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(Page 2 of 2) Light as a Feather by Dan BiegerNot about the typical French part but the part that says the ancient Egyptians didn't have any grams to consider. They just had the human heart. And that, we can pretty well establish as weighing more than 21 grams."
Marvin didn't reply. Anticipating where Stepehn might be going with this thought, he took a long draught from his stein while he considered his reply. Finally, he agreed the human heart probably weighed more than 21 grams.
"Well, then," Stephen grinned, "we have proof positive that the soul cannot weigh 21 grams."
"Oh, come on," Marvin complained, "you haven't proved anything."
Stephen laughed a conciliatory laugh. "Okay, more explication. First, you must keep in mind that the ancient Egyptians equated the heart with the human soul."
"How do you know that?"
"Archeology, my friend. Tombs and the Book of the Dead. Everything points to the equation."
"Okay, so what?"
"Well, when a human died, his soul was examined for merit. Evidently, good people's souls accrued less bad stuff than bad people's souls. Therefore, their souls were lighter than bad people's souls. All the gods had to do to determine merit was to weigh the soul."
"Yeah, but they didn't have metric scales or Avoirdupois scales."
"But, they had balance scales. And Ma'at had this very useful ostrich feather. Anubis put the feather on one side of the scale and the human's soul on the other. If the person merited it, the soul was sent on to Aaru, as good a heaven as any other. Those with insufficient merit had their souls eaten and were condemned to Duat, the underworld."
"How does that prove the soul does not weigh....wait, an ostrich feather? You said an ostrich feather?"
"Never saw an ostrich feather that weighed more than a couple of grams. How about you?"
"And that's your proof?"
"That's it."
Marvin issued a harrumph of disgust but reached for his wallet. He was buying the next round.
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