was
taken of the smallest sandy islet rising above the marshes, and there
a cemetery was founded. Where this resource failed, the mummy was
fearlessly entrusted to the soil itself, but only after being placed
within a sarcophagus of hard stone, whose lid and trough, hermetically
fastened together with cement, prevented the penetration of any
moisture. Reassured on this point, the soul followed the body to the
tomb, and there dwelt with it as in its eternal house, upon the confines
of the visible and invisible worlds.

Here the soul kept the distinctive character and appearance which
pertained to it "upon the earth:" as it had been a "double" before
death, so it remained a double after it, able to perform all functions
of animal life after its own fashion. It moved, went, came, spoke,
breathed, accepted pious homage, but without pleasure, and as it were
mechanically, rather from an instinctive horror of annihilation than
from any rational desire for immortality. Unceasing regret for the
bright world which it had left disturbed its mournful and inert
existence. "O my brother, withhold not thyself from drinking and from
eating, from drunkenness, from love, from all enjoyment, from following
thy desire by night and by day; put not sorrow within thy heart, for
what are the years of a man upon earth? The West is a land of sleep and
of heavy shadows, a place wherein its inhabitants, when once installed,
slumber on in their mummy-forms, never more waking to see their
brethren; never more to recognize their fathers or their mothers, with
hearts forgetful of their wives and children. The living water, which
earth giveth to all who dwell upon it, is for me but stagnant and dead;
that water floweth to all who are on earth, while for me it is but
liquid putrefaction, this water that is mine. Since I came into this
funereal valley I know not where nor what I am. Give me to drink of
running water!... Let me be placed by the edge of the water with my face
to the North, that the breeze may caress me and my heart be refreshed
from its sorrow." By day the double remained concealed within the tomb.
If it went forth by night, it was from no capricious or sentimental
desire to revisit the spots where it had led a happier life. Its organs
needed nourishment as formerly did those of its body, and of itself it
possessed nothing "but hunger for food, thirst for drink."[*] Want and
misery drove it from its retreat, and flung it back among the liv