6. Predynastic burial exhibit in the Field Museum, with woman's body, naturally preserved, ca. 3700 b c , Naqada I. 71913 



priest living in Thebes visited the West Bank and a 

 ruined tomb. While there, he had a visitation from the 

 spirit of the tomb owner. The spirit had a complaint: 

 his tomb had collapsed, so that the wind blew through 

 it freely. The spirit asked the high priest to restore his 

 tomb, but he was not very optimistic, since he had got- 

 ten nowhere with requests to four previous tomb visi- 

 tors to restore it. The high priest, however, reassured 

 the spirit and agreed to relocate and rebuild the tomb as 

 well as reinstitute offerings for the spirit. 



It is interesting to see how such concepts contin- 



ued to survive, even into the period when Egypt be- 

 came Christian. Coptic monks often set up their 

 monastic cells in old, abandoned tombs that sometimes 

 contained mummies. In one story from a cycle dealing 

 with the Coptic fathers, a monk in such a setting strikes 

 up a conversaton with a mummy. In good Christian 

 vein, the mummy complains how its soul is suffering 

 the pains of Purgatory because the deceased had died a 

 pagan, and goes on to ask for the prayers of the good 

 monk. Once more, we see the typical Egyptian interac- 

 tion between the worlds of the living and the dead. 



7. Coptic monastery 

 showing, in background, 

 Wady el-Natrun, where 

 ancient Egyptians 

 obtained natron, a 

 principal ingredient In 

 mummification process. 



Frank Yurco photo 



20 



