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Grave and life to come

by Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti


Now we will begin to examine the Egyptian burial rites that were long and complex. When a rich man died everything for his burial had to be prepared. His body had to be mummified; his entrails put in rich canopic vases; the shabti set in colorful boxes ready to jump out at their master smallest sign and, over this, all the best furniture, the more tasty beverages and the most refined dishes had to be ready to be taken to his tomb. When all these preparations were made the priests who had to perform the ceremony arrived. They all were highly respected and revered men, and that seems understandable: Whoever would not have tried the possible to keep them friendly? They were the ones who presided to the burial rites, people that with the world of life-to-come had always had much to do, and who could assure to their dead countrymen a heavenly and perfect happiness in this parallel world. It was their task, once that everything had been completed and the mummy had been enclosed in many richly painted sarcophagi, to accompany the deceased to his last resting-place and enclose in the tomb one or more heavenly and immortal entities that were part of the of the dead man’s personality and that also in the tomb would be connected with him.
As a matter of fact the Egyptians believed that beyond of the earthly body, any man was also composed by a shadow or a double, called the Kha; then he had a soul, a heart and a spirit called Khu, a power, a name and an astral body. They were sure that when the man was dead, his double, the Kha, would try to abandon him, and the idea of this ghost free to wander wherever it would like was considered by all, and mainly by the survivors, a very censurable fact. Thank god , there were those very important priests expert in any branch of magic, who, celebrating a special mystic ceremony, could call the Kha to order. Thus by a spell this double of the deceased man was confined with the mummy in the tomb and enclose him in the tomb: It must have been a very strong spell because the idea to stay there for the eternity with the silent mummy could no have looked a good prospect to the poor Kha.
However the Mummy and the Kha would not be left alone forever.. From time to time the third component of the deceased, the soul, descended from the luminous sky of Osiris where, if the man had always behaved rightly, he lived and went to visit them. It was not of course the kind of soul that we imagine: the pure spirit in a white robe, all intent to play soft tunes on musical instruments and chant Osiris’ praises. No! this Egyptian soul never detached himself from the wordly life and again and again lowered himself to the earth and into the tomb to share with the Kha the food and the beverages that periodically were brought there by the dead man family. His relative never missed to do it and that was not done in a fit of piety or religious observance but for an even better reason. Really what they wanted and sought with all their strength was to prevent the double of the dead man to abandon the tomb. It was quite evident that if they had not fed him properly, no prayer, spell, ceremony and not even all Egypt priests burning clouds and clouds of incense could keep the Kha locked in the tomb. He would wander around searching someting to eat and would devour each kind of garbage, drank all the dirty water he found and, what is more than sure, he would terrorize to death all the people found on his way.
Thus in the luxurious mastabas, or in the royal pyramids and in the graves of the holy valleys a mummy and his Kha would always be found. And as we have just seen some time the Khu came to share the banquet and with him also the spirit.. Summing it up for what we read in a mastaba there would always be quite a company.
Today visiting one of the Egyptian resting place we’ll find a sarchophagus with the mummy and a statue of the dead man. It was in this statue that the Egyptians thought the double lived, and in each tomb there was a place for it called the Kha house. There was also a priest called the priest of Kha who would always officiate its ceremony. The Kha appreciated these rites and particularly enjoyed one of them during which lot of incense was smoldered. The same Kha highly prized also flowers, herbs, meats and drinks and living in the mastabas he liked to see the scene of he happy life sculpted and painted on its wall, images that allowed him to savor again the pleasures of his passed life.
In the first times the Kha, the double of the man was the Egyptians’ ghost. Then with the passing of time was considered the Khu was considered a ghost, and thus it was necessary to conciliate him and to keep the Khu propitious and well fed. In the texts they are frequent allusions to the holiness of these saintly doings done to the soul and to his territories, to wit the places in which his mummified body had been deposed.


BIBLIOGRAPHY
E.A. WALLIS BUDGE, Egyptian Magi, Bury St.Edmunds, Suffolk, 1975, first published in 1899, pp.217-218