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 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

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484. The members of the family present when the services were performed. Thebes. privilege of officiating on these occasions; and the members of the family had permission, and were perhaps frequently expect

ed, to be present, whether the services were performed by strangers, or by relations of the deceased. The ceremonies consisted of a sacrifice, 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 A woman embracing, and those of the priest; and, embracing mummy. Thebes. the mummied body, and bathing its feet with their tears, they uttered those expressions of

485.

weeping before her husband's

Tomb at Thebes.

Conveying the mummies on a sledge to the closet in which they were kept, after the services had been performed to them. The priest (fig. 8) is pouring oil (?) over them. On the altar are three vases of oil, cakes, a basket of grapes, and some other things (which were indistinct from being much defaced). Below are two glass bottles of wine. Even in this serious subject the Egyptian artists could not refrain from their love of caricature; and one of the mummies (fig. 4) is falling down upon the priest, who supports it with his hands.

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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 skin; 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 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 movable 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

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latter was drawn with ropes

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to the altar, and taken back by the same means when the ceremony was over. these occasions, as in the prayers for the dead, they made the usual offerings of incense and libation, with cakes, flowers, and fruit, and even anointed the mummy, oil or ointment being poured

487. Pouring oil (?) over a mummy. The priest (fig. 1) has a napkin on his shoulder. Fig. 2 holds a papyrus. The mode of placing the napkin is re- over its head.* Sometimes markable, being the same as now adopted in the East by servants while guests are washing their several priests attended. Tomb at Thebes. One carried a napkin over

hands before meals.

his shoulder, to be used after the anointing of the mummy; another brought a papyrus roll containing a prayer, or the usual * Woodcuts 486, 487.

ritual deposited in the tombs with the dead; and others had different occupations, according to their respective offices.

These funeral oblations answer exactly to the inferiæ or parentalia of the Romans, consisting of victims, flowers, and libations, when the tomb was decked with garlands and wreaths of flowers, and an altar was erected before it for presenting the offerings. And that this last was done also by the Egyptians, is proved by the many small altars discovered outside the doors of the catacombs at Thebes.

488. An altar, in the British Museum, showing that the trench is for carrying off the libation. The lower device is the ordinary hieroglyphic signifying "chosen," as applied to offerings.

It was not unusual to keep the mummies in the house, after they had been returned by the embalmers to the relations of the deceased, in order to gratify the feelings which made them desirous of having those they had loved in life as near them as possible after death, or to give time to the family to prepare a tomb for their reception. Many months often elapsed between the ceremony of embalming and the actual burial; and it was during this period that the liturgies were performed before the mummy, which were afterwards continued at the tomb. One inscription upon the coffin of a woman shows that the burial took place a whole year after her death, and some were doubtless kept, for various reasons, much longer. It was during

this interval that feasts were held in honour of the dead, to which the friends and relatives were invited, as was customary among the Greeks and other people of antiquity.

Small tables made of reeds and sticks bound together, and interlaced with palm leaves, were sometimes placed in the tombs, bearing offerings of cakes, ducks, or other things, according to the wealth or inclination of the donors, one of which, found at Thebes, is now in the British Museum. On the lower compart

489. A table found in a tomb by Mr. Burton, on which are a duck trussed, and another cut open, with cakes. British Museum.

ment, or shelf, are cakes; the central shelf has a duck cut open at the breast and spread out," but not divided asunder;" and at the top is a similar bird, trussed in the usual mode when brought to an Egyptian table. Similar offerings for "the dead" were strictly forbidden by the law of Moses; and it was doubtless the Egyptian custom that the Hebrew legislator had in view when he introduced this wise prohibition.

Though the privilege of keeping a mummy in the house was sanctioned by law and custom, care was always taken to assign some plausible reason for it, since they deemed it a great privilege to be admitted to the repositories of the dead, as their final resting-place. To be debarred from the rites of burial reflected a severe disgrace upon the whole family; and the most influential individual could not be admitted to the very tomb he had built for himself, until acquitted before that tribunal which sat to judge his conduct during life.