mission of each object
to the other world; this was a last resource for him, in case the real
sacrifices should be discontinued, or the magic scenes upon the chapel
walls be destroyed. The greater part of the inscriptions were of a
different kind. They referred to the soul, and were intended to preserve it
from the dangers which awaited it, in heaven and on earth. They revealed to
it the sovereign incantations which protected it against the bites of
serpents and venomous animals, the passwords which enabled it to enter into
the company of the good gods, and the exorcisms which counteracted the
influence of the evil gods. The destiny of the Double was to continue to
lead the shadow of its terrestrial life, and fulfil it in the chapel; the
destiny of the Soul was to follow the sun across the sky, and it,
therefore, needed the instructions which it read on the walls of the vault.
It was by their virtue that the absorption of the dead into Osiris became
complete, and that they enjoyed hereafter all the immunity of the divine
state. Above, in the chapel, they were men, and acted as men; here they
were gods, and acted as gods.

[Illustration: Fig. 141.--Mastabat el Faraun.]

[Illustration: Fig. 142.--Pyramid of Medum.]

The enormous rectangular mass which the Arabs call _Mastabat el Faraun_,
"the seat of Pharaoh" (fig. 141), stands beside the pyramid of Pepi II.
Some have thought it to be an unfinished pyramid, some a tomb surmounted by
an obelisk; in reality it is a pyramid which was left unfinished by its
builder, King Ati of the Sixth Dynasty. Recent excavations have, on the
other hand, shown that the brick pyramids of Dahshur probably belonged to
the Twelfth Dynasty. The stone pyramids of that group, which may be older,
furnish a curious variation from the usual type. One of these stone
pyramids has the lower half inclined at 54 deg. 41', while the upper part
changes sharply to 42 deg. 59'; it might be called a mastaba (Note 35) crowned
by a gigantic attic. At Lisht, where the two pyramids now standing are of
the same period (one of them was erected by Usertesen I.), the structure is
again changed. The sloping passage ends in a vertical shaft, at the bottom
of which open chambers now filled by the infiltration of the Nile. The
pyramids of Illahun and Hawara, which contained the remains of Usertesen
II. and Amenemhat III., are of the same type as those at Lisht. Their rooms
are now filled with water. The pyramid of Medum