Chapter 6 (part 6)

Maspero explained to the Members of the Congress of Lyons the views which he held concerning this word, and which he had for the past five years been teaching in the Collège de France, and said, "le ka est une sorte de double de la personne humaine d'une matière moins grossière que la matière dont est formé le corps, mais qu'il fallait nourrir et entretenir comme le corps lui-même; ce double vivait dans le tombeau des offrandes qu'on faisait aux fêtes canoniques, et aujourd'hui encore un grand nombre des génies de la tradition populaire égyptienne ne sent que des doubles , devenus démons au moment de la conversion des fellahs an christianisme, puis à l'islamisme." These views were repeated by him at the Sorbonne in February, 1879. See Comptes Rendus du Congrès provincial des Orientalistes , Lyons, 1878, t. i., pp. 235-263; Revue Scientifique de la France et de l'Étranger , 2 e série, 8 e année, No. 35, March, 1879, pp. 816-820; Bulletin de l'Association Scientifique de France , No. 594, 1879, t. xxiii., p. 373-384; Maspero, Études de Mythologie et d'Archéologie , t. i., pp. 1, 35, 126. In March, 1879, Mr. Renouf read a paper entitled "On the true sense of an important Egyptian word" ( Trans. Soc. Bibl. Arch. , vol. vi., London, 1979, pp. 494-508), in which he arrived at conclusions similar to those of M. Maspero; and in September of the same year M. Maspero again treated the subject in Recueil de Travaux , t. i., p. 152 f. The various shades of meaning in the word have been discussed subsequently by Brugsch, Wörterbuch (Suppl.), pp. 997, 1230; Dümichen, Der Grabpalast des Patuamenap , Abt. i., p. 10; Bergmann, Der Sarkophag des Panehemisis (in Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses , Vienna, 1883, p. 5); Wiedemann, Die Religion der alten Aegypter , p. 126. 2. ###, l. 472. 3. ###, l. 482.] having been buried in the lowest chamber, "his ka cometh forth to him." Of Pepi I. it is said:-- ai su ka-k hems ka-k am ta hena-k at ur Washed is thy ka , sitteth thy ka [and] it eateth bread with thee unceasingly en t'et t'etta forever.' aha uab-k uab ka-k uab ba-k uab sexem-k Thou art pure, thy ka is pure, thy soul is pure, thy form is pure. The ka , as we have seen, could eat food, and it was necessary to provide food for it. In the XIIth dynasty and in later periods the gods are entreated to grant meat and drink to the ka of the deceased; and it seems as if the Egyptians thought that the future welfare of the spiritual body depended upon the maintenance of a constant supply of sepulchral offerings. When circumstances rendered it impossible to continue the material supply of food, the ka fed upon the offerings painted on the walls of the tomb, which were transformed into suitable nourishment by means of the prayers of the living.