But as civilization progressed, the ideas of the Egyptians changed on these points, and in the later ages of the ancient world they were probably the most humane of the peoples, far more so than the Greeks, in fact.  The cultured Hellenes murdered their prisoners of war without hesitation.  Who has not been troubled in mind by the execution of Mkias and Demosthenes after the surrender of the Athenian army at Syracuse?  When we compare this with Grant’s refusal even to take Lee’s sword at Appomattox, we see how we have progressed in these matters; while Gylippus and the Syracusans were as much children as the Ist Dynasty Egyptians.  But the Egyptians of Gylippus’s time had probably advanced much further than the Greeks in the direction of rational manhood.  When Amasis had his rival Apries in his power, he did not put him to death, but kept him as his coadjutor on the throne.  Apries fled from him, allied himself with Greek pirates, and advanced against his generous rival.  After his defeat and murder at Momemphis, Amasis gave him a splendid burial.  When we compare this generosity to a beaten foe with the savagery of the Assyrians, for instance, we see how far the later Egyptians had progressed in the paths of humanity.

The ancient custom of killing slaves was first discontinued at the death of the lesser chieftains, but we find a possible survival of it in the case of a king, even as late as the time of the XIth Dynasty; for at Thebes, in the precinct of the funerary temple of King Neb-hapet-Ra Mentuhetep and round the central pyramid which commemorated his memory, were buried a number of the ladies of his harim.  They were all buried at one and the same time, and there can be little doubt that they were all killed and buried round the king, in order to be with him in the next world.  Now with each of these ladies, who had been turned into ghosts, was buried a little waxen human figure placed in a little model coffin.  This was to replace her own slave.  She who went to accompany the king in the next world had to have her own attendant also.  But, not being royal, a real slave was not killed for her; she only took with her a waxen figure, which by means of charms and incantations would, when she called upon it, turn into a real slave, and say, “Here am I,” and do whatever work might be required of her.  The actual killing and burial of the slaves had in all cases except that of the king been long “commuted,” so to speak, into a burial with the dead person of ushabtis, or “Answerers,” little figures like those described above, made more usually of stone, and inscribed with the name of the deceased.  They were called “Answerers” because they answered the call of their dead master or mistress, and by magic power became ghostly servants.  Later on they were made of wood and glazed faience, as well as stone.  By this means the greater humanity of a later age sought a relief from the primitive disregard of the death of others.