174 The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babyloniaretired southward long before the age of the Fourth Dynasty. To
an equally early period we may refer the forty-second chapter,
in which the soul is taught how to escape the slaughter of the
[189] enemies of Horus, which took place at Herakleopolis during the
Osirian wars,—a chapter, however, in which, it may be observed,
the elder Horus is already confounded with the son of Osiris.^156
Chapters xliv. to liii. are occupied in describing how the dead
man is thus preserved from“the second death.”Illustrations are
drawn both from the punishments undergone by the enemies of
the sun-god in the story of his passage through the world of night,
and from the old beliefs connected with the lot of the Ka. He was
neither to be beheaded, nor cast head downwards into the abyss,
nor was he to feed on filth like the Ka for which no offerings
of food had been provided. The dangers from which he is thus
preserved are next contrasted with the joys that await him in the
paradise of the Blest (chs. liv.-lxiii.).
The 64th chapter, which sums up the preceding part of the
book, and constitutes a break between it and what follows, has
already been considered. The ten chapters which succeed it are
all similarly concerned with“coming forth from the day.”They
thus traverse the same ground as the first fifteen chapters of
the book, but they deal with the subject in a different way and
from a different point of view. They are a fresh proof of the
composite character of the work, and of the desire of its authors
to incorporate in it all that had been written on the future life of
the soul up to the time of its composition. Professor Maspero
believes that they embody the various formulæ relating to the
severance of soul and body which were current in the priestly
schools.^157
Equally separate in tone and spirit are the next six chapters
(lxxv.-xc.), which have emanated from the school of Heliopolis.
[190] They deal with the destiny of the Ba or“soul”rather than with
(^156) As is also the case in the Pyramid texts.
(^157) Maspero,Études de Mythologie et d'Archéologie, p. 369.