Egyptian belief and modern thought / by James Bonwick.

  • James Bonwick
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Egyptian belief and modern thought / by James Bonwick. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    23/474 (page 9)
    Mr. Gliddon, the American Egyptologist, describes the interior of the mastaba. “The scenes of ordinary life,” he says, “ were painted on the walls. Study, gymnastics, feasts, banquets, wars, sacrifices, death and burial are all faithfully delineated in these sepulchral illustrations of manners, which are often epic in their character. You have the song with which the Egyptian enlivened his labours in the field ; the anthem that when living he offered to his Creator, and the death wail that accompanied his body to the grave. Every condition, every act, every trade, figures in this picturesque encyclopedia—from the monarch, priest and warrior, to the artizan and herdsman. Then, these little tombs are real museums of antiquities,— utensils, toilet tables, inkstands, pens, books, the incense- bearers, and smelling bottles are found in them. The wheat which the Egyptian ate, the fruit that adorned his dessert table, peas, beans, and barley ; the eggs, the desic- cated remains of the very milk he once used for his break- fast, even the trussed and roasted goose of which the guests at his wake had partaken.” The Table of Offerings is the most important object of regard. This is seen in the earliest tombs yet discovered in Egypt. Of stone, and often highly ornamented, it stands to receive the offerings of friends visiting the tomb from time to time. Into this pleasant-looking chamber, always bright and cheerful in that sunny land, widows, widowers, orphans, and the childless came to deposit the token of remembering affection. The absent one was not lost. Below, far below, beneath the very feet of visitors, in the rock-cut chamber, lay the mummied remains. But there was something not to be buried and preserved. That something belonging to the deceased was the object of affectionate regard. The body had received the care which duty and love exacted. But