of the family of the deceased,
crouched beside the shrine, poured forth lamentations, while two
priestesses, representing respectively Isis and Nephthys, took up
positions behind to protect the body. The boat containing the female
mourners having taken the funeral barge in tow, the entire flotilla
pushed out into the stream. This was the solemn moment of the
ceremony--the moment in which the deceased, torn away from his earthly
city, was about to set out upon that voyage from which there is no
return. The crowds assembled on the banks of the river hailed the dead
with their parting prayers: "Mayest thou reach in peace the West from
Thebes! In peace, in peace towards Abydos, mayest thou descend in peace
towards Abydos, towards the sea of the West!"

[Illustration: 017.jpg A CORNER OF THE THEBAN NECROPOLIS]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a stele in the Gizeh Museum.

This crossing of the Nile was of special significance in regard to
the future of the soul of the deceased: it represented his pilgrimage
towards Abydos, to the "Mouth of the Cleft" which gave him access to
the other world, and it was for this reason that the name of Abydos is
associated with that of Thebes in the exclamations of the crowd. The
voices of the friends replied frequently and mournfully: "To the West,
to the West, the land of the justified! The place which thou lovedst
weeps and is desolate!" Then the female mourners took up the refrain,
saying: "In peace, in peace, to the West! O honourable one, go in peace!
If it please God, when the day of Eternity shall shine, we shall see
thee, for behold thou goest to the land which mingles all men together!"
The widow then adds her note to the concert of lamentations: "O my
brother, O my husband, O my beloved, rest, remain in thy place, do not
depart from the terrestrial spot where thou art! Alas, thou goest away
to the ferry-boat in order to cross the stream! O sailors, do not hurry,
leave him; you, you will return to your homes, but he, he is going away
to the land of Eternity! O Osirian bark, why hast thou come to take away
from me him who has left me!" The sailors were, of course, deaf to her
appeals, and the mummy pursued its undisturbed course towards the last
stage of its mysterious voyage.

The majority of the tombs--those which were distributed over the plain
or on the nearest spurs of the hill--were constructed on the lines of
those brick-built pyramids erected on mastabas which were very