[150] "It is so," says Mariette, "four times out of five." (Les Tombes de l'Ancien Empire, in the Revue archéologique, new series, vol. xix. p. 12).
[151] "In the further wall of the chamber, and invariably facing eastwards, is a stele." (Ibidem, p. 14.)
[152] Mariette, Abydos, vol. ii. p. 43.
[153] The tombs in the Arab Chain form, of course, an exception to this rule. The unusual circumstances which took them eastward of the river forced them also to neglect the traditional law.
[154] The symbolic connection established by man between the course of the sun and his own life was well understood by Champollion, who used it to explain the paintings in the royal tombs at Thebes. (See his remarks on the tomb of Rameses V. on the 185th and following pages of his Lettres d'Égypte, &c.)
[155] Upon the papyrus known as the Papyrus Casati, mention is made of a priest who is charged to watch over a whole collection of mummies.
"This is the list of bodies belonging to Osorvaris:—
"Imouth, son of Petenefhotep, his wife and children;
"Medledk, the carpenter, his wife and children;
"Pipee, his wife and children, from Hermouth;
"The father of Phratreou, the fuller;
"Aplou, the son of Petenhefhotep the boatman, his wife and children,
from Thebes;
"Psenmouth, the carpenter, his wife and children;
"Psenimonthis, the mason;
"Amenoth, the cowherd."
There are many more lists of the same kind. The above is cited from M. E. Le Blant (Tables égyptiennes à Inscriptions grecques, p. 6, 1875, 8vo.).
[156] See in the interesting work of Mr. H. Rhind (Thebes, its Tombs and their Tenants, London, 1862, 8vo.), the chapter headed A Burial-place of the Poor.
[157] Mariette, Tombes de l'Ancien Empire, p. 83. See also the great inscription of Beni-Hassan, the first lines of which run thus: "The hereditary chief ... Khnumhotep ... has made a monument for the first time to embellish his district; he has sculptured his name for ever; he has embellished it for ever by his chamber of Karneter; he has sculptured the names of his household; he has assigned their place. The workmen, those attached to his house, he has reckoned amongst his dependants of all ranks." [Birch, Records of the Past, vol. xii. p. 67.—Ed.] It was, no doubt, in order to conform to the Egyptian custom that Antony and Cleopatra commenced in their lifetime that tomb which Augustus ordered to be finished after their death (Suetonius, Augustus, 17). "To be laid to rest in the tomb which he had made for himself and furnished with every necessary was the greatest good which the gods could insure to an Egyptian. In Papyrus IV. at Boulak we find the following phrases: 'Be found with thy dwelling finished in the funerary valley: in every enterprise which thou meditatest may the morning when thy body shall be hid be present to thee.'" (From the French of M. Maspero, Journal asiatique, 7th series, t. xv. p. 165, note 1.)