世界小史 第25章:信仰

And yet the most important part of the Egyptians' strange religion was their belief that,

但埃及人的奇怪宗教中最重要之处却是他们的信仰：

although a man's soul left his body when he died, for some reason the soul went on needingthat body,

虽然人一死人的灵魂就离开躯体，但是因为某些原因灵魂还会继续需要躯体，

and would suffer if it crumbled into dust.

如果他们从前的肉体在死后化做泥土，那么他们的灵魂便不可能得到安宁。

So they invented a very ingenious way of preserving the bodies of the dead.

所以他们发明了一种独特的方式保存死人的肉体。

They rubbed them with ointments and the juices of certain plants, and bandaged them withlong strips of cloth, so that they wouldn't decay.

他们用油膏和某些植物的汁水擦拭尸体并在其周身裹上长布条，从而它们不会腐烂。

A body preserved in this manner is called a mummy.

用这种方式保存的尸体被称之为木乃伊。

And today, after thousands of years, these mummies are still intact.

今天，好几千年之后，这些木乃伊仍还没被毁坏。

A mummy was placed in a coffin made of wood, the wooden coffin in one of stone,

一具木乃伊被放进一具木棺，把木棺放进一具石棺埋起来，

and the stone one buried, not in the earth, but in a tomb that was chiselled out of the rock.

不是把石棺埋入土中，而是将其放进一座岩洞墓穴。

If you were rich and powerful like King Cheops, 'Son of the Sun', a whole stone mountain wouldbe made for your tomb.

如果你像"太阳之子"即国王齐阿普斯那样富有、有权势，人们会垒一整座石山作为你的墓穴。

Deep inside, the mummy would be safe - or so they thought!

在石山内部深处，木乃伊一定不会受损--大概他们是这么想的!

But the mighty king's efforts were in vain: his pyramid is empty.

但这位强大的国王的辛劳都是枉然：他的金字塔是空的。