CHAP. XVI. TRIAL OF THE DEAD. 427 



heaviest penalties. When there was no accuser, or 

 when the accusation had been disproved, the re- 

 lations ceased from their lamentations, and pro- 

 nounced encomiums on the deceased. They did 

 not enlarge upon his descent, as is usual among 

 the Greeks, for they hold that all the Egyptians 

 are equally noble* ; but they related his early 

 education and the course of his studies ; and then 

 praising his piety and justice in manhood, his tem- 

 perance, and the other virtues he possessed, they 

 supplicated the Gods below to receive him as a 

 companion of the pious. This announcement was 

 received by the assembled multitude with accla- 

 mations ; and they joined in extolling the glory of 

 the deceased, who was about to remain for ever with 

 the virtuous in the regions of Hades. The body 

 was then taken by those who had family catacombs 

 already prepared, and placed in the repository t al- 

 lotted to it. 



*' Some," continues the historian, ** who were 

 not possessed of catacombs constructed a new apart- 

 ment for the purpose in their own house t, and set 

 the coffin upright against the firmest of the walls : 

 and the same was done with the bodies of those 

 who had been debarred the rites of burial on ac- 

 count of the accusation brought against them, or 

 in consequence of debts they or their sons had 



* Vide siqira. Vol. I. p. 244. 



■f- This, ^//)c//, may allude to the stone or wooden sarcophagus, into 

 which the mummy case was placed, and which was probably conveyed 

 beforehand to the tomb. 



X Cicero says, " Condiunt ^gyptii mortiios, et eos domi servant.' 

 Tusc. Quaest. lib. i. 



