THE PYRAMIDS. 251 
abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceed- chap. 
ing mighty, and the land was tilled with them." ■ 
The customs of embalming bodies, and of 
placing them in sepulchral chambers, were 
then practised ; for Jacob* was embahued, and 
*' gathered unto his fathers in the cave of the 
field of Ephron.'' At the death of Joseph, he too 
was embalmed^ but not " gathered unto his 
fathers." He was entombed, to use the literal 
expression of the Septuagint^, ^ thi sopoi, in 
Egypt. And this mode of his interment sug- 
gests a reply to the second question before pro- 
posed. 
II. 
Is there any thing in the Pyramids^ as they now appear, 
which corresponds luith any of the known Customs of 
this People P 
The nature of a Soros has been repeatedly sepuichrai 
explained, upon the indisputable authority of the^PrBA- 
Inscriptions where this name has been assigned *^'°^' 
to a particular kind of receptacle for the dead, 
one of which now exists in the chamber of the 
principal pyramid. This kind of coffin has some- 
times one of its extremities rounded, and 
(4) Exod. L. 2. (5) Ibid. l. 26. 
(6) Ibid. L. 26. 
