226 THE CURIOUS LORE OP PRECIOUS STONES
One
of the most usual of the engraved amulets is the buckle or tie (thet).
This was generally of red jasper, carnelian, or red porphyry, or else
of red glass or faience or of sycamore wood. The wood was symbolical of
the blood of Isis, and the amulets were sometimes enÂgraved with the
156th chapter of the Book of the Dead; they were placed on the mummy's
neck. The formula engraved reads :
Chapter of the buckle of carnelian which is put on the neck of the deceased.
The
blood of Isis, the virtue of Isis; the magic power of Isis, the magic
power of the Eye are protecting this the Great one; they prevent any
wrong being done to him.
This
chapter is said on a buckle of carnelian dipped into the juice of
ankhama, inlaid into the substance of the sycamore-wood and put on the
neck of the deceased.
Whoever
has this chapter read to him, the virtue of Isis protects him; Horus,
the son of Isis, rejoices in seeing him, and no way is barred to him,
unfailingly.1
Another amulet is the tet. The
hieroglyph represents a mason's table and the word signifies "firmness,
stabilÂity, preservation." These figures, made of faience, gold,
carnelian, lapis-lazuli, and other materials, were placed on the neck
of the mummy to afford protection.2
The "papyrus scepter," uat, is usually cut from matrix-emerald or made of faience of similar hue. Uat means "verdure, flourishing, greenness"; placed on the neck of the mummy it was regarded as emblematic of the
1Life
Work of Sir Peter le Page Renouf, Paris, 1907, vol. iv, p. 342. In the
vignette to chapter 93, to illustrate the protection afforded, a buckle
with human hands seizes the arm of the deceased and prevents him from
going toward the East, the inauspicious direction for departed souls,
pi. xxv (Papyrus, Louvre iii, 93).
"Budge, " The Mummy," Cambridge, 1S94, p. 259.
