Moreover, our impression of these tombs has been formed from the
monuments erected by kings, princes, priests, and the great and
wealthy men of the kingdom. The multitude of plain unadorned
burial-places which the scientific excavator records by the
thousands have escaped the attention of scholars interested in
Egypt from the point of view of a comparison of religions. It has
also been overlooked that the strikingly colored mummies and the
glaring burial apparatus of the late period cost very little to
prepare. The manufacture of mummies was a regular trade in the
Ptolemaic period at least. Mummy cases were prepared in advance
with blank spaces for the names. I do not think that any more
expense was incurred in Egyptian funerals in the dynastic period
than is the case among the modern Egyptians. The importance of
the funerary rites to the living must, therefore, not be
exaggerated.




II. SOURCES OF THE MATERIAL


With the exception of certain mythological explanations supplied
by the inscriptions and reliefs in the temples, our knowledge of
Egyptian ideas in regard to the future life is based on funerary
customs as revealed by excavations and on the funerary texts
found in the tombs. These tombs always show the same essential
functions through all changes of form,--the protection of the
burial against decay and spoliation, and the provision of a