pure design and elegant
execution. The tomb of Rameses III. already points to decadence. It is for
the most part roughly painted. Yellow is freely laid on, and the raw tones
of the reds and blues are suggestive of the early daubs of our childhood.
Mediocrity ere long reigned supreme, the outlines becoming more feeble, the
colour more and more glaring, till the latest tombs are but caricatures of
those of Seti I. and Rameses III. The decoration is always the same, and is
based on the same principles as the decoration of the pyramids. At Thebes
as at Memphis, the intention was to secure to the Double the free enjoyment
of his new abode, and to usher the Soul into the company of the gods of the
solar cycle and the Osirian cycle, as well as to guide it through the
labyrinth of the infernal regions. But the Theban priests exercised their
ingenuity to bring before the eyes of the deceased all that which the
Memphites consigned to his memory by means of writing, thus enabling him to
see what he had formerly been obliged to read upon the walls of his tomb.
Where the texts of the pyramid of Unas relate how Unas, being identified
with the sun, navigates the celestial waters or enters the Fields of Aalu,
the pictured walls of the tomb of Seti I. show Seti sailing in the solar
bark, while a side chamber in the tomb of Rameses III. shows Rameses III.
in the Fields of Aalu (fig. 159). Where the walls of the pyramid of Unas
give the prayers recited over the mummy to open his mouth, to restore the
use of his limbs, to clothe, to perfume, to feed him, the walls of Seti's
catacomb contain representations of the actual mummy, of the Ka statues
which are the supports of his Double, and of the priests who open their
mouths, who clothe them, perfume them, and offer them the various meats and
drinks of the funeral feast. The ceilings of the pyramid chambers were
sprinkled over with stars to resemble the face of the heavens; but there
was nothing to instruct the Soul as to the names of those heavenly bodies.
On the ceilings of some of the Theban catacombs, we not only find the
constellations depicted, each with its personified image, but astronomical
tables giving the aspect of the heavens fortnight by fortnight throughout
the months of the Egyptian year, so that the Soul had but to lift its eyes
and see in what part of the firmament its course lay night after night.
Taken as a series, these tableaux form an illustrated narrative of the
travels o