V. 
228 PYRAMIDS OF SACCARA. 
CHAP. Denon says', ^' It ivas a particular which they con- 
cealed with the utmost obstinacy T Maillet men- 
tions the same difficulty^. With regard to the 
different attitudes assigned by Maillet and by 
Pococke to the bodies of the rich and the poor in 
Egyptian sepulchres, it may generally be re- 
marked, that the more magnificent an Egyptian 
tomb is found to be, the more striking is the 
evidence it contains for the horizontal position 
of the body : witness the Soros of the principal 
pyramid of Dj'iza, and the Sarcophagi mentioned 
by Denon in the sepulchres of Thebes^. 
Upon the whole, therefore, as we cannot recon- 
cile existing facts with the common notion which 
has been derived from the text of Herodotus, it 
is more reasonable to admit that his meaning 
has been misunderstood, than that the text 
itself involves an error; that he alludes, in fact, 
to the position of the mummy in the private 
dwellings of those among the Egyptians who had 
no sepulchre for its reception. In their private 
houses the Egyptians placed the bodies upright. 
This we learn from Diodorus Siculus, who says% 
(1) Travels iu Egypt, Eng. Edit. p. 224. vol. II. Lond. 1803. 
(2) D^scr. de VEgijpte, toni. II. p. 22. a la Harje, 1740. 
(3) Voyage en Egypte, torn. I. p. 236. Paris Edit. 
U) Diodor, Sic. lib, i. c. 92. Jmsl. 1746. 
