ABSTRACT
With reference to the kidneys the case is not so clear. At the time of the XXIst Dynasty the general custom of putting the excised viscera into canopic jars was given Up,l and it became the practice to wrap up each viscus along with a wax model of its appropriate guardian deity (Figs. 50-54), and restore it to the body (Fig. 50). Occasionally the kidneys were found (in the same series of mummies examined as mentioned above) in parcels of viscera associated with one or other of the deities; more often they were found in parcels apart from those which contained the wax images of the children of Horus, and in many cases the kidneys were not recognisable in any of the parcels. The fact that the kidneys were thus not definitely associated with anyone of the four funerary genii, when considered in conjunction with the statement of Diodorus, might perhaps be regarded as evidence in favour of the view that it was the intention of the embalmers to leave the kidneys, like the heart, in position in the body, and that some special significance attached to these two organs, which made it undesirable that they should be removed from the body along with the
