e
first instance a simple oblong hall, with a barrel roof and six columns.
Later on, it was enlarged on the right side, the new part forming a kind of
flat-roofed portico supported on four columns (fig. 154).

[Illustration: Fig. 153.--Plan of tomb of Khnumhotep, at Beni Hasan.]

[Illustration: Fig. 154.--Plan of unfinished tomb, Beni Hasan.]

[Illustration: Fig. 155.--Funeral processions and ceremonies from wall-
painting in tomb of Manna, Thebes, Nineteenth Dynasty.]

To form a _serdab_ in the solid rock was almost impossible; while on the
other hand, movable statues, if left in a room accessible to all comers,
would be exposed to theft or mutilation. The _serdab_, therefore, was
transformed, and combined with the stela of the ancient mastabas. The false
door of the olden time became a niche cut in the end wall, almost always
facing the entrance. Statues of the deceased and his wife, carved in the
solid rock, were there enthroned. The walls were decorated with scenes of
offerings, and the entire decoration of the tomb converged towards the
niche, as that of the mastaba converged towards the stela. The series of
tableaux is, on the whole, much the same as of old, though with certain
noteworthy additions. The funeral procession, and the scene where the
deceased enters into possession of his tomb, both merely indicated in the
mastaba, are displayed in full upon the walls of the Theban sepulchre. The
mournful _cortege_ is there, with the hired mourners, the troops of
friends, the bearers of offerings, the boats for crossing the river, and
the catafalque drawn by oxen. It arrives at the door of the tomb. The
mummy, placed upright upon his feet, receives the farewell of his family;
and the last ceremonies, which are to initiate him into the life beyond the
grave, are duly represented (fig. 155). The sacrifices, with all the
preliminary processes, as tillage, seed-growing, harvesting, stock-
breeding, and the practice of various kinds of handicraft, are either
sculptured or painted, as before. Many details, however, which are absent
from tombs of the earlier dynasties are here given, while others which are
invariably met with in the neighbourhood of the pyramids are lacking.
Twenty centuries work many changes in the usages of daily life, even in
conservative Egypt. We look almost in vain for herds of gazelles upon the
walls of the Theban tombs, for the reason that these animals, in Ramesside
times, had ceased to be bred in