Page:Books on Egypt and Chaldaea, Vol. 25--Liturgy of Funeral Offerings.pdf/36

 21. Festival of Thoth,

22. Great Festival and Little Festival of ......

23. Great Festival and Little Festival of the Year,

It will be noticed that in the above list some seventy-three festivals are mentioned. The 1st, 6th, 15th, and one other day in each month were fixed festival days, and, if to these we add the other 25 festival days, we find that on an average every fifth day was a day of festival. We are, then, justified in assuming that offerings were made to the dead by well-to-do people about once a week, and at some seasons of the year oftener. In the lists of Festivals given in documents of later periods several other Festivals are mentioned, and during the most flourishing periods of Egyptian history the offerings in the tombs of kings and wealthy folk were renewed, wholly or in part, daily. Thus to feed the spirits of the dead who belonged to him was as much the duty of a pious man as to feed the living who depended upon him, and there is no doubt that, when the country was in a settled state, a regulated portion of the produce of each man’s estate was set apart for the dead.

From several Chapters in the Theban Recension of