Volume I Part 17 (2/2)

In the tomb of Ptah-Hotep, of which we reproduce the principal side, the stele proper is on the left, but the figures and the funerary inscriptions cover all the central part of the richly decorated wall (Fig 115)

We see, then, that the stele is the one indispensable part of this complicated whole It was, in fact, upon the foryptians depended for those encies by which Osiris beca and the dead

”At the foot of the stele there was often a table for offerings, in granite, alabaster, or li 92)

[Illustration: FIG 115--Western wall in the chaoin]

”As a rule this was the only piece of furniture in the chamber; but occasionally we find, on each side of the stele and always placed upon the ground, either two small li table legs hollowed out at the top for the reception of offerings”

This chamber was left open to every comer The entrance was in fact left without a door To this rule Mariette found but two exceptions in the many hundreds of tombs which he examined[167]

[167] One of these exceptions is furnished by the to 114) The large public hall near the entrance to the tomb was separated from the two chambers farther in by a corridor closed at two points by doors, some remains of which were found in place when the tomb was opened

”Not far from the chamber, oftener on the south than the north, and oftener on the north than the west, a passage in the e stones, is found The workmen employed upon the excavations christened it the _serdab_, or corridor, and their naive the plan and three sections of a mastaba at Gizeh which has four serdabs

[168] This is a word of Persian origin adopted by the Arabs Its strict e

”Sometimes the serdab has no communication with the other parts of the mastaba, it is entirely walled in, but in other instances there is a narrow quadrangular opening, a sort of pipe or conduit, which unites the serdab with the chamber It is so small that the hand can only be introduced into it with difficulty[169]

[169] The tomb of Ti had two serdabs as well as three chambers; one of these was close to the door, the other in the innermost part of the mastaba In the latter several statues of Ti were found, the best preserved being now in the museum at Boulak

”The use of the serdab is revealed by the objects which have been found in it; it was to hold one or yptians believed these statues to be the uarantees, alith the exception of the ht in their dark prison, they were protected from all violence, while they were separated only by a few stones froether, and the conduit by which the intervening as often pierced, allowed the smell of fruit and incense and the smoke of burnt fat to come to their nostrils[170]

[170] In a Theban tomb described by M MASPERO (_etude sur quelques Peintures funeraires_) the tenant, Harmhabi, is made to speak thus: ”I have cos to my members, I have breathed the scent of the perfumes and incense” It is also possible that this conduit may have been intended to permit of the free circulation of the _double_, to allow it to pass fro statues to the chapel in which it is honoured This curious idea, that the spirit of the dead can pass through a very sether, is found a of very sh which the soul of the dead could pass and repass See HERBERT SPENCER, _Principles of Sociology_, vol i p 192

[Illustration: FIG 116--Plan of a mastaba with four Serdabs

(Lepsius, i, pl 24)]

[Illustration: FIG 117--Longitudinal section of the same mastaba]

”No inscriptions have been found in a serdab except those upon the statues And no objects other than statues have ever been found in a serdab” So that the function of the serdab was to afford a safe and final asylum to the statues These were, no doubt, to be found in other situations also, because, not to ure of the deceased appeared in the chamber or in the niche which soh relief, and of full life size, in the public hall of the tomb[171] Sometimes, also, we find a statue in one of those front courts which, especially at the tireat favour But this court, as well as the chamber, was open to every chance passer by, and the statues which they both contained were in continual danger froainst such chances as these that the inventive architects of Egypt contrived a safe retreat in the heart of the massive structure which should provide a reserve of statues against every contingency When all those which were exposed to accident should have perished, these would still survive and would furnish to the _double_ the ible body, to which that phantoed to attach himself unless he wished to perish entirely

[171] There is an exa

120) See No 95 of LEPSIUS (_Denkmaeler_, vol i p 29; vol

iii pl 44)

[Illustration: FIG 118--Transverse section through the chamber]

These precautions were not ill conceived The serdab kept efficient guard over its deposit; the museum of Boulak contains at least a hundred statues from the ancient empire which were found at Sakkarah, and nine-tenths of them were found in the serdabs

[Illustration: FIG 119--Transverse section through the serdabs]

We have now described all those parts of the toround We have not been content with visiting the chamber only, which was freely left open, we have penetrated into the farthest recesses, and have discovered those secrets of the ht to hide for ever from the eye of man But even yet we have not arrived at the actual place of burial; we shall reach it, however, through our third internal division, the well or pit

”The well is an artificial excavation, square or rectangular in plan, never round, at the bottom of which is the chamber in which theof the well, we122) As there was never any staircase to a mastaba either within or without, it will be seen that the well must have been a very inaccessible part of the tole instance, namely, in the toest of the internal chambers, but whether it opened upon the roof or upon the floor of the chamber, it was always closed with the ute flat stone

[Illustration: FIG 120--Figures in high relief, from a mastaba at Gizeh, 5th dynasty (froenerally situated upon the major axis of the mastaba, and, as a rule, nearer to the north than to the south Its depth varies, but, on an average, it is about forty feet Now and then, however, it has a depth of sixty-five or even eighty feet As the well begins at the platform and ends in the rock-carved mummy chah the h the rock upon which the mastaba is founded The built part of the well is carefully constructed of large and perfect stones, and in this we find one of the distinguishi+ng characteristics of the tombs of the ancient empire” In the tomb of Ti the well takes the fore in the pyramids In the common form of well the mummy pit could only be reached by means of ropes