Another remarkable composition in the Book of the Dead is the first part of Chapter CXXV, which well illustrates the lofty moral conceptions of the Egyptians of the eighteenth dynasty.  The deceased is supposed to be standing in the “Usekht Maati,” or Hall of the Two Maati goddesses, one for Upper Egypt and one for Lower Egypt, wherein Osiris and his Forty-two Judges judge the souls of the dead.  Before judgment is given the deceased is allowed to make a declaration, which in form closely resembles that made in many parts of Africa at the present day by a man who is condemned to undergo the ordeal of drinking “red water,” and in it he states that he has not committed offences against the moral and religious laws of his country.  He says: 

“Homage to thee, O Great God, thou Lord of Maati.  I have come to thee, O my Lord, and I have brought myself hither that I may behold thy beauties.  I know thee.  I know thy name.  I know the names of the Forty-two[1] gods who live with thee in this Hall of Truth, who keep ward over sinners, and who feed upon their blood on the day when the lives of men are taken into account in the presence of Un-Nefer (i.e. the Good Being or Osiris)....  Verily, I have come unto thee, I have brought truth unto thee.  I have destroyed wickedness for thee.  I have not done evil to men.  I have not oppressed (or wronged) my family.  I have not done wrong instead of right.  I have not been a friend of worthless men.  I have not wrought evil.  I have not tried to make myself over-righteous.  I have not put forward my name for exalted positions.  I have not entreated servants evilly.  I have not defrauded the man who was in trouble.  I have not done what is hateful (or taboo) to the gods.  I have not caused a servant to be ill-treated by his master.  I have not caused pain [to any man].  I have not permitted any man to go hungry.  I have made none to weep.  I have not committed murder.  I have not ordered any man to commit murder for me.  I have inflicted pain on no man.  I have not robbed the temples of their offerings.  I have not stolen the cakes of the gods.  I have not carried off the cakes offered to the spirits.  I have not committed fornication.  I have not committed acts of impurity in the holy places of the god of my town.  I have not diminished the bushel.  I have not added to or filched away land.  I have not encroached upon the fields [of my neighbours].  I have not added to the weights of the scales.  I have not falsified the pointer of the scales.  I have not taken milk from the mouths of children.  I have not driven away the cattle that were upon their pastures.  I have not snared the feathered fowl in the preserves of the gods.  I have not caught fish [with bait made of] fish of their kind.  I have not stopped water at the time [when it should flow].  I have not breached a canal of running water.  I have not extinguished a fire when it should burn.  I have not violated the times [of offering] chosen meat-offerings.  I have not driven off the cattle from the property of the gods.  I have not repulsed the god in his manifestations.  I am pure.  I am pure.  I am pure.  I am pure.”