The Amulet of the Vulture

The Amulet of the Vulture

The Amulet of the Vulture was meant to cause the power of Isis as the "divine mother" to be a security for the deceased, and was took of gold in the form of a vulture looming in the air with spread wings and checking in each talon the symbolisation of "life" and was set on the neck on the day of the funeral. With this amulet the "CLVIIth" Chapter of the (Book of the Dead) was linked, and it was ordered by the rubric to it to be narrated over it; this text learns:

"Isis cometh and hovereth up the city, and she goeth about searching the secret habitations of Horus as he emergeth from his papyrus floods, and she raiseth up his berm which is in evil case. He is made one of the company in the sacred boat, and the sovereignty of the total world is decreed for him. He hath warred mightily, and he maketh his works to be recalled; he hath made the revere of him to exist and awe of him to have its being. His mother the strong lady, protecteth him, and she hath transported her power unto him".

The start allusion is to the care which Isis showed for Horus when she was getting him up in the papyrus inundates, and the second to his battle with Set, whom he crushed through the might of Isis.

The Amulet of the Pillow

The Amulet of the Pillow

The Amulet of the Pillow is a precious of the pillow which is found located low the neck of the mummy in the coffin, and its object is to "intoxicate" and to protect the head of the went; it is usually made of haematite, and is inscribed with the school text of the (CLXVIth) Chapter of the "Book of the Dead", which says:

"Thou art elated, O sick one that liest sleeping. They lift up thy head to the view, thou art stirred up, and dost victory by cause of what hath been over for thee. Ptah hath reversed thine enemies, which was placed to be done for thee. Thou art Horus, the son of Hathor, . . . who givest second the head after the slaughter. Thy head shall not be held away from thee afterwards (the slaughter), thy head shall never, never be took away from thee."

The Amulet of the Tet

The Amulet of the Tet

The amulet of the Tet in all probability represents the tree body in which the goddess Isis secret the dead body of her husband, and the 4 cross-bars show the four cardinal points; it became a symbol of the highest religious grandness to the Egyptians, and the setting up of the Tet at Busiris, which represented the restructuring of the body of Osiris, was one of the about solemn of all the ceremonials performed in joining with the hero-worship of Osiris.

The Tet represents neither the mason's table nor a Nilometer, as some have thought, It is always associated with the (CLVth) Chapter of the Book of the Dead, which reads:

"Rise up thou, O Osiris! Thou hast thy backbone, O Still-Heart! Thou hast the fixings of thy neck and back, O Still-Heart. Place thou thyself upon thy wrong, I put water to a lower place thee, and I bring unto thee a Tet of gold that thou mayest triumph therein."

Like the buckle, the Tet had to be bowed in the water in which nkham flowers had been steeped, and laid upon the neck of the late, to whom it gave the power to reconstitute the body and to become a perfect Khu (i.e., spirit) in the underworld. On coffins the right hand of the late grasps the buckle, and the left the Tet; both are got of wood, not with straight the fact that the title to the Chapter of the Te orders the Tet to be got of gold.