CHAP.XVr. MODE OF PLACING THE MUMMY. 423 



pit ; an affectionate hand often crowning it with 

 a garland of " immortelles,** bay leaves, or fresli 

 flowers * ; and depositing, as the last duty of a 

 beloved friend, some object to which while alive 

 he had been attached. 



I must mention one more subject portrayed in 

 the tombs, if not from its novelty, from the grouping 

 and character of the figures, t Three women and 

 a young child follow the hearse of their deceased 

 relative, throwing dust upon their heads in token 

 of grief; and the truth with which the artist 

 has described their different ages is no less striking 

 than tlie elegance of the drawing, — as well in the 

 aged mother, as in the wife, the grown-up daugh- 

 ter, and the youthful son. This picture afibrds a 

 striking confirmation of the conjecture that mar- 

 ried women were alone permitted to wear the ma- 

 gasees, or ringlet at the side of the face ; which, as 

 I have already observed 1^, was frequently bound 

 at the end with string, like the plaits at the back 

 of the head. The grey hairs of the grandmother, 

 shortened by age, still show this privileged mark 

 of the matron ; and its absence in the coiflt'ure of 

 the daughter indicates that, though grown up, she 

 had not yet entered the connubial state. The 

 child, less remarkable than the other three, is not 

 without its interest, as it fully confirms a statement 

 of Diodorus§, that " the Egyptians bring up their 

 children at an incredibly small expense, both in 



* Some suppose that tliese wreaths of xeranthemums and other 

 flowers were only given to unmarried persons. 

 f Vide my Materia Hierog., Plate 4. 

 t Vol. III. p. 370. § Diodor. i. 80. 



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