"We give you," said the judges, on seeing them, "the body of our lord and yours. Do with it what the rules of religion enjoin, and omit nothing, so that the great deceased may not experience unquiet in that world through your fault."
The treasurer added,
"Use gold, silver, malachite, jasper, emerald, turquoise, and the most rare kinds of incenses for this lord, so that nothing be lacking that he may have whatever is best. I, the treasurer, say this to you. And if the wretch should be found who, instead of noble metals, gives counterfeit, and instead of genuine stones, gives Phoenician glass, let him remember that his hands will be cut off and his eyes dug out."
"It will be as ye wish," replied one of the veiled priests.
Others raised the litter and bore it to the interior of the district of the dead.
"Thou art going in peace to Abydos! Mayst Thou go in peace to the
Theban West. To the West, to the West, to the land of the just ones!"
The gate closed, the supreme judge, the treasurer, and the officials accompanying them returned to the palace.
The hooded priests bore the litter to an immense building where only the remains of pharaohs were embalmed, or those of high dignitaries who had gained the exceptional favor of a pharaoh.
The priests stopped in the antechamber, where stood the golden boat on wheels, and took the corpse from the litter.
"Look ye!" cried one of the cowled priests, "are they not criminals? The pharaoh died in the chapel of Osiris, so he must have been in ceremonial costume, while here oh! instead of gold ornaments bronze; the chain is bronze, too, and on his breast false jewels!"