The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia

176 The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia

earth at Hermopolis or in some other way, he found his path
barred by a deep lake or canal. According to one myth, he
was carried across it on the wings of the ibis Thoth, but the
more general belief provided for him the boat of the ferryman
Nu-Urru,^158 the prototype of the Greek Charon. The fusion of
the Osirian creed with the solar cult, however, caused the boat of
Nu-Urru and the bark of the sun-god to be confounded together,
and accordingly three chapters (c.-cii.) have been added to that
in which the boat of the Egyptian Charon is referred to,“in order
to teach the luminous spirit (khu) how to enter the bark among
the servants of Ra.”In the next chapter, Hathor,“the lady of the
west,”is the object of prayer.
Two chapters (cv. and cvi.) are now interpolated from the
ritual of Pta%. They take us back to the age when offerings were
made to thekaof the dead and not to the gods, and declare that
abundant food should be given it“each day in Memphis.”They
have little to do with the destinies of the Osirian in the paradise
of Alu. These are once more resumed in the 107th chapter: the
fields of Alu are described, and the life led by those who enjoy
them.
With the 125th chapter we enter the“Hall of the Two Truths,”
where Osiris sits on his throne of judgment, and the soul is
justified or condemned for the deeds it had done in the flesh. It
is no longer ceremonial, but moral purity that is required: the
[192] follower of Osiris is to be saved not by the words and prayers of
the ritual, however correctly they may be pronounced, but by his
acts and conduct in this lower world. We are transported into a
new atmosphere, in which religion and morality for the first time
are united in one: the teaching of the prophet has taken the place
of the teaching of the priest.
All the blessings promised to the disciples of other creeds than

(^158) Maspero,“La Pyramide de Pepi 1er”inRecueil de Travaux, vii. pp. 161,

162. In the Babylonian Epic of Gilgames the place of Nu-Urru is taken by
     Ur-Ninnu.