RELIGIOUS USES OF PRECIOUS STONES 227
eternal
youth it was hoped the deceased would enjoy in the realm of the dead.
In the 159th chapter of the Book of the Dead, we read of an uat of matrix-emerald; it was believed to be the gift of Thoth, serving to protect the limbs of the deceased.3
The amulet representing the pillow, urs, was
generally made of hematite. The 166th chapter of the Book of the Dead
is sometimes engraved thereon. Dr. Budge renders this as follows:
Rise
up from non-existence, 0 prostrate one! They watch over thy head at the
exalted horizon. Thou overthrowest thine enemies; thou triumphest over
what they do against thee, as Horus, the avenger of his father, this
Osiris* has commanded to be done for thee. Thou cuttest off the heads
of thine enemies; never shall they carry off from thee thy head (?).
Verily Osiris maketh slaughter at the coming forth of the heads of his
enemies; may they never remove his head from him.
Of all these amulets, the type most frequently encountered has the shape of a heart, ab. These
are found of carnelian, green jasper, basalt, lapis-lazuli, and other,
hard materials. The heart, regarded in ancient Egypt as the seat of
life, was the object of especial care after death. Enclosed in a
special receptacle it was buried with the mummy, and the belief was
that only after it had been weighed in the balance of the underworld,
against the symbol of law, could it regain its place in the body of the
deceased. The heart was symbolically represented by the scarab.5
A fine example of a heart amulet shows on one side the figure of the goddess Neith with the pennu bird or
3 Budge, " The Mummy," Cambridge, 1894, p. 261.
4 The deceased was identified with Osiris.
5 Budge, " The Mummy," Cambridge, 1894, p. 263.
