252 THE PYRAMIDS. 
sometimes both are squared ; but its dimensions 
are almost always the same, and it is very gene- 
rally monoUtlial, or of one stone. This is the 
kind of coffin which the Romans caJled Sarco- 
phagus ' ; and any doubt as to its use, seems to 
be without reason; because the Soros, in many 
instances, has borne, not only its name in- 
scribed upon it in legible characters, but also 
the purport for which it was intended. The 
principal pyramid therefore contains that which 
corresponds with the known customs of a people 
who inhabited Egypt in the remote period to 
which the Pyramids refer, because Joseph's body 
was put £v r^ So^sy. And on this fact alone, if 
no other could be adduced, the sepulchral origin 
of those monuments is decidedly manifesto 
III. 
jyid any thing occur in the History of the same People 
which can possibly he adduced to explain the present 
violated state of the principal Pyramid P 
Previous to the consideration of this question, 
it may be proper to mention, that the custom 
(1) Jugustin. de Civil. Dei, I. xviii. c. 5, JuUiis Pollux, x. 150. 
(2) " Communion ergo sententia fuit, sepulchra fuisse Regum 
(Ptde Diodorum Sic. lib. i. p. 40, 41.) quod ex solio seu saudapila in 
jllis residua satis constat." Perizon. Orig. jEgypt, c. 21. p. 393. 
li. Bat. 1711. 
