from the body at the moment of the death-agony, and restored to him the use of his arms and legs.  As soon as the sacrificial slaughterers had despatched the bull of the south, and cut it in pieces, the priest seized the bleeding haunch, and raised it to the lips of the mask as if to invite it to eat; but the lips still remained closed, and refused to perform their office.  The priest then touched them with several iron instruments hafted on wooden handles, which were supposed to possess the power of unsealing them.

[Illustration:  023a.jpg coffin-lid]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by M. de Mertens.

[Illustration:  023b.jpg coffin-lid]

The “opening” once effected, the double became free, and the tomb-paintings from thenceforward ceasing to depict the mummy, represented the double only.  They portrayed it “under the form which he had on this earth,” wearing the civil garb, and fulfilling his ordinary functions.  The corpse was regarded as merely the larva, to be maintained in its integrity in order to ensure survival; but it could be relegated without fear to the depths of the bare and naked tomb, there to remain until the end of time, if it pleased the gods to preserve it from robbers or archaeologists.  At the period of the first Theban empire the coffins were rectangular wooden chests, made on the models of the limestone and granite sarcophagi, and covered with prayers taken from the various sacred writings, especially from the “Book of the Dead”; during the second Theban empire, they were modified into an actual sheath for the body, following more or less the contour of the human figure.  This external model of the deceased covered his remains, and his figure in relief served as a lid to the coffin.  The head was covered with the full-dress wig, a tippet of white cambrio half veiled the bosom, the petticoat fell in folds about the limbs, the feet were shod with sandals, the arms were outstretched or were folded over the breast, and the hands clasped various objects—­either the crux ansata, the buckle of the belt, the tat, or a garland of flowers.  Sometimes, on the contrary, the coffin was merely a conventional reproduction of the human form.  The two feet and legs were joined together, and the modelling of the knee, calf, thigh, and stomach was only slightly indicated in the wood.  Towards the close of the XVIIIth dynasty it was the fashion for wealthy persons to have two coffins, one fitting inside the other, painted black or white.  From the XXth dynasty onwards they were coated with a yellowish varnish, and so covered with inscriptions and mystic signs that each coffin was a tomb in miniature, and could well have done duty as such, and thus meet all the needs of the soul.*

* The first to summarise the characteristics of the coffins and sarcophagi of the second Theban period was Mariette, but he places the use of the yellow-varnished coffins too late, viz. during the XXIInd dynasty.  Examples of them have since been found which incontestably belong to the XXth.

[Illustration:  024.jpg the mummy Factory]