“It would seem so at first sight,” conceded the professor. “As a matter of fact, they got a good deal of enjoyment out of life. That is, the wealthier classes did. It must be admitted that the life of the poorer people was hard, much like that of the coolies of China to-day. But those with more money seemed to have indulged in all the pleasures that money could buy. The paintings on the walls of the palaces and temples show them at banquets, at races, engaged in hunting, and in all manner of sports.”
“Why did they pay so much attention to their tombs, then?” asked Don.
“That was a result of their religion,” replied his Uncle Amos. “It was of the greatest importance that the body should be preserved after death. The Egyptians believed that every human being possessed a double that was a perfect duplicate of himself, and that the life of the double depended upon having a body to return to after its journey to the other world. If the double came back and found the body gone, it would perish. And the loss of immortality was too dreadful a thing to contemplate. That’s why they took so much pains to embalm the body.”
“Why did they have statues of the dead man in the tomb?” asked Don.
“That was to ‘play safe,’ as you would call it,” answered the professor, with a smile. “There was always a chance that the body might be destroyed. In that case, the next best thing would be to have a likeness of the dead man for the double to come back into. And in order that the double shouldn’t make a mistake, they painted the likeness of the man on the statue.”
“So that the double wouldn’t get in the wrong pew,” murmured Teddy, but taking care this time that he should not be heard by his elders.
“In the case of kings,” continued the professor, “there were usually several statues, so that if one were broken or stolen he would still have a chance for a future life.”
“What was the idea of putting the provisions in the tomb?” asked Don, giving Teddy a surreptitious poke.
“Because the Egyptians believed that the needs of the future would be very similar to those of the present,” was the reply. “The soul, or double, would need food and drink just the same as the person did here. So jars of water and plenty of bread and meat were placed beside the mummy.
“Then, too, the rich man would need servants to wait on him. So they made little statuettes that were supposed to go with the double and do his work. The double would need a barge or other kind of boat to ferry him over the holy waters to the Fields of the Blessed. That was the reason for the boat that you saw in the tomb of Tut-ankh-Amen.”