the life of the soul.  The texts are of two kinds.  One kind—­of which there are the fewest—­ refer to the nourishment of the Double, and are literal transcriptions of the formulae by which the priests ensured the transmission of each object to the other world; this was a last resource for him, in case the real sacrifices should be discontinued, or the magic scenes upon the chapel walls be destroyed.  The greater part of the inscriptions were of a different kind.  They referred to the soul, and were intended to preserve it from the dangers which awaited it, in heaven and on earth.  They revealed to it the sovereign incantations which protected it against the bites of serpents and venomous animals, the passwords which enabled it to enter into the company of the good gods, and the exorcisms which counteracted the influence of the evil gods.  The destiny of the Double was to continue to lead the shadow of its terrestrial life, and fulfil it in the chapel; the destiny of the Soul was to follow the sun across the sky, and it, therefore, needed the instructions which it read on the walls of the vault.  It was by their virtue that the absorption of the dead into Osiris became complete, and that they enjoyed hereafter all the immunity of the divine state.  Above, in the chapel, they were men, and acted as men; here they were gods, and acted as gods.

[Illustration:  Fig. 141.—­Mastabat el Faraun.]

[Illustration:  Fig. 142.—­Pyramid of Medum.]

The enormous rectangular mass which the Arabs call Mastabat el Faraun, “the seat of Pharaoh” (fig. 141), stands beside the pyramid of Pepi II.  Some have thought it to be an unfinished pyramid, some a tomb surmounted by an obelisk; in reality it is a pyramid which was left unfinished by its builder, King Ati of the Sixth Dynasty.  Recent excavations have, on the other hand, shown that the brick pyramids of Dahshur probably belonged to the Twelfth Dynasty.  The stone pyramids of that group, which may be older, furnish a curious variation from the usual type.  One of these stone pyramids has the lower half inclined at 54 deg. 41’, while the upper part changes sharply to 42 deg. 59’; it might be called a mastaba (Note 35) crowned by a gigantic attic.  At Lisht, where the two pyramids now standing are of the same period (one of them was erected by Usertesen I.), the structure is again changed.  The sloping passage ends in a vertical shaft, at the bottom of which open chambers now filled by the infiltration of the Nile.  The pyramids of Illahun and Hawara, which contained the remains of Usertesen II. and Amenemhat III., are of the same type as those at Lisht.  Their rooms are now filled with water.  The pyramid of Medum is empty, having been violated before the Ramesside age.  It consists of three square towers (Note 36) with sides slightly sloping, placed in retreating stages one over the other (fig. 142).  The entrance is on the north, at about 53 feet above the sand.  After 60 feet, the passage goes into the rock; at 174