and half in blue, arms, sceptres, military batons, necklaces, scarabs,
vultures with encircling wings worn on the breast at festival-times,
chains, "Respondents," and the human-headed sparrow-hawk, the emblem of
the soul. Many of these objects were of wood plated with gold, others
of the same material simply gilt, and others of solid gold, and thus
calculated to excite the cupidity of the crowd. Offerings came next,
then a noisy company of female weepers; then a slave, who sprinkled at
every instant some milk upon the ground as if to lay the dust; then
a master of the ceremonies, who, the panther skin upon his shoulder,
asperged the crowd with perfumed water; and behind him comes the hearse.

[Illustration: 012.jpg THE FUNERAL OF HARMHABI]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, after a coloured print in Wilkinson.
The cut on the following page joins this on the right.

The latter, according to custom, was made in the form of a
boat--representing the bark of Osiris, with his ark, and two guardians,
Isis and Nephthys--and was placed upon a sledge, which was drawn by a
team of oxen and a relay of fellahîn. The sides of the ark were, as
a rule, formed of movable wooden panels, decorated with pictures and
inscriptions; sometimes, however, but more rarely, the panels were
replaced by a covering of embroidered stuff or of soft leather. In
the latter case the decoration was singularly rich, the figures and
hieroglyphs being cut out with a knife, and the spaces thus left filled
in with pieces of coloured leather, which gave the whole an appearance
of brilliant mosaic-work.*

* One of these coverings was found in the hiding-place at
Deîr el-Baharî; it had belonged to the Princess Isîmkhobiû,