r. Alan Gardiner (Davies and Gardiner, "The Tomb of Amenemhet,"
1915, p. 83, footnote) has, I think, overlooked certain statements in my
writings and underestimated the antiquity of the embalmer's art; for he
attributes to me the opinion that "mummification was a custom of
relatively late growth".

The presence in China of the characteristically Egyptian beliefs
concerning the animation of statues (de Groot, _op. cit._ pp. 339-356),
whereas the practice of mummification, though not wholly absent, is not
obtrusive, might perhaps be interpreted by some scholars as evidence in
favour of the development of the custom of making statues independently
of mummification. But such an inference is untenable. Not only is it the
fact that in most parts of the world the practices of making statues and
mummifying the dead are found in association the one with the other, but
also in China the essential beliefs concerning the dead are based upon
the supposition that the body is fully preserved (_see_ de Groot, chap.
XV.). It is quite evident that the Chinese customs have been derived
directly or indirectly from some people who mummified their dead as a
regular practice. There can be no doubt that the ultimate source of
their inspiration to do these things was Egypt.

I need mention only one of many identical peculiarities that makes this
quite certain. De Groot says it is "strange to see Chinese fancy depict
the souls of the viscera as distinct individuals with animal forms" (p.
71). The same custom prevailed in Egypt, where the "souls" or protective
deities were first given animal forms in the Nineteenth Dynasty
(Reisner).]

[37: The Arabic word conveys the idea of being "hidden underground,"
because the house is exposed by excavation.]

[38: _Op. cit. supra_, Ridgeway Essays; also _Man_, 1913, p. 193.]

[39: See Alan H. Gardiner, "Life and Death (Egyptian)," Hastings'
_Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics_.]

[40: See the quotation from Mr. Quibell's account in my statement in the
_Report of the British Association for 1914_, p. 215.]

The Significance of Libations.

The central idea of this lecture was suggested by Mr. Aylward M.
Blackman's important discovery of the actual meaning of incense and
libations to the Egyptians themselves.[41] The earliest body of
literature preserved from any of the peoples of antiquity is comprised
in the texts inscribed in the subterranean chambers of the Sakkara
Pyramids of the Fifth and Si