ABSTRACT
https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315828060/49546f0e-ce84-4e70-9b40-7107f16ee305/content/ufig_h_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>AVING dealt with the beliefs of various primitive races, it now behoves us to consider those of more civilised nations, beginning with ancient Babylon and Egypt. In the Babylonian story it is not clear at first sight that we have passed into the Underworld, and we may therefore regard it as representing a transitional stage in the development of man’s theories concerning the next world. But when we turn to ancient Egypt we find quite definitely that the path to Heaven lies through an Underworld whose chief features have been plotted like a map by the Priests. For all that the last tablet of Gilgamish shows clearly that the Babylonians also believed in an Underworld, but the fate of the dead therein seems to have been a dreary one, not unlike the Homeric conception.
