Sa.at Duat (Egyptian for "underwear underworld")
Ok...so I am really gonna try to keep this brief...no pun intended. The thing is, I've been studying the Ancient Egyptian afterlife for decades. It never ceases to impress me and always gives me something to think about. Why? Because Ancient Egyptian religion was not just "one thing"...Sorry...I'm gonna have to back up and give a little history first, but I promise I'll get to the ghosts and the underwear asap!
So ancient Egypt was separated into something called "nomes" (pronounced like "gnomes")
Each nome had it's main-bytch deity and then some others...depending on how close you were to a capital city. Each temple to those deities practiced their faith in a slightly to vastly different way and more importantly for this post...different 'holy texts' they used in daily life.
So, what ended up happening was a large variation in beliefs about the afterlife. Most agreed that it was underground (hence the word underworld). Some believed that you walked down stairs to a lake you then had to paddle to meet Anubis and get your heart weighed.
Others believed that the "weighing of the heart" was done more through a variety of tests..etc...
As in the japanese afterlife, there doesn't seem to any conclusive ideas about what it looks like and what happens when you get there. However...I just found this great quote from an MSU professor for his ANP400 classes:
Within the Duat are many impressive geographical features. There are normal features like islands, fields, caverns, rivers, and mounds – but also unrealistic structures like lakes of fire, trees of turquoise, and walls of iron. Once someone had passed away, it was up to them to navigate this tricky landscape to become an akh, or blessed spirit. They had to pass through a series of gates protected by grotesque spirits with human bodies and heads of animals, knives, torches, or insects. Along the way were also mounds and caverns filled with animals or gods who would threaten the dead as they passed.
Once the dead passed all of these unpleasant spirits, if they did, they would reach the Weighing of the Heart. This ritual involved weighing the heart of the deceased against a feather, representing Ma’at – the goddess of truth and justice. This ritual was performed by Anubis. If the heart was out of balance, due to failure to follow Ma’at, then the heart would be devoured by Ammit, the Devourer of Souls. Those who did pass would travel to the paradise of Aaru.
All we know about the Duat and the afterlife comes from funerary texts like the Book of the Dead, Pyramid Texts, Coffin Texts, etc. Each document found giving information about the underworld gives a different perspective on it, and each one tends to be inconsistent with each other. Researchers believe that there is no one uniform interpretation of the Duat.
That is great! That kind of nutshells the whole idea.
OK, so first! Underwear! Ancient Egyptians had several words for underwear. The most prevalent of which was "sa.at" (pronounced Sah'aht) with short a' vowels) (Variants include "Suh" pronounced like it looks, and Sawah (pronounced like a baby says "water" ..wahwah)
The other was "Dayawa" or "Daywa" (pronounced die-ah-wa, or die-wah respectively)
(I'm stretching a bit, but my informed guess is that this is a sa.at)
(This is an actual picture of King Tut's sa.at...pretty neat huh? )
The Dayawa was a little more complex and covered a bit more:
Keep in mind that this is NOT the "schenti" (pronounced shen-tea) which is an 'over kilt' worn by royalty and the upper classes.
(a schenti)
You better believe they had a sa.at on under that thing...
Now, as to the afterlife, again there are a number of places you could go or end up.
The standard is represented from the so-called "Egyptian Book of The Dead", which is more correctly translated "The Book of Going Forth by Day."
This details the sequence of events in a persons afterlife: you die, you rise up in spirit form (but only a few parts of the spirit...technically they had 7 parts...I wonder which part got to wear sa.at?!) and those parts travel together through a series of "gates" At each gate, there was a little ritual you were supposed to preform to get through the gate safely. If a person had had a "Book of Going Forth by Day" written up before they died, they had all the spells and rituals they needed to walk through the place unharmed.
If not...well...let's hope they brought clean sa.at.....
Ancient Egypt Online gives a different account from "The Book of Hours', again, because different events occur to different people based on what is written on their "coffin text" or "tomb texts."
Another possibility is the so-called "Book of Caves"
This is an earlier version of the "Book of Hours" and contains more detail. You can find information on this "book" as well.
Again, these are not written down on papyrus and sold at your local ta.wa store. The "Egyptian Book of the Dead" that you can buy online today is a composite of magical spells and rituals written on tomb walls and sarcophagi. You could have a Cliffs Notes version written for you on papyrus but that was usually for poorer ppl.
Of course, you might be wondering what underwear they took with them...I know I did! Anyway, normally a body would be naked for mummification. WHAT?? No underwear???The horror!!!! No no...everything you needed in the afterlife was placed realistically, in miniature , or in a written spell inside your tomb.
Essentially, the wealthier you were, the more real-real stuff got put into your tomb.
There were also things called "shabti" These are miniature figures you took with you to the afterlife to do all your work for you.
The Egyptian afterlife was not the Christian heaven...the idea of "you can't take it with you" was absolute rubbish! As well as the idea that there's basically nothing to do there. You had to make preparations before hand. Things like clothing (including underwear), games, toys, books etc...all needed to be put in place before you went there. Then, the afterlife wouldn't be boring!
Asian countries still practice this form of sympathetic magic. During the late-summer/fall they set up these huge altars for their ancestors with "in place of" items like televisions, money, cars, houses and the like
A standard offering table. Some of the offerings are not "in place of" The fruit, the beer and the incense are real, the money is not.
This is a "ghost car" In order for the ancestor to be able to use the car in the spirit world, it must be burnt.
This is an offering of servants ('meber those Shabti? Yah...just like that...), A house and a wheel chair!
Inside the paper mansion, there is paper furniture, paper servants and paper appliances. All of which is to be burnt so that the dead person can receive the real objects on the other side!
Exactly like the Egyptians!!! (Actually, that's not true...they didn't burn the articles...they simply left the real or miniature items in the tomb)
There are websites that offer printable paper offerings...such as this lovely cell phone and desk set.
You know...in case your ancestor wants go on a cruise...
While wealthier ppl DID have weapons placed in their tombs, most ppl couldn't afford that but if you did have weapons... a ghost gun might be a more effective tool...
Or...you could drive your way through the afterlife in this awesome ghost-lambo!
And finally, after much searching...."ghost underpants!"
(UPDATE! On my recent "tour" of Hong Kong,[2021] I found a place that actually sells these things. "for some reason" I was unable to purchase actual ghost underwear...literally...I said I'd be back the next day and the woman said she'd run out. There was another place...and THAT woman said "of course, this contains ghost underpants" but when I got it back to the hotel...it was only a t-shirt...I hate clear forever.")
And that...is that....
As soon as I can find it, I will upload a copy of the Book Of Going Forth By Day...you know, just in case you're interested in wearing a sa.at to your funeral...
Remember, this is Budge's translation so it's full of his white privileged understanding of what these things mean. Also, any time it says "N" that means you're supposed to fill in your own name....like writing it on your underwear! Enjoy!
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