Every now and then the reliability (or rather, the lack of it) of Budge comes up on this board. As we have seen, there are those who still refuse to throw out Budge as source, but also those, who have burned all his works years ago.

I belong to neither of these groups, not entirely anyway. I still see “From Fetish to God” as a good source, excellent even in some parts. Yes, certainly the info must be confirmed by other sources, if such sources exist. But I find this book priceless due to Budge giving the original hieroglyphic versions of all the divine names involved. “From Fetish to God” having been my first Budge I didn’t quite expect any of his works to be less reliable, or something even worse, and hence couldn’t quite understand why I was constantly told that Budge was outdated already during his lifetime. Not only due to his apparent lack of interest in keeping up with others’ work concerning the beliefs of ancient Egypt, but also to him writing more as an anthropologist comparing beliefs from other cultures and drawing parallels where no such similarities really do exist. Instead of concentrating on the evidence at hand and possibly consulting what others had to say about it. Therefore, when finally holding Budge’s Osiris (Vol.I) in my hands, I can’t even begin to describe the eye-opening chock I received. The book had seemed as such a “must buy” and already just by skimming it through rapidly I honestly didn’t know whether I should laugh or cry. Well, I did cry for the money spent for a book resembling more of Vogon Poetry than Egyptological accounts. And I did laugh relieved of not having been able to get my hands on the famous Vol.II, exorbitant in price at that time.

However, I have held on to this book and resisted all temptation to burn it, use it as a doorstop or even worse, go and nail to the BM front door. Not only to be constantly reminded of the necessity to read everything available on a subject before making statements about it, but also to have something for a truly rainy day with nothing left to laugh about. Because this is THE book for passages that still, after all these years and times of reading them through, makes me laugh out loud. Therefore, as a light Sunday entertainment, I would like to share some of my favourite passages.

To be honest, in a book by Budge the budgeries tend to pile up. But the first really good one (and I am not counting the lesser hair-raisers and face-twitchers or the ones making you spray coffee/any chosen beverage all over the pages!) can be found already on the preface pages, where Budge explains the AE religious life and customs linked to in general. Without further comment, here goes:

The early religious texts of Egypt prove beyond all doubt that the Egyptians, in common with many peoples in other parts of the world, when in primitive state of civilization, were cannibals in the Predynastic Period, and that, like many of the Nilotic tribes of the present day, they ate the bodies of enemies slain in battle as a matter of course. Before the coming of the cult of Osiris they must have eaten their own dead, as many modern tribes do, and there is reason to think that, even after they had learned to know Osiris, the natural liking for the human flesh, which is common to most African peoples, asserted itself in times when food was scarce and during famines. The disposal of the bodies of the dead must always have been a matter of difficulty in Egypt, for land suitable for agriculture was far too valuable to the living to be given to the dead. The bodies of kings, chiefs, nobles, and rich men were always buried, sometimes in tombs hewn to the rock, sometimes in the sandy soil on the edge of the desert, and at one time it must have been thought that they were the only members of the population who would enjoy a future existence. The bodies of the bulk of the people were either laid in extremely shallow graves, from which they would be dragged easily by the dogs, and by wolves, foxes, and jackals of the desert, or were thrown boldly into the desert (or into “the bush” as they say in the Southern Sudan at the present day) to be eaten by the leopards, hyenas, lynxes, etc.
If we assume that during the Dynastic Period, which lasted about four thousand years, the population of Egypt was about four millions, and that the average duration of a generation was twenty-five years, we find that the number of bodies to be disposed of would reach the large total of eight hundred millions. Now it is quite clear that only a very small percentage of these bodies can have been “buried” in a way that they would be preserved for an indefinitely long period.
Luckily (not least for the poor deceased people) Budge concludes at the end of the page:
Now the spread of the cult of Osiris, however great, could never alter the material resources of the country, and make it possible for all persons to be buried in such a way that their bodies would be preserved for an indefinitely log period. It’s priests, however, could, and I believe did, lay a tabû, or ban, on the eating of the dead, because the bodies of all Osirians belonged to the god.

