42 ELLIOT SMITH, Distribution of Mummification. 



A certain magical value soon came to be attached to 

 the statue in the serdab. It provided the body in which 

 the ka could become reincarnated, and the deceased, thus 

 reconstituted by magical means, could pass through the 

 small hole in the serdab to enter the chapel of offerings 

 and enjoy the food and the society of his friends there. 



Dr. Alan Gardiner has kindly given me the following 

 note in reference to this matter : " That statues in Egypt 

 were meant to be efficient animate substitutes for the 

 person or creature they portrayed has not been sufficiently 

 emphasised hitherto. Over every statue or image were 

 performed the rites of ' opening the mouth ' — magical 

 passes made with a kind of metal chisel in front of the 

 mouth. Besides the up-ro ' mouth opening,' other words 

 testify to the prevalence of the same idea ; the word for 

 'to fashion' a statue (ms) is to all appearances identical 

 with ms 'to give birth,' and the term for the sculptor was 

 sdnk/i, ' he who causes to live.' " 



As Blackman (5) has pointed out, the Pyramid Texts 

 make it clear that libations were poured out and incense 

 burnt before the statue or the mummy with the specific 

 object of restoring to it the moisture and the odour 

 respectively which the body had during life. 



I have already indicated how, out of the conception 

 of the possibility of bringing to life the stone portrait- 

 statue, a series of curious customs were developed. Among 

 peoples on a lower cultural plane, who were less skilled 

 than the Egyptians in stone-carving, the making of a life- 

 like statue was beyond their powers. Sometimes they 

 made the attempt to represent the human form ; in other 

 cases crude representations of the breasts or suggestions 

 of the genitalia were the only signs on a stone pillar to 

 indicate that it was meant to represent a human statue : 

 in many cases a simple uncarved block of stone was set 



