enclosed several together in
little boxes, or laid separately in the grave; it was supposed that they
would help the dead to till the fields of the blessed with the pick-axe,
plough, and seed-bag which they carried on their shoulders.

The widow and the steward of the wealthy Superior of the temple of
Hatasu, and with them a priest of high rank, were in eager discussion
with the officials of the embalming-House, and were selecting the most
costly of the patterns of mummy-cases which were offered to their
inspection, the finest linen, and amulets of malachite, and lapis-lazuli,
of blood-stone, carnelian and green felspar, as well as the most elegant
alabaster canopi for the deceased; his body was to be enclosed first in a
sort of case of papier-mache, and then in a wooden and a stone coffin.
They wrote his name on a wax tablet which was ready for the purpose, with
those of his parents, his wife and children, and all his titles; they
ordered what verses should be written on his coffin, what on the
papyrus-rolls to be enclosed in it, and what should be set out above his
name. With regard to the inscription on the walls of the tomb, the
pedestal of the statue to be placed there and the face of the
stele--[Stone tablet with round pediment.]--to be erected in it, yet
further particulars would be given; a priest of the temple of Seti was
charged to write them, and to draw up a catalogue of the rich offerings
of the survivors. The last could be done later, when, after the division
of the property, the amount of the fortune he had left could be
ascertained. The mere mummifying of the body with the finest oils and
essences, cloths, amulets, and cases, would cost a talent of silver,
without the stone sarcophagus.

The widow wore a long mourning robe, her forehead was lightly daubed with
Nile-mud, and in the midst of her chaffering with the functionaries of
the embalming-house, whose prices she complained of as enormous and
rapacious, from time to time she broke out into a loud wail of grief--as
the occasion demanded.

More modest citizens finished their commissions sooner, though it was not
unusual for the income of a whole year to be sacrificed for the embalming
of the head of a household--the father or the mother of a family. The
mummifying of the poor was cheap, and that of the poorest had to be
provided by the kolchytes as a tribute to the king, to whom also they
were obliged to pay a tax in linen from their looms.

This