Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Duhichen.

At the far end, and set back into the western wall, is a huge quadrangular stele, at the foot of which is seen the table of offerings, made of alabaster, granite or limestone placed flat upon the ground, and sometimes two little obelisks or two altars, hollowed at the top to receive the gifts mentioned in the inscription on the exterior of the tomb.  The general appearance is that of a rather low, narrow doorway, too small to be a practicable entrance.  The recess thus formed is almost always left empty; sometimes, however, the piety of relatives placed within it a statue of the deceased.  Standing there, with shoulders thrown back, head erect, and smiling face, the statue seems to step forth to lead the double from its dark lodging where it lies embalmed, to those glowing plains where he dwelt in freedom during his earthly life:  another moment, crossing the threshold, he must descend the few steps leading into the public hall.  On festivals and days of offering, when the priest and family presented the banquet with the customary rites, this great painted figure, in the act of advancing, and seen by the light of flickering torches or smoking lamps, might well appear endued with life.  It was as if the dead ancestor himself stepped out of the wall and mysteriously stood before his descendants to claim their homage.  The inscription on the lintel repeats once more the name and rank of the dead.  Faithful portraits of him and of other members of his family figure in the bas-reliefs on the door-posts.

[Illustration:  010.jpg STELE IN THE FORM OF A DOOR]

The little scene at the far end represents him seated tranquilly at table, with the details of the feast carefully recorded at his side, from the first moment when water is brought to him for ablution, to that when, all culinary skill being exhausted, he has but to return to his dwelling, in a state of beatified satisfaction.  The stele represented to the visitor the door leading to the private apartments of the deceased; the fact of its being walled up for ever showing that no living mortal might cross its threshold.  The inscription which covered its surface was not a mere epitaph informing future generations who it was that reposed beneath.  It perpetuated the name and genealogy of the deceased, and gave him a civil status, without which he could not have preserved his personality in the world beyond; the nameless dead, like a living man without a name, was reckoned as non-existing.  Nor was this the only use of the stele; the pictures and prayers inscribed upon it acted as so many talismans for ensuring the continuous existence of the ancestor, whose memory they recalled.  They compelled the god therein invoked, whether Osiris or the jackal Anubis, to act as mediator between the living and the departed; they granted to the god the enjoyment of sacrifices and those good things abundantly offered to the deities, and by which they live, on condition