The repudiation of sins before the judgment of Osiris is the earliest code of morals . . . [and] the permanence of the Egyptian character will strike anyone who knows the modern native. The essential mode of justification in the judgment was by the declaration of the deceased that he had not done various crimes; and to this day the Egyptian will rely on justifying himself by sheer assertion that he has not done wrong, in face of absolute proofs to the contrary.²

²Petrie, W.M. F.n/an/an/an/a, , 86, 89.