So there. Now we know.
The second “big one” is due only two pages away, and very obviously refers especially to the Khufu inscription in Wadi Maghara i.e. smiting the Iwntwy with Thoth present (couldn’t find any pictures available in the net, sorry), even if the “smiting”-scenes in general seem to have given Budge food (pun intended) for thought:

The sacrificing prisoners of war to one or another of the gods seems to have gone on to the end of Egyptian history, and the reliefs of the monuments in which kings are seen in the act of “smashing” the heads of living captives are certainly representations of events which actually happened. The importance attached by Africans in all periods to “watering” the statues of gods and divine personages with human blood at frequent intervals, and in all times of war, scarcity, trouble, and distress, is too well known to need mention. And their innate proclivities suggest that portions at least of the bodies of human victims slain to “give life” to the gods were eaten sacramentally. Among the sun-worshippers of Egypt the sacrifice of human victims to the god was held to be of vital importance for the god and themselves, and the festival in which the “smashing of Antiu” (i.e. the dwellers of Eastern Desert) was commemorated at Heliopolis was the principal religious event of the year at that city. The festival commemorated a great victory of a decisive character over certain rebel tribes, and the atrocities which triumphant Africans can commit when drunk with slaughter and mad with the smell of blood, readily suggest what was the horrible fate of the Antiu. In the Sun-temples in Abû-Sir of the IVth dynasty, wherein the presence of the god was symbolized by a stone somewhat resembling an obelisk in shape, countless human beings were sacrificed. The size and number of conduits for carrying away the blood of the victims bear incontrovertible evidence of the magnitude of the slaughtering which took place.

Not bad, eh? And yet, my favourite parts are in the chapter titled “Osiris and Dancing”. Oh yes, according to Budge Osiris loved music and dancing, and took special pleasure of watching buffoons (pygmies!!). The part chosen uses the Den heb sed ivory label (seen here: [xoomer.alice.it] ) as an example, picture and all:

All Nilotic peoples are greatly addicted to dancing, and they never seem to be able to perform any ceremony without dancing; they dance at weddings and they dance at funerals, and dancing among many tribes constitutes an act of worship of the highest and most solemn importance. We have, unfortunately, no description of the dances which were performed by the ancient Egyptians, but there is abundant evidence that they considered certain dances to be acts of worship. The earliest representation of dancing as an act of worship appears to be that given on the wooden plaque of Semti (Hesepti), the king of the 1st dynasty. Here the king is seen wearing the crowns of the South and North, and in his right hand he holds his whip, and in his left a paddle. He is performing some dance connected with a festival, and the paddle probably symbolized the part which the ritual ordained him to take it. The position of the king suggests that he is treading a measure to the accompaniment of some simple instrument of music, or perhaps the clapping of the hands of his slaves. The king wears a short pair of drawers, and apparently nothing else except his double crown. In the early dynasties both men and women wore only loin cloths or very short drawers, but the latter were fond of putting on ornaments, bracelets, bangles, etc.

But wait, it gets even better:

Passing to the period of the Ivth dynasty, we learn that in the reign of king Assa, a high official called Ba-ur-tet brought from Punt a “tenk” (pygmy), who knew how to dance “the dance of the god”, and was said to come from the “Land of the Spirits”. Assa was so pleased with his officer that he bestowed great honours upon him, and we may assume that the pygmy was despatched to Memphis to dance before the king. In the text in the pyramid of Pepi I a distinct mention is made of the “pygmy of the dances of the god”, who “rejoiceth the heart of the god before his (i.e. the god’s) great throne”. Thus it is clear that kings of ancient Egypt were very pleased to get possession of a pygmy who understood how to dance a particular kind of dance which was associated with “the god”, who was probably Osiris, and that such pygmies were best obtained from Punt, and from the part of that country which was known as the “Land of the Spirits”. The second extract shows that a king of Egypt considered that it would be an honour to him in the other world if he could dance like a pygmy before Osiris, and proves clearly that the object of the dance of the god was to comfort, cheer, and strengthen the deity whose special dance he danced. The Egyptian bas-reliefs of all periods contain many illustrations of kings dancing before Osiris and other gods, and we maybe sure that naturally conservative spirit of the people preserved faithfully all the essential characteristics of this dance which tradition handed down to them. (the picture used here is Thothmose III running heb sed infront of Hathor)

Yeh, these are the words of a man, who at that point already had translated the BoD. Seems he not only neglected to keep up to date with others’ work, but even with his own!

As I wrote in the beginning, this posting was written simply for a light Sunday entertainment (even if it didn’t end up being so for my poor typing fingers, I am not in the league with Damian, after all!). By no means is this a tentative to lessen the enormous amount of effort and time Budge finally put into writing a staggering amount of books. He was one of the Wepwawets of written Egyptology, after all, and nobody can take that away from him. The sad thing is, that now most of these books can be downloaded from the net, copyrights having gone, and hence this sort of information is the easiest and most inexpensive way feed the needs of any Egyptological interest. Is it such a wonder, then, that the budgeries and other obvious misconceptions tend to redouble themselves on other sites and become painfully obvious on discussion forums like Maat?








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