first day of the year; at the
feast of Uaga; at the great feast of Sothis; on the day of the procession
of the god Min; at the feast of shew-bread; at the feasts of the months and
the half months, and the days of the week." Offerings were placed in the
principal room, at the foot of the west wall, at the exact spot leading to
the entrance of the "eternal home" of the dead. Unlike the _Kiblah_ of the
mosques, or Mussulman oratories, this point is not always oriented towards
the same quarter of the compass, though often found to the west. In the
earliest times it was indicated by a real door, low and narrow, framed and
decorated like the door of an ordinary house, but not pierced through. An
inscription graven upon the lintel in large readable characters,
commemorated the name and rank of the owner. His portrait, either sitting
or standing, was carved upon the jambs; and a scene, sculptured or painted
on the space above the door, represented him seated before a small round
table, stretching out his hand towards the repast placed upon it. A flat
slab, or offering table, built into the floor between the two uprights of
the doorway, received the votive meats and drinks.

[Illustration: Fig. 125.--Plan of chapel in mastaba of Ptahhotep, Fifth
Dynasty, Sakkarah.]

[Illustration: Fig. 126.--Stela in tomb of Merruka (Fifth Dynasty, Abusir):
a false doorway containing the statue of the deceased.]

The general appearance of the recess is that of a somewhat narrow doorway.
As a rule it was empty, but occasionally it contained a portrait statue of
the dead standing with one foot forward as though about to cross the gloomy
threshold of his tomb, descend the few steps before him, advance into his
reception room or chapel, and pass out into the sunlight (fig. 126). As a
matter of fact, the stela symbolised the door leading to the private
apartments of the dead, a door closed and sealed to the living. It was
inscribed on door-posts and lintels, and its inscription was no mere
epitaph for the information of future generations; all the details which it
gave as to the name, rank, functions, and family of the deceased were
intended to secure the continuity of his individuality and civil status in
the life beyond death. A further and essential object of its inscriptions
was to provide him with food and drink by means of prayers or magic
formulae constraining one of the gods of the dead--Osiris or Anubis--to act
as intermediary between him a