"Then dost Thou think, holy man," inquired he, "that I shall find my son some time, and that I shall be able to say to that woman: 'Sarah, I know that I have been too harsh to thee?'"
"I am as certain of it as that I see thee now, worthy lord," replied the prophet.
"Speak, speak of this!" exclaimed the prince. "A man does not think of the grave till he has put a part of himself there. This misfortune has struck me, and struck just when I thought myself more powerful than any save the pharaoh."
"Thou hast inquired, lord," began Mentezufis, "as to the difference between burning the dead and embalming them. We find the same difference that there is between destroying a garment and preserving it in a closet. When the garment is preserved it may be of use frequently; and if a man has only one garment it would be madness to burn it."
"I do not understand this," interrupted Ramses. "Ye do not explain it even in the higher schools."
"But we can tell it to the heir of the pharaoh. Thou knowest, worthiness," continued the priest, "that a human being is composed of three parts: the body, the divine spark, and the shade, or Ka, which connects the body and the divine spark.
"When a man dies his shade separates from his body as does the divine spark. If the man lives without sin the divine spark and the shade appear among the gods to live through eternity. But each man sins, stains himself in this world; therefore his shade, the Ka, must purify itself, for thousands of years sometimes. It purifies itself in this way, that being invisible it wanders over our earth among people and does good in its wandering, though the shades of criminals, even in life beyond the grave, commit offences, and at last destroy themselves and the divine spark contained in them.
"Now and this is no secret for thee, worthiness this shade, the Ka, is like a man, but looks as though made of most delicate mist. The shade has a head, hands, body, it can walk, speak, throw things or carry them, it dresses like a man, and even, especially during a few hundred of the earlier years after death, must take some food at intervals. But the shade obtains its main strength from the body which remains on the earth here. Therefore if we throw a body into a grave it spoils quickly and the shade must satisfy itself with dust and decay. If we burn the body the shade has nothing but ashes with which to gain strength. But if we embalm the body, or preserve it for thousands of years the shade Ka is always healthy and strong; it passes the time of purification in calmness, and even agreeably."
"Wonderful things!" whispered the heir.
"Priests in the course of investigations during thousands of years have learned important details of life beyond the grave. They have convinced themselves that if the viscera are left in the body of a dead man, his shade, the Ka, has a great appetite, and needs as much food as a man during earthly existence, and if food is withheld it will rush at living people and suck the blood out of them. But if the viscera are removed from the body, as we remove them, the shade lives on without food almost: its own body, embalmed and filled with plants which are strongly fragrant, suffices it for millions of years.