478 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XVI. 



throwing her arms round the feet of the mummy, 

 with this appropriate legend, " I embrace thy 

 feet ;" at once explanatory of, and explained by, 

 the action of the Goddess. A long line of hiero- 

 glyphics, extending down the front, usually con- 

 tained the name and quality of the deceased, and 

 the offerings presented for him to the Gods ; and 

 transverse bands frequently repeated the former, 

 with similar donations to other Deities. But as the 

 arrangement and character of these sacred orna- 

 ments vary in nearly all the specimens of mummies, 

 it would be tedious to introduce more than a general 

 notion of their character. Even the cartonage and 

 different cases of the same mummy differ in all ex- 

 cept the name and description of the deceased ; 

 and the figure of Netpe is sometimes replaced by 

 a winged Sun, or a scarab. This Goddess, how- 

 ever, always occurs in some part of the coffin, and 

 often with outspread arms at the bottom of the 

 inner case, where she appears to receive the body 

 into her embrace, as the protectress of the dead. 



The face of the cartonage was often covered 

 with thick gold leaf, and richly adorned; the eyes 

 inlaid with brilliant enamel ; the hair imitated with 

 great care, and adorned with gold : and the same 

 care was extended to the three cases which suc- 

 cessively covered jt, though each differed from the 

 next; the innermost being the most ornamented. 

 Rich necklaces were ])laced or represented on the 

 neck of each, for all were made in the form of the 

 deceased ; and a net- work of coloured beads was 



