Whilst these ceremonies were being performed the animals brought to be sacrificed were slain.  Chief of these were two bulls, gazelle, geese, &c., and their slaughter typified the conquest and death of the enemies of the dead king.  The heart and a fore-leg of each bull were presented to the statue of the king, and the priest said:  “Hail, Osiris!  I have come to embrace thee.  I am Horus.  I have pressed for thee thy mouth.  I am thy beloved Son.  I have opened thy mouth.  Thy mouth hath been made firm.  I have made thy mouth and thy teeth to be in their proper places.  Hail, Osiris![1] I have opened thy mouth with the Eye of Horus.”  Then taking two instruments made of metal the priest went through the motion of cutting open the mouth and eyes of the statue, and said:  “I have opened thy mouth.  I have opened thy two eyes.  I have opened thy mouth with the instrument of Anpu.[2] I have opened thy mouth with the Meskha instrument wherewith the mouth of the gods was opened.  Horus openeth the mouth and eyes of the Osiris.  Horus openeth the mouth of the Osiris even as he opened the mouth of his father.  As he opened the mouth of the god Osiris so shall he open the mouth of my father with the iron that cometh forth from Set, with the Meskha instrument of iron wherewith he opened the mouth of the gods shall the mouth of the Osiris be opened.  And the Osiris shall walk and shall talk, and his body shall be with the Great Company of the Gods who dwell in the Great House of the Aged One (i.e. the Sun-god) who dwelleth in Anu.[3] And he shall take possession of the Urrt Crown therein before Horus, the Lord of mankind.  Hail, Osiris!  Horus hath opened thy mouth and thine eyes with the instruments Sebur and An, wherewith the mouths of the gods of the South were opened....  All the gods bring words of power.  They recite them for thee.  They make thee to live by them.  Thou becomest the possessor of twofold strength.  Thou makest the passes that give thee the fluid of life, and their life fluid is about thee.  Thou art protected, and thou shalt not die.  Thou shalt change thy form [at pleasure] among the Doubles[4] of the gods.  Thou shalt rise up as a king of the South.  Thou shalt rise up as a king of the North.  Thou art endowed with strength like all the gods and their Doubles.  Shu[5] hath equipped thee.  He hath exalted thee to the height of heaven.  He hath made thee to be a wonder.  He hath endowed thee with strength.”

[Footnote 1:  It was assumed that the king after death became a being with the nature of Osiris, and he was therefore addressed as “Osiris.”]

[Footnote 2:  Or Anubis, a very ancient god who presided over embalming; he appears in the form of a man with the head of a dog or jackal.]

[Footnote 3:  The On of the Bible, the Heliopolis of the Greeks.  This city lay a few miles to the east of the modern city of Cairo.]

[Footnote 4:  Every living thing possessed a KA or “double,” which was the vital power of the heart and could live after the death of the body.]