Amenti

"The Hidden Land," the other world, which was in the west with the setting sun. Osiris is its lord, and he rules over the dead. An idea of the Egyptian conception of the Amenti may be gathered from the pictures on the walls of the tombs of Seti I. and other kings, where the "Book of that which is in the Underworld," is inscribed and fully illustrated. The difficulties that have to be overcome by the Sun-god (Ra) during his nightly journey through the underworld are there described. It is divided into twelve sections, defined by fields, or cities, or dwellings, through all of which runs a river, on which, in a bark, the Sun travels again to the eastern horizon. Many demons of human and animal form, especially those in the form of serpents, beset his path. "He who dwells in Amenti" is Osiris in the form of a mummy. The dead, being identified with Osiris, overcame all their adversaries, and as the Sun-god pa ed through the night to rise again in the east, so they expected in like manner to pa through Hades to the ble ed life. An inscription of the time of Cleopatra speaks thus: "For as for Amenti it is a land of sleep and darkne , a dwelling wherein those who are there remain. They sleep in their mummy forms, they nevermore awake to see their fellows, they behold neither their fathers nor their mothers, their heart is carele of their wives and children.... Since I came into this valley I know not where I am. I long for the water that floweth by me. I desire the breeze on the bank of the river, that it may refresh my heart in its distre . For the name of the god who ruleth here is 'Utter Death,'" etc.