The deceased, having recited these words of prayer and adoration to
R[=a], the symbol of Almighty God, and to his son Osiris, next "cometh
forth into the Hall of Ma[=a]ti, that he may be separated from every sin
which he hath done, and may behold the faces of the gods." [Footnote:
This quotation is from the title of Chapter CXXV. of the Book of the
Dead.] From the earliest times the Ma[=a]ti were the two goddesses Isis
and Nephthys, and they were so called because they represented the ideas
of straightness, integrity, righteousness, what is right, the truth, and
such like; the word Ma[=a]t originally meant a measuring reed or stick.
They were supposed either to sit in the Hall of Ma[=a]t outside the
shrine of Osiris, or to stand by the side of this god in the shrine; an
example of the former position will be seen in the Papyrus of Ani (Plate
31), and of the latter in the Papyrus of Hunefer (Plate 4). The original
idea of the Hall of Ma[=a]t or Ma[=a]ti was that it contained forty-two
gods; a fact which we may see from the following passage in the
Introduction to Chapter CXXV. of the Book of the Dead. The deceased says
to Osiris:--