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Plate III.
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PLATE III.
Vignette: Scene of the weighing of the Heart of the Dead. Ani and his wife enter the Hall of Double Law
or Truth, wherein the heart, emblematical of the conscience, is to be weighed in the balance against the
feather, emblematical of law. Above, twelve gods, each holding a sceptre are seated upon thrones before
a table of offerings of fruit, flowers, etc. Their names are: Harmachis, "the great god within his boat";
Tmu; Shu; Tefnut, "lady of heaven"; Seb; Nut, "lady of Heaven" Isis; Nephthys; Horus, "the great god";
Hathor, "lady of Amenta"; and Sa. Upon the beam of the scales sits the dog-headed ape which was
associated
[1. A name of the underworld.
2. Or Sexet-Anru, a division of the Sexet-hetepu (see Plate XXXV.), the Elysian fields wherein the souls of the blessed
were supposed to reap and sow.
3. In British Museum papyrus No. 9901 the goddess Maat is seated on the centre of the beam of the balance. The double
Maat goddesses are at times represented standing beside the balance to watch the result of the weighing, and at the same
time Maat is also placed in the scale to be weighed against the heart of the deceased (Fig. x) (see Naville, Todtenbuch, Bd.
I., Bl. 136, Pa.). {footnote page 256} In the papyrus of Qenna the head of Anubis is on the beam, and the ape, wearing disk
and crescent, is seated upon a pylon-shaped pedestal beside the balance (Fig. 2). Another vignette shows Horus holding
Maat in his band, weighing the heart in the presence of the Maat goddesses, and Anubis, holding the deceased by the hand,
presents the heart to Osiris while Isis and Nephthys in the form of apes sit near (Fig. 3).
]
{p. 256}
with Thoth,[1] the scribe of the gods. The god Anubis, jackal-headed, tests the tongue of the balance, the
suspending bracket of which is in the form of the feather The inscription above the head of Anubis
reads:--"He who is in the tomb saith, pray thee, O weigher of righteousness, to guide (?) the balance that
it may be stablished.'" On the left of the balance, facing Anubis, stands Ani's "Luck" or "Destiny," Shai
and above is the object called mesxen which has been described[2] as "a cubit with human head," and
which is supposed to be connected with the place of birth. Behind these stand the goddesses Meskhenet
and Renenet: Meskhenet[3]
[1. In the papyrus of Sutimes (Naville, Todtenbuch, Bd. I., Bl. 43) the ape is called neb xemennu ut a maa, "Lord of
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