he would be annihilated.  The piety of the survivors found means, however, to avert this catastrophe.  By the process of embalmment, they could for ages suspend the decomposition of the body; while by means of prayer and offerings, they saved the Double, the Soul, and the “Luminous” from the second death, and secured to them all that was necessary for the prolongation of their existence.  The Double never left the place where the mummy reposed:  but the Soul and the “Khu” went forth to follow the gods.  They, however, kept perpetually returning, like travellers who come home after an absence.  The tomb was therefore a dwelling-house, the “Eternal House” of the dead, compared with which the houses of the living were but wayside inns; and these Eternal Houses were built after a plan which exactly corresponded to the Egyptian idea of the after-life.  The Eternal House must always include the private rooms of the Soul, which were closed on the day of burial, and which no living being could enter without being guilty of sacrilege.  It must also contain the reception rooms of the Double, where priests and friends brought their wishes or their offerings; the two being connected by a passage of more or less length.  The arrangement of these three parts[26] varied according to the period, the place, the nature of the ground, and the caprice of each person.  The rooms accessible to the living were frequently built above ground, and formed a separate edifice.  Sometimes they were excavated in the mountain side, as well as the tomb itself.  Sometimes, again, the vault where the mummy lay hidden, and the passages leading to that vault, were in one place, while the place of prayer and offering stood far off in the plain.  But whatever variety there may be found as to detail and arrangement, the principle is always the same.  The tomb is a dwelling, and it is constructed in such wise as may best promote the well-being, and ensure the preservation, of the dead.

[26] These three parts are (l) the chapel, (2) the passage, or shaft, (3)
    the sepulchral vault.  If the latter was below the level of the chapel,
    as in the time of the Ancient Empire, the communication was by a
    sloping or vertical shaft.—­A.B.E.

I.—­Mastabas.

The most ancient monumental tombs are found in the necropolis of Memphis, between Abu Roash and Dahshur, and in that of Medum;[27] they belong to the mastaba type (Note 12).  The mastaba (fig. 113) is a quadrangular building, which from a distance might be taken for a truncated pyramid.  Many mastabas are from 30 to 40-feet in height, 150 feet in length, and 80 feet in width; while others do not exceed 10 feet in height or 15 feet in length.  The faces are symmetrically inclined and generally smooth, though sometimes the courses retreat like steps.  The materials employed are stone or brick.  The stone is limestone, cut in blocks about two and a half feet long, two feet