In addition to magical texts, there are also magical, or
symbolic, objects placed in the graves,--amulets of various
kinds which were to be used in the other world. Some of these
were simply the amulets used in daily life to guard against
sickness, bite of snake, and other earthly evils which were also
incident to the life after death. Other amulets, like the
so-called _Ushabtiu_, were to meet special conditions of the
other world. These _Ushabtiu_, or "answerers," were little images
of workmen bearing agricultural implements whose duty it was to
take the place of the dead in the fields of Earu when Osiris as
king called him to do his share of the field work. Even the king
appears liable to this service, and for him thousands of these
figures were made,--sometimes labeled each with the day of the
year. In a few cases there was even a charm written on the figure
to prevent it hearing the command of any one but its master.

Alongside these manifold manifestations of the belief in magic,
other furniture--implements, weapons, and utensils--are still
placed in the grave. The offering places are still maintained.
All burials are now extended on the back and wrapped in bandages.
Yet the common graves lack the receptacles for the viscera, lack
magical texts, lack ushabtiu, and--in a word--lack all those
things which are typical of the better-class graves of the
period. The conception of the future life among the common people
is apparently not essentially different from that of the Old
Empire. But the books of the dead and the offering formulas show
that the priests and high officials at death were called Osiris.

By the end of the Late Period the Osiris cult of the dead had