Meanwhile, the priests, amid prayers, placed the body of the deceased in a rich closed litter. Eight stood at the poles of the litter; four took ostrich feather fans in their hands, others censers, and they prepared to go forth.
At this moment Queen Niort's ran in, and, seeing the remains in the litter, threw herself at the feet of the dead pharaoh.
"O my husband! O my brother! O my beloved!" cried she, carried away with weeping. "O beloved, remain with us, remain in thy house, withdraw not from this place on earth in which Thou art dwelling!" [Authentic.]
"In peace, in peace, to the West," sang the priests. "O mighty sovereign, go in peace to the West."
"Misfortune," said the queen, "Thou art hastening to the ferry to pass to the other shore! O priests, O prophets, hasten not, leave him; for ye will return to your houses, but he will go to the land of eternity."
"In peace, in peace to the West," sang the priestly chorus. "If it please the god, when the day of eternity comes, we shall see thee, O sovereign! For now Thou art going to the land which brings all men together."
At a sign given by the worthy Herhor, the attendants drew the queen from the feet of the pharaoh, and led her by force to her chambers.
The litter, borne by priests, moved on, and in it the sovereign, dressed and surrounded, as if living. On the right, and on the left, before and behind him, went generals, treasurers, judges, chief scribes, the bearers of the mace and the bow, and above all a throng of priests of various dignities.
In the courtyard, the servants fell on their faces, groaning and weeping, but the troops presented arms and the trumpets sounded, as if to greet a living pharaoh.
Between Memphis and the "Tableland of Mummies," lay a peculiar division of the city. All its buildings were devoted to the dead, and it was inhabited only by dissectors and embalmers.