraigned
before the judgment-seat of heaven, and there being accused by
its conscience, the heart, is condemned to the punishment of the
lost. First it is scourged for its sins, and then handed over to
the buffetings of the tempests, suspended between earth and sky.
At times in the form of an evil demon it seeks alleviation of its
torments by entering the body of a man or animal, whom it drives
(^38) Three grains of the natron of the city of Nekheb had to be used, while
only two grains of that of the north were required (Maspero,“Pyramide du roi
Ounas”in theRecueil de Travaux, iii. p. 182). The Horus of Nekhen, opposite
El-Kab, was represented by a mummified hawk (akhem).