"This is a great crime by our laws," said the judge sternly; "for, though sons are not bound to provide for poor parents, daughters are. This she knew, and was able to do it. Where are the proofs?"
Three persons came forward and bore testimony to the fact.
"The deceased is not worthy to pass the Lake of the Dead. The burial is prohibited."
Hereupon there was a great cry of woe on the part of the mortified relations; and the mummy, without being permitted to enter the sacred baris, was retaken to the city, where in a shrine in the house it will remain above-ground for years; until finally, after certain ceremonies, it is permitted to be ignominiously entombed in "the sepulchre of the evil."
This accusation and judgment, dear mother, is a striking illustration of the veneration and respect children are expected to pay to their parents in Egypt.
If, on the other hand, the accusation is not sustained, the accusers are stoned away by the friends, who then with great joy unite in a eulogy of the dead, and joined by all the people present pray the gods below to receive him to dwell among the pious dead. In the eulogy, they speak only of virtues—praising his learning, his integrity, his justice, his piety, his temperance, and truthfulness; but no mention is made of rank, since all Egyptians are deemed equally noble. Such an ordeal has no doubt a great influence upon the living Egyptian; for he is certain that at his death every act of injustice he has committed will be brought up before the forty-two judges, and if found guilty, he will be denied sepulture, while infamy will be attached to his memory.
"What," I asked of my companion, the high-priest, "is the state of the deceased soul after death?"
"That, O prince," said he, "is one of the mysteries. But as you have been initiated into the knowledge of the mystic books in your own land, I will explain to you what our books of the dead teach. We priests of Apis do not believe with those of Osiris at On."
"What is their faith?" I asked.
"That the soul of man is immortal (which we all believe)," he added positively; "that when the body decays, the soul enters into and is born in the form of a lower animal; and when it has gone the round of the bodies of all terrestrial and marine animals, and of all flying creatures, it enters again into the body of an infant at its birth."