Nature and Art, September 1, 18G6.] 
ON MUMMIES. 
99 
recorded above them. In a hieroglyphic table 
beneath was the “carte,” or bill of fare, of the 
wealthy proprietor. Sixty or seventy varieties of 
viands and liquors attest that the flesh-pots of Egypt 
were by no means despicable. Beef and veal — but 
no mutton — several varieties of venison, chiefly kid, 
live or six kinds of water-fowl, and pigeons, were 
the principal animal food. 
Tastes differ, but hyenas were eaten in the days 
of Cheops. As yet, however, the fowl and the 
pheasant were unknown, and no fish figures in the 
“ carte,” although the fisheries were in full activity 
and fish was salted and cured for inferior persons. 
There were many varieties of bread and biscuits, 
conserves of dates and other fruits, and abundance 
of vegetables. Onions were an aristocratic dish in 
those times of old. Wine of three or four kinds is 
mentioned, beer, and pure water. The rest of these 
coffins have lines of inscriptions — chapters of reli- 
gious books, themselves so old that they are cited 
in different versions — and have, some of them, 
running comments and esoteric explanations. Ask 
who wrote them, and the rubrics answer, Tliotli, or 
Hermes Trismegist himself, on some stone or slab, 
and left them in some nook or cranny for the 
orthodox Egyptians. 
As sycamore was indigenous— for Egypt, poor in 
trees, was the land of the sycamore — the coffins of 
that less costly wood were more decorated. The 
whole of them were covered with a layer of 
white stucco, having the inscriptions, frieze of 
utensils and architectural ornaments painted on it. 
The finest example of this kind of coffin is at Berlin, 
and it shows the perfection to which this kind of 
decoration was carried. No doubt these chests 
were mystical copies of that in which Osiris had 
been nailed down by Typhon and his associates. 
The most usual form of coffin, however, was that 
which, to judge from the one of Mencheres found 
in the third pyramid, was fashioned like the 
cartonage. The body was represented mummied in 
its bandages, with the face and head attire carved. 
V ariety is found in these, for some of the coffins of 
the 18th and 19th dynasties are quite flat behind, 
for the purpose of lying down on the floor of the 
tomb, while others, under the subsequent dynasties, 
are modelled in the shape of figures, and have a 
flat plinth from the nape of the neck to the feet, 
and a small pedestal beneath. Such coffins were 
evidently intended to be set upright, and in the 
scenes of the tombs are so represented. The last 
prevailed from the 26th dynasty, or about b.c. 700 
to the Christian era. The older fall into two 
classes — those of cedar ornamented on their covers 
and sides with incised inscriptions and the figures 
of a few deities. Those selected are Nu, or the 
Firmament, the wife of Seb and mother of Osiris, 
who received the deceased into her arms ; Anubis ; 
and the genii of the dead. The texts are chapters 
of the Ritual. The sycamore sarcophagi of this 
shape are painted like the rectangular ones, in 
bright and varied hues, and the distribution of their 
decorations resembles that of the cctrtonages. Sepul- 
chral deities, dedicatory inscriptions, chapters, 
mystical standards, and the deity Socharis, lord of 
the tomb, or the goddess of the West, inside the 
lower part or chest, and Nu, or the Heaven, inside 
the lid, are the prevailing pictures ; but other 
curious ones are sometimes introduced. A plani- 
sphere is painted inside the coffin of a high priest 
of Amen-Ra, instead of Nu, or the usual firmament. 
These coffins were often placed in two or three 
others. The outermost, being the largest and con- 
taining the other’s, are decorated more or less 
elaborately than the inner ones. The faces of these 
coffins are often carved out of dark sont, or acacia 
wood, the eyebrows inlaid with blue glass or porce- 
lain, the lids of bronze, the white of the eye of ivory 
of the hippopotamus, and the pupils of obsidian. The 
beards are sometimes of ebony, at others inlaid with 
blue glass. The hands occasionally are carved of 
separate pieces, and emerge from the mummied 
form. The sarcophagi either follow the above 
types, or else are large chests, rounded at the head, 
with covers representing faces. The royal ones, 
which transcend all others hi magnificence, are of 
granite, breccia, alabaster, and marble. The favourite 
subject is the passage of the Sun through the hours 
of the night in the Egyptian purgatory, and the 
destiny of the soul. At the Roman period the 
coffin entirely changed in shape, the mummies were 
laid on a flat board, the cover was vaulted with 
upright posts at the four corners. Greek zodiacs, 
the hours of the day and night, scenes of the Great 
J udgment, and various deities of the later Pantheon. 
The whole is often surmounted by the hawk of Ra. 
The board on which the mummy lies has often 
Athor, Venus, Nu, or Rhea. 
We may speak hereafter of the 
other objects which accom- 
panied the mummy, the subjects 
of the tombs, the dogma of the 
immortality of the soul, and 
fate of the body. 
The accompanying woodcut 
and coloured plate * represent 
the lid of the coffin of a priest 
named Pakhratharaubsh, son of 
Nahamkhuns. He was incense 
bearer of the temple of Khons, 
or the Moon, at Thebes, and 
probably lived at the close of 
the 20th or beginning of the 
subsequent dynasty, about B.c. 
1000. The coffin is a splendid 
example of the period, and ex- 
hibits the principal peculiarities 
of the class. The handsome 
head-dress, collar, and bracelets are elaborately 
painted in detail. On the throat is the Ibis, or bird 
of Thoth, with the ostrich feather, emblem of that 
fmd as ‘ declarer of Truth.’ The seated crocodile and 
o 
liippopotamic deities on the shoulders are selected 
from those who preside over the halls of the Aahlu, 
* The woodcut gives a bird’s-eye view of the coffin lid ; 
the coloured plate shows also its sides and that part of the 
ornamentation which extends on to them. 
2 
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