438 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XVI. 



Joab " was buried in his own house in the wilder- 

 ness*" when slain by the order of Solomon for the 

 murders he had committed ; and the greatest se- 

 verity to which they usually exposed an individual 

 was to deny him the rites of burial. t 



A question might arise whether the Egyptians 

 positively prevented a king, thus rejected at his 

 public ordeal, from being buried in the catacomb 

 prepared for him, or, merely forbidding the celebra- 

 tion of the pomp customary on that occasion, con- 

 ducted his body privately to the sepulchre. But 

 the evidence of the sculptures, in one of the tombs 

 of the kings of Thebes, appears conclusive on this 

 point. The name of the monarch has been erased; 

 which shows that he was not admitted to the con- 

 secrated precincts of the royal cemetery ; and this 

 suggests that the same custom prevailed in Egypt 

 as with the Jews, of burying the kings rejected 

 by the public voice either in their own private 

 grounds, or in some place set apart for the purpose. 



It was not the dread of this temporary disgrace 

 wliich the Egyptians were taught to look upon as 

 tlie principal inducement to virtue : a far graver 

 consideration was held out to them in the fear of 

 that final judgment which awaited them in a future 

 state, where they were to suffer both for crimes of 

 omission as well as of commission, and where 

 nothing could sliield them from the just vengeance 

 of tlie Gods. The same doctrine is put forth in the 

 writings of PK^to, wlio, in his Seventh Epistle, says, 



* 1 Kings, ii. .'i4. 



f Ps.lxxix. 3. Jcr. xiv. Hi., aiul viii. 2., ;iud xvi. 4. 



