[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, whose mummy is now at Gîzeh.
[Illustration: 013.jpg THE FUNERAL OF HABMHABÎ]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the coloured print in Wilkinson. The left side of this design fits on to the right of the preceding cut.
In place of a boat, a shrine of painted wood, also mounted upon a sledge, was frequently used. When the ceremony was over, this was left, together with the coffin, in the tomb.
** I found in the tomb of Sonnozmû two of these sledges with the superstructure in the form of a temple. They are now in the Gîzeh Museum.
The wife and children walked as close to the bier as possible, and were followed by the friends of the deceased, dressed in long linen garments,* each of them bearing a wand. The ox-driver, while goading his beasts, cried out to them: To the West, ye oxen who draw the hearse, to the West! Your master comes behind you! To the West, the friends repeated; the excellent man lives no longer who loved truth so dearly and hated lying!
**** The whole of this description is taken from the pictures representing the interment of a certain Harmhabî, who died at Thebes in the time of Thfitmosis IV.
* These expressions are taken from the inscriptions on the tomb of Rai
[Illustration: 014.jpg THE BOAT CARRYING THE MUMMY]