Home › Religious Uses: Pagan, Hebrew, and Christian › Religious Uses: Pagan, Hebrew, and Christian: Budge

Religious Uses: Pagan, Hebrew, and Christian: Budge

Another amulet is the tet. The hieroglyph represents a mason's table and the word signifies "firmness, stability, preservation." These figures, made of faience, gold, carnelian, lapis-lazuli, and other materials, were placed on the neck of the mummy to afford protection. (Budge, "The Mummy," Cambridge, 1894).

The "papyrus scepter," uat, is usually cut from matrix-emerald or made of faience of similar hue. Uat means "verdure, flourishing, greenness"; placed on the neck of the mummy it was regarded as emblematic of the eternal youth it was hoped the deceased would enjoy in the realm of the dead. In the 159th chapter of the Book of the Dead, we read of an uat of matrix-emerald; it was believed to be the gift of Thoth, serving to protect the limbs of the deceased. (Budge, "The Mummy," Cambridge, 1894.) The amulet representing the pillow, urs, was generally made of hematite. The 166th chapter of the Book of the Dead is sometimes engraved thereon. Dr. Budge renders this as follows: