ON PHYSICAL CHARACTERS OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 215 
filled with slabs of stone, packed in on edge, and in some cases a 
pavement of heavy blocks was laid in above. A few stone vases were 
occasionally placed in the shaft, and in one tomb a great numbér had 
been laid on the steps of the stair. The same arrangement was found 
by Garstang in a great tomb at Bét Khallaf. 
‘The portcullis consisted of a large flat block of stone with 
rounded edges, sometimes as much as 3 métres long and 1°5 métres 
wide, which fitted into a groove cut in the rock. It must have been 
lowered before the mastaba was built and chocked up so that its base 
was above the door of the chamber. Ropes were used to aid in 
lowering it; the channels cut by them were observed in one stone. 
‘The chamber opened either on the south or west, very rarely the 
north, never on the east. 
‘Tt was generally a small, rudely-cut cave, too small to hold a 
body laid at full length; this small rough chamber was the general 
rule, but the larger tombs have a series of chambers of a somewhat 
elaborate plan. 
‘On passing the portcullis in these we find ourselves in a broad 
passage, from which three or four chambers, probably magazines, 
open on each side. 
‘ A wide doorway at the end leads to a continuation of the passage, 
and this to further chambers, in which there is some variety of plan; 
but two features are constant. To the right—that is, to the 8.W.— 
is the actual burial chamber with remains of a single skeleton; in the 
S.-E. corner is a feature new in Egyptian tombs, and, surely, in any 
other tombs-——viz., a dummy latrine; north of this, in two cases, was 
a narrow chamber with rude basins carved in the floor—probably 
meant for a bathroom. The provision for the dead was evidently more 
thoughtful and complete than in later ages. 
“In all these underground chambers the antiquities found were 
somewhat disappointing. It is true that we did obtain a great number 
of bowls and dishes of alabaster, diorite, and other stones—indeed, an 
embarrassing quantity of them—also ewers and basins of copper, 
occasionally a wooden piece from a draughtsboard, a box or a bit of 
ivory inlay, and that the mud-seals on the vases were in three tombs 
inscribed with Kings’ names, thereby giving us our assured dates for 
the cemetery; but the ancient robbers had very different returns for 
their labour ; there had certainly been quite other classes of monuments 
of which no sample had survived. All the tombs except the very 
smallest and poorest had been robbed, and robbed, too, at a very early 
period: this was clear from the knowledge shown by the robbers of 
the construction, and the skill with which they penetrated to the burial 
chamber with a minimum of labour. Sometimes the earth inside the 
chamber had been passed through a sieve: this shows that the second 
robber had found some gold beads left behind by the first; he (the 
first one) would not need a sieve—he found the coffin and all the 
furniture lying clear. 
“We assume that there was a coffin in all cases—indeed, fragments 
were often found, but complete coffins remained in four tombs only, 
and these four of the poorest. 
‘They are short, with panelled sides and arched square-ended lid: 
