inspection, the finest linen, and amulets of malachite, and
lapis-lazuli, of blood-stone, carnelian and green felspar, as well as
the most elegant alabaster canopi for the deceased; his body was to be
enclosed first in a sort of case of papier-mache, and then in a wooden
and a stone coffin. They wrote his name on a wax tablet which was ready
for the purpose, with those of his parents, his wife and children,
and all his titles; they ordered what verses should be written on his
coffin, what on the papyrus-rolls to be enclosed in it, and what should
be set out above his name. With regard to the inscription on the walls
of the tomb, the pedestal of the statue to be placed there and the face
of the stele--[Stone tablet with round pediment.]--to be erected in it,
yet further particulars would be given; a priest of the temple of
Seti was charged to write them, and to draw up a catalogue of the rich
offerings of the survivors. The last could be done later, when, after
the division of the property, the amount of the fortune he had left
could be ascertained. The mere mummifying of the body with the finest
oils and essences, cloths, amulets, and cases, would cost a talent of
silver, without the stone sarcophagus.

The widow wore a long mourning robe, her forehead was lightly daubed
with Nile-mud, and in the midst of her chaffering with the functionaries
of the embalming-house, whose prices she complained of as enormous and
rapacious, from time to time she broke out into a loud wail of grief--as
the occasion demanded.

More modest citizens finished their commissions sooner, though it was
not unusual for the income of a whole year to be sacrificed for the
embalming of the head of a household--the father or the mother of a
family. The mummifying of the poor was cheap, and that of the poorest
had to be provided by the kolchytes as a tribute to the king, to whom
also they were obliged to pay a tax in linen from their looms.

This place of business was carefully separated from the rest of the
establishment, which none but those who were engaged in the processes
carried on there were on any account permitted to enter. The kolchytes
formed a closely-limited guild at the head of which stood a certain
number of priests, and from among them the masters of the many
thousand members were chosen. This guild was highly respected, even the
taricheutes, who were entrusted with the actual work of embalming, could
venture to mix with the other ci