Take thy pleasure to-day,
      Father!  Holy One!  See,
    Spices and fragrant oils,
      Father, we bring to thee. 
    On thy sister’s bosom and arms
      Wreaths of lotus we place;
    On thy sister, dear to thy heart,
      Aye sitting before thy face. 
    Sound the song; let music be played
    And let cares behind thee be laid.

    Take thy pleasure to-day;
      Mind thee of joy and delight! 
    Soon life’s pilgrimage ends,
      And we pass to Silence and Night. 
    Patriarch perfect and pure,
      Nefer-hotep, blessed one!  Thou
    Didst finish thy course upon earth,
      And art with the blessed ones now. 
    Men pass to the Silent Shore,
    And their place doth know them no more.

    They are as they never had been,
      Since the sun went forth upon high;
    They sit on the banks of the stream
      That floweth in stillness by. 
    Thy soul is among them; thou
      Dost drink of the sacred tide,
    Having the wish of thy heart—­
      At peace ever since thou hast died. 
    Give bread to the man who is poor,
    And thy name shall be blest evermore.

* * * * *

    Take thy pleasure to-day,
      Nefer-hotep, blessed and pure. 
    What availed thee thy other buildings? 
      Of thy tomb alone thou art sure. 
    On the earth thou hast nought beside,
      Nought of thee else is remaining;
    And when thou wentest below,
      Thy last sip of life thou wert draining. 
    Even they who have millions to spend,
    Find that life comes at last to an end.

    Let all, then, think of the day
      Of departure without returning—­
    ’Twill then be well to have lived,
      All sin and injustice spurning. 
    For he who has loved the right,
      In the hour that none can flee,
    Enters upon the delight
      Of a glad eternity. 
    Give freely from out thy store,
    And thou shalt be blest evermore.

On the other hand, there is evidence of a lightsome, joyous, and even frolic spirit as pervading numbers, especially among the lower classes of the Egyptians.  “Traverse Egypt,” says a writer who knows more of the ancient country than almost any other living person, “examine the scenes sculptured or painted on the walls of the chapels attached to tombs, consult the inscriptions graven on the rocks or traced with ink on the papyrus rolls, and you will be compelled to modify your mistaken notion of the Egyptians being a nation of philosophers.  I defy you to find anything more gay, more amusing, more freshly simple, than this good-natured Egyptian people, which was fond of life and felt a profound pleasure in its existence.  Far from desiring death, they addressed prayers to the gods to preserve them in life, and to give them a happy old age—­an