DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12249#0194
153
TOMBS OP VARIOUS GRADES.
of form, or style, or workmanship. Again, the size and
appearance of the present example recall the account
given by Herodotus of the curious custom which he
states to have been in use after the banquets of wealthy
Egyptians. " A servant carries round to the several
guests a coffin, in which there is a wooden image of
a corpse carved and painted to resemble nature as
nearly as possible, about a cubit* or two cubits in
length. As he shows it to each guest in turn, the
servant says: f Gaze here, and drink and be merry;
for when you die such you will be.' "t But whether
this dainty little mummy-case had ever performed a
part in those not very lively episodes in good men's
feasts, or had been among the trade requisites of a
dealer in the trappings of woe — or whether the pre-
sence of it and others with the dead, had, indepen-
dently, some ceremonial significance, the motive for
the deposit of them, as of certain other sepulchral
paraphernalia, must remain purely conjectural, unless
some future documentary discovery shall afford a pre-
cisely explanatory comment on such observances.
About a couple of hundred yards nearer the out-
skirts of El Assasseef, a few fellah dealers in relics,
digging in partnership and by secret spells, as their
manner is, came upon another of the numerous well-
tombs in that locality, with more of its ancient con-
tents left by previous visitors than it is usual now
to find. They had almost finished their search before
* The Greek cubit was a little more than eighteen inches,
f Kawlinson's Herodotus, lib. ii. c. 7S.
TOMBS OP VARIOUS GRADES.
of form, or style, or workmanship. Again, the size and
appearance of the present example recall the account
given by Herodotus of the curious custom which he
states to have been in use after the banquets of wealthy
Egyptians. " A servant carries round to the several
guests a coffin, in which there is a wooden image of
a corpse carved and painted to resemble nature as
nearly as possible, about a cubit* or two cubits in
length. As he shows it to each guest in turn, the
servant says: f Gaze here, and drink and be merry;
for when you die such you will be.' "t But whether
this dainty little mummy-case had ever performed a
part in those not very lively episodes in good men's
feasts, or had been among the trade requisites of a
dealer in the trappings of woe — or whether the pre-
sence of it and others with the dead, had, indepen-
dently, some ceremonial significance, the motive for
the deposit of them, as of certain other sepulchral
paraphernalia, must remain purely conjectural, unless
some future documentary discovery shall afford a pre-
cisely explanatory comment on such observances.
About a couple of hundred yards nearer the out-
skirts of El Assasseef, a few fellah dealers in relics,
digging in partnership and by secret spells, as their
manner is, came upon another of the numerous well-
tombs in that locality, with more of its ancient con-
tents left by previous visitors than it is usual now
to find. They had almost finished their search before
* The Greek cubit was a little more than eighteen inches,
f Kawlinson's Herodotus, lib. ii. c. 7S.