Volume I Part 14 (2/2)

We shall see that a special recess was prepared in the thickness of the built up portion of the tomb for the reception of wooden or stone statues, so that they ht and safe froies were placed in the chambers of the tomb or the courts in front of it Finally, we know that persons of consideration obtained fro permission to erect statues in the temples, where they were protected by the sanctity of the place and the vigilance of the priests[130]

[130] MASPERO, _Notes sur differentes Points de Grammaire et d'Histoire_, p 155 (In the _Recueil de Travaux relatifs a la Philologie et a l'Archeologie egyptienne et assyrienne_, vol

i)

[Illustration: FIG 89--Sekhem-ka, his wife Ata, and his son Khnem, in the style of the 5th dynasty Limestone Froyptians such precautions were by no ies have coh fifty or sixty centuries and have found an asylu to fear but the slow effects of climate and time Those which remain intact may therefore count upon i to preserve it froe, that of Chephren, the builder of the second great pyranificent statue of diorite which is the glory of Boulak, and thanks to the durability of itsas the world itself But, unhappily for the shade of Pharaoh, this posthumous existence which is so difficult of coed by attention to conditionscontinue to be observed

[Illustration: FIG 90--Stele of Nefer-oun Boulak]

It was entirely a material life The dead-alive had need of food and drink, which he obtained from supplies placed beside him in the tomb,[131] and afterwards, when these were consumed, by the repasts which took place periodically in the tomb, of which he had his share

The first of these feasts was given upon the conclusion of the funeral ceremonies,[132] and they were repeated from year to year on days fixed by tradition and sometimes by the expressed wish of the deceased[133] An open and public chamber was contrived in the tomb for the celebration of these anniversaries It was a kind of chapel, or, perhaps, to speak more accurately, a saloon in which all the relations and friends of the deceased could find room At the foot of the stele upon which the deadto Osiris, the God of the dead, was placed a table for offerings, upon which the share intended for the _double_ was deposited and the libations poured A conduit was reserved in the thickness of the wall by which the odour of the roast ht reach the concealed statues[134]

[131] Jars, which seem to have been once filled ater, are found in many tombs of all epochs Different kinds of dates are also found, together with the fruit of the sycaue_ of PassALACQUA, pp 123, 151, and elsewhere Quarters of nised by their well-preserved bones

[132] MASPERO, _etudes sur quelques Peintures funeraires_, in the _Journal Asiatique_, May-June, 1880, p 387, _et seq_

[133] In one of the great inscriptions at Beni-Hassan, recently translated anew both by M Maspero and Professor Birch, Chnoumhotep speaks thus: ”I caused to prosper the na tereat temples I sacrificed to theetables, pure herbs My priest has verified (I chose a priest for the Ka,--Maspero) I procured theation of my work-people (I made him master of fields and slaves,--Maspero) I ordered the sepulchral offerings of bread, beer, cattle, fowl, in all the festivals of Karneter, at the festivals of the beginning of the year, the opening of the year, increase of the year, disch and Maspero), close of the year, at the great festival, at the festival of the great burning, at the festival of the lesser burning, the five intercalary days, at the festival of bread rain,--Maspero) at the twelve monthly and half monthly festivals, all the festivals on the earth (plain), ter on the hill (of Anubis) But should ly may he not exist, nor his son in his place”--BIRCH, _Records of the Past_, vol xii p 71--ED

[134] In each opening of the serdab in the tomb of Ti, at Sakkarah, people, probably relatives of the deceased, are represented in the act of burning incense in a contrivance which resembles in form the ???at????? of the Greek monuments

(MARIETTE, _Notice des principaux Monuments de Boulak_, p 27, note 1)

[Illustration: FIG 91--Preparation of the victiht of each band, 13-1/2 inches

Boulak Drawn by Bourgoin]

The Egyptians did not trust only to the piety of their descendants to preserve thelected torow cold and relax its care; besides, a faht becoainst such contingencies as these by giving their tombscall a perpetual foundation They devoted to the purpose the revenues of soed with the maintenance of the priest or priests who had to perform the ceremonial rites which we have described[135] We find that, even under the Ptolemies, special ministers were attached to the sepulchral chapel of Cheops, the builder of the great pyramid[136] It may seem difficult to believe that a ”foundation” of the ancient eis had beco sovereign ive renewed life to the worshi+p of those relories of the national history

[135] See the paper by M MASPERO upon the great inscription at Siout, which has preserved for us a contract between Prince Hapi-Toufi and the priests of Ap-Motennou, by which offerings should be regularly made to the prince's statue, which was deposited in a temple at Siout (_Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology_, vol vii pp 1-32)

[136] It was the sa, Seneferu, the founder of the fourth dynasty (DE ROUGe, _Recherches sur les Monuments que l'on peut attribuer aux six premieres Dynasties de Manethon_, p 41)

[Illustration: FIG 92--Table for offerings Louvre]

[Illustration: FIG 93--Another fors

Boulak]

Besides which there were priests attached to each necropolis, who, for certain fees, officiated at each tomb in turn They were identified by Mariette upon some of the bas-reliefs at Sakkarah Their services were retained ht in our days[137]

[137] _Tombes de l'Ancien Empire_, p 87

The same sentiment led to the burial with the dead of all arht have need in the next life We knohat treasures of this kind have been obtained froyptian tombs and how they fill the cases of our ypt It was common to all ancient people whether civilized or barbarous Traces are to be found even in the early traditions of the hellenic race of a time when, like those Scythians described by Herodotus,[138] the Greeks sacrificed, at the death of a chief, his wives and servants that they an to reveal herself in the arts Egypt was already too far civilized for such practices as these; thanks to the siion, she found es to her dead without per Scythian cruelties Those personal attendants and domestic officers whose services would be so necessary in another life, were secured to the them at the door of the tomb, they were represented upon its walls in all the variety of their occupations and in the actual moment of labour So too with all objects of luxury or necessity which the _double_ would wish to have at hand, as for instance his food and drink[139]

[138] HERODOTUS, iv 71, 72