Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/81

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The Story of Egypt 53 Fig. 35. Judgment Scene from the Book of the Dead tomb-chapel paintings many a scene which shows us the The end of peoples of the northern Mediterranean whom we left in the ageandtiiT Late Stone Age. On these Egyptian monuments we find them ^gyp^^n^^ after they have received metal. With huge metal swords in their Empire hands (Fig. 1 06) we see them serving as hired soldiers in the Egyptian army . These northern- ers finally entered Egypt in such numbers that in the twelfth cen- tury B.C. the weak- ened Egyptian Empire fell and never again covered her leadership, the civilization of Egypt did not perish with the fall of the Egyp- tian Empire. Its culture survived far down into the Christian Age and greatly influenced later history, con- tributing many things to Europe, as, for example, the ancient calen- dar of the Nile dwellers (p. 23). re- old But At the left we see entering, in white robes, the deceased, a man named x i, and his wife. Be- fore them are the balances of judgment for weighing the human heart, to determine whether it is just or not. A jackal-headed god adjusts the scales, while an Ibis-headed god stands be- hind him, pen in hand, ready to record the ver- dict of the balances. Behind him is a monster with head of a crocodile, fore quarters of a lion, and hind quarters of a hippopotamus, ready to devour the unjust soul. The small figure of a man at the left of the scales is the god of des- tiny, and behind him are two goddesses of birth. These three who presided over Ani's ar- rival in this world now stand by to watch the result of his life, as his heart (symbolized by a tiny jar), in the left scalepan, is weighed over against right and truth (symbolized by a feather) in the right-hand scalepan. The scene is painted in water colors on papyrus. Such a roll is sometimes as much as ninety feet long and filled from beginning to end with magical charms for the use of the dead in the next world. Hence the modern name for the whole roll, the " Book of the Dead"