the house of the embalmer," said the old man, after he had
selected a few large flints, to which, with crafty blows, he gave the
shape of knives, "and there I found three bodies in which I had to make
the eight prescribed incisions with my flint-knife. When the dead lie
there undressed on the wooden bench they all look alike, and the begger
lies as still as the favorite son of a king. But I knew very well who
lay before me. The strong old body in the middle of the table was the
corpse of the Superior of the temple of Hatasu, and beyond, close by
each other, were laid a stone-mason of the Necropolis, and a poor girl
from the strangers' quarter, who had died of consumption--two miserable
wasted figures. I had known the Prophet well, for I had met him a
hundred times in his gilt litter, and we always called him Rui, the
rich. I did my duty by all three, I was driven away with the usual
stoning, and then I arranged the inward parts of the bodies with my
mates. Those of the Prophet are to be preserved later in an alabaster
canopus,

[This vase was called canopus at a later date. There were four of
them for each mummy.]

those of the mason and the girl were put back in their bodies.

"Then I went up to the three bodies, and I asked myself, to which I
should do such a wrong as to rob him of his heart. I turned to the two
poor ones, and I hastily went up to the sinning girl. Then I heard the
voice of the demon that cried out in my heart 'The girl was poor and
despised like you while she walked on Seb,

[Seb is the earth; Plutarch calls Seb Chronos. He is often spoken
of as the "father of the gods" on the monuments. He is the god of
time, and as the Egyptians regarded matter as eternal, it is not by
accident that the sign which represented the earth was also used for
eternity.]

perhaps she may find compensation and peace in the other world if you
do not mutilate her; and when I turned to the mason's lean corpse, and
looked at his hands, which were harder and rougher than my own, the
demon whispered the same. Then I stood before the strong, stout corpse
of the prophet Rui, who died of apoplexy, and I remembered the honor and
the riches that he had enjoyed on earth, and that he at least for a time
had known happiness and ease. And as soon as I was alone, I slipped my
hand into the bag, and changed the sheep's heart for his.

"Perhaps I am doubly guilty for playing such an accursed trick with the
heart