The Story of Wat

There was once a man called Wat, who lives with his wife Neferusit in a place near Abydos. Wat was a hunter, who is skillful with bow and arrow. He hunted ostriches, pheasants, antelopes and other animals. He preserved the extra meat, abundant enough for them to live for weeks.

One day, Wat went to the desert sand to hunt. He found jackals feasting on a corpse, whose innards were chewed by the hungry animals. Wat raised his hands, cried "Woe is the man whose body is exposed on the sand and desecrated by jackals!" He then obviated them from eating the flesh. Once they are gone, Wat buried the man deeper within the sand, hoping he would not feel the pain in the afterlife.

Wat returned to his wife after hunting. He said "I was in the desert and saw a man's body, desecrated by the jackals." Neferusit said "May Thoth heals the poor man." "Why would jackals eat the flesh of the dead?" Wat asked, and his wife replied "I heard from the washer women, that as the sand exposed the body, the stench attracts jackals to feast on dead." Wat said "May we have enough food in exchange for a good tomb like the rich, who buried themselves under the mastaba, so our body will not be torn apart." "May the gods fulfill your wish."

Months later, Wat went for hunting again. He saw a small old mastaba, with entrance opened and path filled with sands. It has been abandoned for years. Nothing is remained inside the chapel. He then noticed inside the broken false door, a hanging rope down to the shaft. He climbed down and saw the blockage to the burial chamber has been broken, which opened the way to the sarcophagus. The lid was pushed over, and inside is the skeleton of a man. Wat was horrified, left the burial chamber and ran home. "Even the rich can not protect his body, unlike the mummies in the sand. O woe is to me and all the people! How do we keep our body in eternity" He told his wife what he saw. They mourned for the dead and the worry of their body will encounter the same fate. They did not live happily for days because of those incidents.

On another day, Neferusit went home happily and told Wat "The brewer's wife told me that the innards are smelly when a person died, and that's why the jackal eats them. If we could remove them before the deceased is buried, it will cause no harm to the body." Wat was shocked, and said "This is desecrating the dead! How can one live in the other world without his innards?" "We can put them in jars, so when he is in the next world, he could take them out from the jar and use it again." After her explanations, a poor man called Neni arrived with sad face and looked for Wat. He said "My son has died and I need your help to bury my son's body." Wat agreed, but on the condition to remove the organs of his son and put them in jars. Neni disagreed at first, but after listening to his reasoning, he finally agreed.

Standing before the son of Neni, Wat cut the body with an obsidian dagger, open the wound and slowly took out the lungs, intestine, liver and stomach; put them accordingly in four jars and filled it with natron, which he used to preserve his meat. "I want my son to have a big belly, as I have not feed him well when he was alive." Neni requested, and Wat put natron into many small bags, stuffed them into the body and let Neferusit close the incises by sewing the skin. Once it was done, They took the body, jars and some other things to bury so the boy can reach the underworld with a safer body.

The boy's ka was before Anubis, waiting for his heart to be weighted. Looking at two big scars on his body, Anubis was puzzled and asked "What happened to your body?" the boy answered "A man called Wat cut opened my body and took my innards out, putting them into jars and put natron inside". The god was astonished, yet angered at the same time, reported to Osiris. "Cursed to the man who desecrated the dead! Bring him before me, and he shall be judged. If his intention is evil, Ammit shall devour his heart!" Commanded Osiris, and sent Anubis to tied Wat as a captive at night while Egypt was sleeping soundly. Wat was then thrown down and kneeled before the great god.

"Defiler of the dead," Osiris pointed his scepter at Wat. "Why did you cut open the body of Neni's son, placed his innards into four jars and filled them with natron? Answer, or your heart shall be eaten by Ammit!"

"O great god Osiris!" Wat trembled with fear. "I have no evil intention in doing so, for Neni is a poor man who lives in poverty, his son is not well fed and skinny. My action is for the good of his son."

"What makes you think your action is of any good?"

"O great god! I have met two deceased, of a rich and poor. The rich one whose flesh is no more but skeletons, even he is protected by a mastaba where no jackals could come; the poor, even though has his body survived in the sand, the jackals come and feasted on the dead. My wife Neferusit said she heard, that the innards are smelly when one died, thus lures the jackals. I removed them and put it in jars filled with natron so the smell won't reach the nose of the flesh eater, and filled the son's body with natron as well, so he won't look skinny."

"Why did you fill the body with natron?"

"I use natron to preserve meat from which I hunted. They do not smell very bad once preserved in such way."

"Truly your intention is good for Neni and his son!" Osiris praised Wat, and blessed him for his deed. The great god called Thoth to write down Wat's procedures, and made some changes, added more rituals in the process of embalming, like granting protection to the jars by the four sons of Horus: Imsethy, Qebehsenuf, Duamutef and Hapy. "Even though your intention is good, cutting the dead is the same as defiling its body. Thus you shall be stoned to death, but ritually." Osiris then called other gods and kas to throw stones at Wat, but he was not harmed as Osiris has protected him with magic. Once it is done, Thoth sent dreams to the Pharaoh and all the priests in Egypt and told them the story of Wat and introduces embalming. Wat was then sent back to his bed with the papyrus written by Thoth, while he continues to sleep until the sun rises.

The Pharaoh dreamt of Thoth's message and told the high priests; they had the same dream as well, and sent officers to get Wat into the palace. Wat told the story to Pharaoh, officers and priests; Pharaoh was rejoiced. He ordered a ring to be made for Wat and made him the instructor of embalming. He and his students learn the instructions written on the scroll by Thoth, and Wat taught his students about embalming and the stone throwing ritual for the incision opener.

Since the death of Wat, embalming was popular in whole Egypt, and the embalmers' skills are getting much better. The incision is smaller to reduce the scar on the dead, and the throwing of stones has been replaced with throwing pebbles, which is soft and does less harm. This is why when an embalmer made an incision on the dead, the others throw stones at him, as he defiled the body, but receive no harm as the intention was good.