Books on Egypt and Chaldaea/Collection 7/Volume 25/Seventh Ceremony

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CHAPTER III.

The Seventh Ceremony.

description of the offerings..

The ceremonies of purification are now ended. The new body in which the Ka is to dwell has been made by means of them. Its bones, and head, and mouth have been brought into a state of ceremonial purity, it contains the fluid of life, and all its humours, and

The Sem priest holding the "Kef-pesesh."

warmth, and its face is enveloped with an emanation from the Eye of Horus, and the odour of purity has been restored to it. It is not, however, prepared to enjoy the offerings which are about to be presented to it, because its jaw-bones, which have been pressed out

of their places under the process of mummification, have no freedom of movement. To "establish" the jaw-bones was the next thing. The Sem priest took in his hands the instrument called "Kef Pesesh,"

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, i.e., "the overcomer of the divisions," the shape of which was

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, and presented it before the face of the mummy, or touched it with it. Meanwhile the Kher ḥeb said these words:--

"O Unȧs, thy two jawbones which were separated have been established."

As the result of these words the jawbones resumed their former positions, and power was given to them to masticate food. It is interesting to note that a specimen of this instrument is preserved in the British Museum (Third Egyptian Room, Table-case M, No. 888). It is made of flint, and was found near Abydos with large numbers of flint knives and tools of the Neolithic Period. If the object be a Kef Pesesh, and there is no reason to doubt it, it forms an important proof which connects this ceremony with the Predynastic Period. Consider another example of this amulet, which is surmounted by the head of a goddess, in the British Museum (Table-case F, Fourth Egyptian Room, No. 505).