426 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XVI. 



expense they were pleased to incur, " it was 

 placed in a room of the house, upright against the 

 wall,'* until the tomb was ready, and all the neces- 

 sary preparations had been made for the funeral. 

 The coffin or mummy case was then " carried 

 forth," and deposited in the hearse, drawn upon a 

 sledge, as already described, to the sacred lake of 

 the nome ; notice having been previously given to 

 the judges, and a public announcement made of 

 the appointed day. " Forty-two judges having 

 been summoned, and placed in a semicircle, near 

 the banks of the lake, a boat was brought up, 

 provided expressly for the occasion, under the 

 direction of a boatman called, in the Egyptian lan- 

 guage, . Charon ; " and it is from hence," says 

 Diodorus*, " that the fable of Hades is said to be 

 derived, which Orpheus introduced into Greece. 

 For while in Egypt he had witnessed this cere- 

 mony, and he imitated a portion of it, and sup- 

 plied the rest from his own imagination." 



'* When the boat was ready for the reception 

 of the coffin t, it was lawful for any person wlio 

 thought proper to bring forward his accusation 

 against the deceased. If it could be proved that 

 he had led an evil life, the judges declared ac- 

 cordingly, and the body was deprived of the ac- 

 customed sepulture ; but if the accuser failed to 

 establish what he advanced, he was subject to the 



* Dioilor. i. 92. 



■f- Diodorus (i. 72.) says lliat the cofliii of a king was placed in the 

 vestibule of the tomb when awaiting this sentence. Vide supra. Vol. I 

 p. 257. 



