GUARDING THE HEART.

ΙΟΙ

Even of the lower animals, the heart and the heart's blood were counted sacred to the gods, and were not to be eaten by the Egyptians; as if life belonged only to the Giver of life, and, when passing out from a lower organism, must return, or be returned, only to its original Source.

When the soul stands before the forty-two judges, in the Hall of the Two Truths, to give answer concerning its sins, one of its protesting avowals, as recorded in the Book of the Dead, is: "Oh Glowing Feet, coming out of the darkness! I have not eaten the heart; " In my earthly life-course, I have not committed the sacrilege of heart-eating. Yet, of the sacrificial offering of "a red cow," as prescribed in the Book of the Dead, "of the blood squeezed from the heart, one hundred drops," make a portion for the gods. In one of the tombs of Memphis, there is represented a scene of slaughtering animals. As the heart of an animal is taken out, the butcher who holds it says,—as shown by the accompanying hieroglyphics, "Take care of this heart; "3 as if that were a portion to be guarded sacredly. "Keep thy heart with all diligence [or, as the margin has it, " above all thou guardest"]; for out of it are the issues of life." It may, indeed, have been from the lore of Egypt that 2 Ibid., V., 283.

1Egypt's Place, V., 14. Anc. Egypt., II., 27, note.

• Prov. 4: 23.

Solomon obtained this proverb of the ages, to pass it onward to posterity with his stamp of inspiration.

It would even seem that the blood of animals was not allowed to be eaten by the Egyptians; although there has been a question at that point, among Egyptologists. Wilkinson thinks that they did employ it in cooking; but this is only his inference from a pictured representation of the blood being caught in a vessel, when an animal is slaughtered for the table. On the other hand, that same picture shows the vessel of blood being borne away, afterwards, on uplifted hands; as it would have been if it were designed for a sacred libation. Again, the other picture, reported by Birch, as showing the butcher's care of the heart, represents the blood as "collected in a jar with a long spout"; such as was used for sacred libations. It is evident that blood was offered to the gods of Egypt in libation, as was also wine. Indeed the common Egyptian word for blood ( senf) is regularly followed by the determinative of outpouring(). The word tesher," red," is sometimes used as a synonym for senf; in this case (and in this only) the determinative of outpouring is added to

1 Anc. Egypt., II., 27, 31; III., 409.

2 Ibid., II., 32, Plate No. 300.

3

Ibid., II., 27 note 1.

♦ Comp. Ibid., III., 409, 416 f.

THE TALE OF THE TWO BROTHERS. 103

the hieroglyphics for tesher. Moreover, among the forty-two judges, before whom the dead appears, he who is "Eater of Blood" comes next in order before the "Eater of Hearts"; as if blood-eating, like heart-eating, were a prerogative of the gods.

If proof were still wanting that, in ancient Egypt, it was the heart which was deemed the epitome of life, and that the heart had this pre-eminence because of its being the fountain of blood-which is life-that proof would be found in "The Tale of the Two Brothers"; a story that was prepared in its present form by a tutor of the Pharaoh of the exodus, while the latter was yet heir presumptive to the throne. This story has been the subject of special study by De Rougé, Chabas, Maspero, Brugsch, Birch, Goodwin, and Le Page Renouf. It is from the latter's translation, that I draw my facts for this reference.2

Anpu and Bata were brothers. Bata's experience with the wife of Anpu was like that of Joseph in the house of Potiphar. He was true, like Joseph. Like Joseph, he was falsely accused, his life was sought, and his innocence was vindicated. Then, for his better protection, Bata took his heart out from his body, and put that in a safe place, while he made his home near it. To his brother he had said:

"I shall take my heart, and place it in the top of 1 See Egypt's Place, V., 254. Rec. of Past, II., 137–152.

the flower of the cedar, and when the cedar is cut down it will fall to the ground. Thou shalt come to seek it. If thou art seven years in search of it, let not thy heart be depressed, and when thou hast found it thou shalt place it in a cup of cold water. Oh, then I shall live (once more)."

After a time the cedar, through the treachery of Bata's false wife, was cut down. As it fell, with the heart of Bata, the latter dropped dead. For more than three years Anpu sought his brother's heart; then he found it. He brought a vessel of cold water, dropped the heart into it, and sat down according to his daily wont. But when the night was come, the heart absorbed the water. Bata [whose body seems to have been preserved-like a mummy-all this time] trembled in all his limbs, and continued looking at his elder brother, but his heart was faint. Then Anpu took the vessel of cold water which his brother's heart was in. And when the latter [Bata] had drunk it up, his heart rose in its place; and he became as he had been before. Each embraced the other, and each one of them held conversation with his companion."

The revivified Bata was transformed into a sacred bull, an Apis. That bull, by the treachery, again, of Bata's wife, was killed. "And as they were killing him, and he was in the hands of his attendants, he shook his neck, and two drops of blood fell upon the

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two door-posts of His Majesty [in whose keeping was the sacred bull]; one was on the one side of the great staircase of His Majesty, the other upon the other side; and they grew up into two mighty persea trees, each of which stood alone." Thus the blood was both life and life-giving, and the heart was as the very soul of its possessor, in the estimation of the ancient Egyptians.

In primitive America also, as in ancient Egypt, the blood and the heart, were held pre-eminently sacred. Among the Dakotas, in North America, the heart of the deer and of other animals killed in hunting, was offered to the spirits. In Central America and in South America, it was the blood and the heart of the human. victims offered in sacrifice, which were counted the peculiar portion of the gods. In description of a human sacrifice among the Nahuas of Central America, a Mexican historian says: "The high priest then approached, and with a heavy knife of obsidian cut open the miserable man's breast. Then, with a dexterity acquired by long practice, the sacrificer tore forth the yet palpitating heart, which he first offered

1 See Lynd's Hist. of Dakotas, p. 73.

2 See citations from various original sources, in Bancroft's Native Races of Pacific Coast, II., 306–310, 707–709.

The Nahuas were "skilled ones," or "experts," who had emigrated Northward from the Maya land (Réville's Native Religions, p. 20).