the warrior, and the image of a small arrowhead >, its point directed toward the left shoulder. His left arm is placed across his breast, the left hand resting on the right shoulder. This is a token of respect among the living, as we have already seen; but what can be its meaning when made to be assumed by the dead? Does it signify that this is the attitude of humility in which the souls of the departed must appear before the judgment seat of Yum-cimil, the "god of death;" just as we see, in the Egyptian inscriptions and papyri, the souls when standing before the throne of Osiris in Amenti, waiting to receive their sentence from his mouth? This is very probable, for the same custom existed in Egypt. "The Egyptians," says Sir Gardner Wilkinson,1 "placed the arms of the mummies extended along the side, the palms inward and resting on the thighs, or brought forward over the groin, sometimes even across the breast; and occasionally one arm in the former, the other in the latter position." Mr. Champollion Figeac, speaking on the same subject, says: "On croisait les mains des femmes sur leur ventre; les bras des hommes restaient pendants sur les côtés; quelquefois la main gauche etait placée sur l'épaule droite; ce bras faisait ainsi écharpe sur la poitrine." The upper end of the sceptre is ornamented with an open dipetalous flower, with a half-opened bud in the centre of the corol. This is significant of the fact that the dead warrior was killed in the flower of life, before he had had time to reach maturity. The lower extremity of said sceptre is carved so as to represent 'Sir Gardner Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, vol. iii., chap. xvi.,

p. 486.

2

2

Champollion Figeac, L'univers, Egypte, p. 261.

"The women's hands were crossed on the belly; the men's arms remained hanging at the sides; but sometimes the left hand was placed on the right shoulder, the arm across the chest.