1898.] 



on the Development of the Tomb in Egypt. 



773 



body, passed out through this door, why not give it some abiding 

 place in its own likeness ? And, to do this, what more natural than 

 to picture it in the doorway ? Such an image would be obviously 

 a suitable abiding place for the wandering immaterial ka, where it 

 could rest and be refreshed by the provision which was brought by 

 its pious descendants. Accordingly, a figure in relief was sculptured 

 in the doorway niche ; and in front of that the food was laid, and the 

 drink poured out into a trough of stone, on an altar of offerings 

 that was placed before it. 



The next step was to have a statue of the dead, so as to simulate 

 the living person most completely. The more indistinguishable it 



Fig. 4. — Tomb of Ka-aper, plan. Lower part is detail of upper plan 

 five times larger. So also in the following plans. 



was from life, the more happy the ka would be when inhabiting it. 

 Thus a grand impulse was given to the most realistic art and the 

 most expressive portraiture ; and it is to this requirement that we 

 owe the brilliant examples of Egyptian art that have come down to 

 us. This statue, however, could not be left in the open air before 

 a tomb, even in the Egyptian climate ; it was too much exposed to 

 injury, which would grieve and hurt the ka. So a little room was 

 added in front of the false door, with a niche in which the sentient 

 statue was preserved, as in the tomb of Ka-aper at Saqqara (Fig. 4). 

 Here also the statue of his wife was found, which is one of the 

 most life-like of these wooden figures that has been preserved to us. 

 Here the statue was safe, and tlic family could visit it, and lay their 

 Vol. XV. (No. 92.) 3 e 



