Khat (ẖt)

The physical body

Khat — the corruptible physical body, that which decays. The whole apparatus of mummification exists to preserve the khat as a vessel: not because the body itself is the soul, but because several of the other components require an intact body-image as their anchor. The Book of the Dead spells repeatedly secure the khat 'against the worm' so the rest of the funerary anthropology can function.