Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 1.djvu/233

 Sepulchral Architecture. 143 repasts which took place periodically in the tomb, of which he had his share. The first of these feasts was given upon the con- clusion of the funeral ceremonies,^ and they were repeated from year to year on days fixed by tradition and sometimes by the expressed wish of the deceased. ^ An open and public chamber was contrived in the tomb for the celebration of these anni- versaries. It was a kind of chapel, or, perhaps, to speak more accurately, a saloon in w^hich all the relations and friends of the deceased could find room. At the foot of the stele upon which the dead man was represented sacrificing to Osiris, the god of the dead, was placed a table for offerings, upon which the share intended for the double was deposited and the libations poured. A conduit was reserved in the thickness of the wall by which the odour of the roast meats and perfumed fruits and the smoke of the incense might reach the concealed statues.^ The Egyptians did not trust only to the piety of their descend- ants to preserve them from a final death by inanition in their neglected tombs. At the end of a few generations that piety might grow cold and relax its care ; besides, a family might become the sycamore, corn, cakes, &:c. See the Catalogue oi Passalacqua, pp. 123, 157, and elsewhere. Quarters of meat have also been found in them, which are easily recognised by their well-preserved bones. 1 Maspero, Etudes sur quelques Peintures funeraires, in the Journal Asiatique, May-June, 1880, p. 387, et seq. ^ In one of the great inscriptions at Beni Hassan, recently translated anew both by M. Maspero and Professor Birch, Chnoumhotep speaks thus: "I caused to prosper the name of my father. I completed the existing temples of the Ka. I served my statues at the great temples. I sacrificed to them their food, bread, beer, water, vegetables, pure herbs. My priest has verified (I chose a priest for the Ka, — Maspero). I procured them from the irrigation of my work-people (I made him master of fields and slaves, — Maspero). I ordered the sepulchral offerings of bread, beer, cattle, fowl, in all the festivals of Karneter, at the festivals of the beginning of the year, the opening of the year, increase of the year, diminution of the year (little year, — Brugsch and Maspero), close of the year, at the great festival, at the festival of the great burning, at the festival of the lesser burning, the five intercalary days, at the festival of bread making (of the entry of grain, — Maspero) at the twelve monthly and half monthly festivals, all the festivals on the earth (plain), terminating on the hill (of Anubis). But should my sepulchral priest or men conduct them wrongly may he not exist, nor his son in his place." — Birch, Records of the Past, vol. xii. p. 71.— Ed. ^ In each opening of the serdab in the tomb of Ti, at Sakkarah, people, pro- bably relatives of the deceased, are represented in the act of burning incense in a contrivance which resembles in form the 6v/xLaTr]pLov of the Greek monuments. (Mariette, Notice des priiicipaux Mofiuiiicnis de Boulah, p. 27, note i.)