aused us to exclaim at its modern appearance. A
palm-leaf fan, used by the ancient Egyptians to keep the flies off their
wines and unguents, stood near a now empty jar; and near by a basket of
dried-up fruit was to be seen. This dried fruit gave the impression that
the tomb was perhaps a few months old, but there was nothing else to be
seen which suggested that the objects were even as much as a year old.
It was almost impossible to believe, and quite impossible to realise,
that we were standing where no man had stood for well over three
thousand years; and that we were actually breathing the air which had
remained sealed in the passage since the ancient priests had closed the
entrance thirteen hundred years before Christ.

Before we could proceed farther, many flashlight photographs had to be
taken, and drawings made of the doorway; and after this a panel of the
woodwork had to be removed with a fret-saw in order that the lock and
seal might not be damaged. At last, however, this was accomplished, and
the way into the tomb-chamber was open. Stepping through the frame of
the door, we found ourselves in an unencumbered portion of the floor,
while around us in all directions stood the funeral furniture, and on
our left the coffins of the deceased noble and his wife loomed large.
Everything looked new and undecayed, and even the order in which the
objects were arranged suggested a tidying-up done that very morning. The
gravel on the floor was neatly smoothed, and not a speck of dust was
anywhere to be observed. Over the large outer coffin a pall of fine
linen was laid, not rotting and falling to pieces like the cloth of
mediaeval times we see in our museums, but soft and strong like the
sheets of our beds. In the clear space before the coffin stood a wooden
pedestal in the form of a miniature lotus column. On the top of this,
resting on three wooden prongs, was a small copper dish, in which were
the ashes of incense, and the little stick used for stirring them. One
asked oneself in bewilderment whether the ashes here, seemingly not
cold, had truly ceased to glow at a time when Rome and Greece were
undreamt of, when Assyria did not exist, and when the Exodus of the
Children of Israel was yet unaccomplished.

On low tables round cakes of bread were laid out, not cracked and
shrivelled, but smooth and brown, with a kind of white-of-egg glaze upon
them. Onions and fruit were also spread out; and the fruit of the _dom_
palm wa