CHAP. XVI. BURIALS LONG AFTER DEATH. 389 



pense of the liturgies, certain collections* were 

 made to pay for their performance ; which being 

 deposited in the hands of the priests, added in no 

 inconsiderable degree to their revenues. And the 

 fact, as Dr. Young observes, ** that one moiety of 

 a third part of the collections for the dead (priests 

 of Osiris), lying in Thynabunun," when sold by 

 *' Onnophrisf, one of the servants of the Goddess 

 Isis," required no less than sixteen witnesses, 

 plainly proves the value of this privilege. 



Diodorus and the Papyri show that it was not 

 an uncommon thing to keep the mummies in 

 the house, after they had been returned by the 

 embalmers to the relations of the deceased, in 

 order to gratify the feelings which made them 

 desirous of having those they had loved in life 

 as near them as possible after death. Damascenius 

 states that they sometimes introduced them at 

 table t, as though they could enjoy their society ; 

 and Lucian, in his Essay on Grief, says that he was 

 an eyewitness of this custom. They were some- 

 times left in the house until the family could pre- 

 pare a tomb for their reception ; and the affection 

 of a wife or husband frequently retained the body 

 of a beloved consort, in order that both might be 

 deposited at the same time in their final resting- 



* Vide Dr. Young's Discov. in Hierog. Literature, p. 60. 69. 74. 

 ■j- Properly Ouonnofre. Vide siipiri. Vol. I. (2d Series) p. 320. 

 j Vide sujJra, Vol.11, p. 414. Silius Italicus also says, — 



" iEgyptia tellus 

 Claudit odorato post funus stantia saxo 

 Corpora, et a mensis exangiiem baud separat upibram." 



(Punicorum, lib. iii.) 



c c 3 



