exist at the present day, and the
visitor has to climb the sandy slope as best he can: wherever he enters,
the walls present to his view inscriptions of immense extent, as well
as civil, sepulchral, military, and historical scenes. These are not
incised like those of the Memphite mastabas, but are painted in fresco
on the stone itself. The technical skill here exhibited is not a whit
behind that of the older periods, and the general conception of the
subjects has not altered since the time of the pyramid-building kings.
The object is always the same, namely, to ensure wealth to the double in
the other world, and to enable him to preserve the same rank among
the departed as he enjoyed among the living: hence sowing, reaping,
cattle-rearing, the exercise of different trades, the preparation and
bringing of offerings, are all represented with the same minuteness as
formerly. But a new element has been added to the ancient themes.

[Illustration: 405.jpg THE MODERN CEMETERY OF ZAWYET EL-MEIYETIN]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Insinger.

We know, and the experience of the past is continually reiterating the
lesson, that the most careful precautions and the most conscientious
observation of customs were not sufficient to perpetuate the worship of
ancestors. The day was bound to come when not only the descendants of
Khnumhotpu, but a crowd of curious or indifferent strangers, would visit
his tomb: he desired that they should know his genealogy, his private
and public virtues, his famous deeds, his court titles and dignities,
the extent of his wealth; and in order that no detail should be omitted,
he relates all that he did, or he gives the representation of it upon
the wall. In a long account of two hundred and twenty-two lines, he
gives a _resume_ of his family history, introducing extracts from his
archives, to show the favours received by his ancestors from the hands
of their sovereigns. Amoni and Khiti, who were, it appears, the warriors
of their race, have everywhere recounted the episodes of their military
career, the movements of their troops, their hand-to-hand fights, and
the fortresses to which they laid siege. These scions of the house
of the Gazelle and of the Hare, who shared with Pharaoh himself the
possession of the soil of Egypt, were no mere princely ciphers: they
had a tenacious spirit, a warlike disposition, an insatiable desire for
enlarging their borders, together with sufficient ability t