D'Athanasi, Giovanni; Salt, Henry [Editor]: A brief account of the researches and discoveries in Upper Egypt: To which is added a detailed catalogue of Mr. Salts collection of Egyptian antiquities (London, 1836)

122

INTERIOR OF THE TOMBS.

and stone figures in the form of the mummy to
which they belong. One of the idols or statues
of Osiris was comprised in our collections. (See
Cat. No. 23.)

On quitting this chamber we enter a corridor,
in which are mummies arranged in the same
manner as above described, and which we are
obliged to push aside in order to effect a passage.
Pursuing this corridor we come to other chambers
branching off successively to the right and left.
In a very large tomb are found as many as sixty or
seventy mummies, but not all of the same size and
quality, Out of the whole number perhaps ten or
a dozen may be worth exploring, containing pa-
pyri, Scarabsei and other valuables; the rest being
of the more ordinary quality embalmed with salt-
petre or cinders. In some of the latter, however,
a small Scarabeus or the representation of the
finger is sometimes met with. What is rather
unaccountable about these mummies is that they
are found sometimes two in the same case. For
what reason they were so placed it is difficult
to decide; it might have been in consequence
of the poverty of the relatives, or perhaps, more
probably, these bodies are those of the servants
of the family to which the tomb belonged.