Chapter 6 (part 3)

The khat or physical body. The physical body of man considered as a whole was called khat , a word which seems to be connected with the idea of something which is liable to decay. The word is also applied to the mummified body in the tomb, as we know from the words "My body ( khat ) is buried." Such a body was attributed to the god Osiris;" in the CLXIInd Chapter of the Book of the Dead "his great [1. Recueil de Travaux , t. v., p. 43 (l. 304). 2. Horrack, Lamentations d'Isis et de Nephthys , Paris, 1866, p. 6. 3. Already in the pyramid texts we have "Rise up, O thou Teta! Thou hast received thy head, thou hast knitted together thy bones, thou hast collected thy members." Recueil de Travaux , t. v., p. 40 (1. 287). 3. Book of the Dead, Chapter LXXXVI., 1. 11. 4. Papyrus of Ani, pl. vii., 1. 28, and pl. xix., 1. 8.] divine body rested in Annu." In this respect the god and the deceased were on an equality. As we have seen above, the body neither leaves the tomb nor reappears on earth; yet its preservation was necessary. Thus the deceased addresses Tmu: "Hail to thee, O my father Osiris, I have come and I have embalmed this my flesh so that my body may not decay. I am whole, even as my father Khepera was whole, who is to me the type of that which passeth not away. Come then, O Form, and give breath unto me, O lord of breath, O thou who art greater than thy compeers. Stablish thou me, and form thou me, O thou who art lord of the grave. Grant thou to me to endure for ever, even as thou didst grant unto thy father Tmu to endure; and his body neither passed away nor decayed. I have not done that which is hateful unto thee, nay, I have spoken that which thy ka loveth: repulse thou me not, and cast thou me not behind thee, O Tmu, to decay, even as thou doest unto every god and unto every goddess and unto every beast and creeping thing which perisheth when his soul hath gone forth from him after his death, and which falleth in pieces after his decay . . . . . Homage to thee, O my father Osiris, thy flesh suffered no decay, there were no worms in thee, thou didst not crumble away, thou didst not wither away, thou didst not become corruption and worms; and I myself am Khepera, I shall possess my flesh for ever and ever, I shall not decay, I shall not crumble away, I shall not wither away, I shall not become corruption." The sahu or spiritual body. But the body does not lie in the tomb inoperative, for by the prayers and ceremonies on the day of burial it is endowed with the power of changing into a sahu , or spiritual body. Thus we have such phrases as, "I germinate like the plants," "My flesh germinateth," "I exist, I exist, I live, I live, I germinate, I germinate," "thy soul liveth, thy body germinateth by the command of Ra [1. ###. Lepsius, Todtenbuch , Bl. 77,1. 7. 2.