2S8 On l/ie Origin of I he Pyramids (ifEgj/pf. 



empire was intrusted to him ; for Pharaoh said, " only in the 

 throne ivill I be greater than thou." (Gen. xU. 40.) In the re- 

 mote period, therefore, to uliich the Pyramids refer, " Jo^ep/i 

 duielt in Egpt, he and hisfother's house." It is said of them 

 (Exod. i. 7) that they " increased almndanlly, and muUipIied, 

 and luaxed exceeding mighty, and the land iv as filled with 

 them." The customs of embalming bodies, and of placing them 

 in sepulchral chambers, were then practised ; for Jacob ^yas 

 embalmed (Gen. 1. 2), and ^^ gathered nnto his fathers in the 

 cave of the field nf Ephron." At the death of .losepli, he too 

 was embalmed (Gen. 1. 26), but not " gathered nnto hisfathcrs." 

 He was entombed, to use the literal expression of the LXX, EN 

 THI SOPfll, in Egypt. And this mode of hi's interment sug- 

 gests a reply to the second question before proposed. 



II. 

 Is there any thing in the Pi/rarnids, as they now appear, irhich 

 corresponds tvilh any of the known customs of this people P 



The nature of a Soros has been repeatedly explained, u])on 

 the indisputable authority of inscriptions where this name has 

 been assigned to a ))articular kind of a rocejitacle for the dead, 

 one of whicli now exists in the chamber of the ])rincipal pyramid. 

 This kind of coffin has sometimes one of its extremities rounded, 

 and sometimes l)ot]i are squared ; but its dimensions are almost 

 always the same, and it is very generally moiiolitlial, or of one 

 stone. This is the kind of coffin which the Romans call sarco- 

 phagus, and any doubt as to its use seems to be without rca- 

 .son ; because the Soj'dS, in many instances, has borne not only 

 its name inscribed upon it in legible characters, but also the 

 purport for which it was intended. The ])riiicipal pyramid, 

 therefore, ccmtains that which corres])onds with the known cus- 

 toms of a people who inhabited Egypt in the remote period to 

 which the Pyramids refer, because .Joseph's body was put ev 

 TJ) Sogx. yVnd on this fact alone, if no other could be adduced, 

 the sepulchral origin of those monumentisis decidedly manifest. 



III. 



Did any thing occur in the history of the same people, which 

 can he adduced to explain the present violated state of the prin- 

 cipal pyramid P 



Previous to the consideration of this question, it may be pro- 

 j)er to mention, that the custom of Iieaping an artificial mound, 

 whether of btones or earth, above the Soros, after interment, was 

 a common practice of the ancients. Examples of this kind have 

 been prcviouslv alluded to in the former volumes of these Travels. 

 The niobt ancient fonn of thib kind of mound was not pyramidal. 



However 



