r,
asperged the crowd with perfumed water; and behind him comes the hearse.

[Illustration: 012.jpg THE FUNERAL OF HARMHABI]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, after a coloured print in Wilkinson.
The cut on the following page joins this on the right.

The latter, according to custom, was made in the form of a
boat--representing the bark of Osiris, with his ark, and two guardians,
Isis and Nephthys--and was placed upon a sledge, which was drawn by a
team of oxen and a relay of fellahin. The sides of the ark were, as
a rule, formed of movable wooden panels, decorated with pictures and
inscriptions; sometimes, however, but more rarely, the panels were
replaced by a covering of embroidered stuff or of soft leather. In
the latter case the decoration was singularly rich, the figures and
hieroglyphs being cut out with a knife, and the spaces thus left filled
in with pieces of coloured leather, which gave the whole an appearance
of brilliant mosaic-work.*

* One of these coverings was found in the hiding-place at
Deir el-Bahari; it had belonged to the Princess Isimkhobiu,
whose mummy is now at Gizeh.

[Illustration: 013.jpg THE FUNERAL OF HABMHABI]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the coloured print in
Wilkinson. The left side of this design fits on to the right
of the preceding cut.

In place of a boat, a shrine of painted wood, also mounted upon a
sledge, was frequently used. When the ceremony was over, this was left,
together with the coffin, in the tomb.*

* I found in the tomb of Sonnozmu two of these sledges with
the superstructure in the form of a temple. They are now in
the Gizeh Museum.

The wife and children walked as close to the bier as possible, and
were followed by the friends of the deceased, dressed in long linen
garments,* each of them bearing a wand. The ox-driver, while goading his
beasts, cried out to them: "To the West, ye oxen who draw the hearse,
to the West! Your master comes behind you!" "To the West," the friends
repeated; "the excellent man lives no longer who loved truth so dearly
and hated lying!"**

** The whole of this description is taken from the pictures
representing the interment of a certain Harmhabi, who died
at Thebes in the time of Thfitmosis IV.

* These expressions are taken from the inscriptions on the
tomb of Rai

[Illustration: 014.jpg THE BOAT CARRYING THE MUMMY]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from p