384f THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP.XVI. 



body, and bathing its feet with their tears, they ut- 

 tered those expressions of grief, and praises of the 

 deceased, which were dictated by their feelings on 

 so melancholy an occasion.* 



The priest who officiated at the burial service 

 was selected from the grade of Pontiffs who wore 

 the leopard skint; but various other rites were per- 

 formed by one of the minor priests to the mummies 

 previous to their being lowered into the pit of the 

 tomb, as well as after that ceremony. Indeed they 

 continued to be administered at intervals, as long 

 as the family paid for their performance; and it is 

 possible that upon the cessation of this payment, or 

 after a stipulated time, the priests had the right of 

 transferring the tomb to another family, which, as I 

 have already observed, the inscriptions within them 

 show to have been done, even though belonging to 

 members of the priestly order. 



When the mummies remained in the house, or 

 in the chamber of the sepulchre, they were kept in 

 moveable wooden closets, with folding doors, out of 

 which they were taken by the minor functionaries 

 to a small altar, before which the priest officiated. 

 The closet and the mummy were placed on a 

 sledge, in order to facilitate their movement from 

 one place to another ; and the latter was drawn 

 with ro})es to the altar, and taken back by the 

 same means when the ceremony was over. On 

 these occasions^ as in the prayers for the dead, they 

 made the usual offerings of incense and libation, 



* Vide also Plate 84. f Vide- Plate 83, 84. 



