cover, in the marks of favour bestowed by the Ptolemies on the religion of Egypt, a strained and unnatural display of devotion: the contrast of which with the simplicity and real feeling of ancient times cannot fail to strike those who compare the monuments of the two eras.

VIGNETTE P.

Interior of a mummy pit, or sepulchral chamber, at Thebes; with a
Felláh woman searching for papyri and ornaments.

CHAP. XVI.

Funeral Rites.-Offerings to the Dead.

Tombs. - Funeral
Lake.

Processions. Trials of the Dead.- - Sacred
Burial. Embalming.- Sarcophagi. - Papyri, &c.

OFFERINGS TO THE DEAD.

THE offerings made to the dead were similar to the ordinary oblations in honour of the Gods. It was not to the deceased as a man translated to the order of the Gods that these ceremonies were performed; but to that particular portion of the divine essence which constituted the soul of each individual, and returned to the Deity after death. Every one, therefore, whose virtuous life entitled

him to admission into the regions of the blessed, was supposed to be again united to the Deity, of whom he was an emanation*; and, with the emblem of Thmei, purporting that he was judged or justified, he received the holy name of Osiris. His body was so bound up as to resemble the mysterious ruler of Amenti; it bore some of the emblems peculiar to him; and the beard, of a form which belonged exclusively to the Gods, was given to the deceased in token of his having assumed the character of that Deity.

;

Offerings were also made to the God Osiris himself, after the burial, in the name of the deceased and certain services or liturgies were performed for him by the priests, at the expense of the family; their number depending upon their means, or the

Services performed to the dead by one of the family. The principal part of the offering consists of onions. (Vide suprà, p.369.)

* Vide suprà, Vol. I. (2d Series) p. 318.

respect they were inclined to pay to the memory of their parent. If the sons or relations were of the priestly order, they had the privilege of officiating on these occasions; and the members of the family had permission, and were perhaps frequently expected, to be present, whether the services were performed by strangers, or by relations of the de

The members of the family present when the services were performed.

ceased. The ceremonies consisted of a sacrifice,

bus

No. 493. A woman embracing, and

weeping before, her husband's mummy. Thebes.

those of the priest;

similar to those offered in the temples, vowed for the deceased to one or more Gods (as Osiris, Anubis, and others connected with Amenti): incense and libation were also presented; and a prayer was sometimes read, the relations and friends being present as mourners. They even joined their prayers to and, embracing the mummied

body, and bathing its feet with their tears, they uttered those expressions of grief, and praises of the deceased, which were dictated by their feelings on so melancholy an occasion.*

The priest who officiated at the burial service was selected from the grade of Pontiffs who wore the leopard skint; but various other rites were performed by one of the minor priests to the mummies previous to their being lowered into the pit of the tomb, as well as after that ceremony. Indeed they continued to be administered at intervals, as long as the family paid for their performance; and it is possible that upon the cessation of this payment, or after a stipulated time, the priests had the right of transferring the tomb to another family, which, as I have already observed, the inscriptions within them show to have been done, even though belonging to members of the priestly order.

When the mummies remained in the house, or in the chamber of the sepulchre, they were kept in moveable wooden closets, with folding doors, out of which they were taken by the minor functionaries to a small altar, before which the priest officiated. The closet and the mummy were placed on a sledge, in order to facilitate their movement from one place to another; and the latter was drawn with ropes to the altar, and taken back by the same means when the ceremony was over. On these occasions, as in the prayers for the dead, they made the usual offerings of incense and libation,

* Vide also Plate 84.

+ Vide Plate 83, 84.