Uarda : a Romance of Ancient Egypt — Complete

by Georg Ebers

  CHAPTER XXII.

  At the time of this conversation the leech Nebsecht still lingeredin front of the hovel of the paraschites, and waited with growingimpatience for the old man's return.

  At first he trembled for him; then he entirely forgot the danger intowhich he had thrown him, and only hoped for the fulfilment of hisdesires, and for wonderful revelations through his investigations of thehuman heart.

  For some minutes he gave himself up to scientific considerations; but hebecame more and more agitated by anxiety for the paraschites, and by theexciting vicinity of Uarda.

  For hours he had been alone with her, for her father and grandmothercould no longer stop away from their occupations. The former must goto escort prisoners of war to Hermonthis, and the old woman, since hergranddaughter had been old enough to undertake the small duties ofthe household, had been one of the wailing-women, who, with hair alldishevelled, accompanied the corpse on its way to the grave, weeping,and lamenting, and casting Nile-mud on their forehead and breast. Uardastill lay, when the sun was sinking, in front of the hut.

  She looked weary and pale. Her long hair had come undone, and once moregot entangled with the straw of her humble couch. If Nebsecht went nearher to feel her pulse or to speak to her she carefully turned her facefrom him.

  Nevertheless when the sun disappeared behind the rocks he bent over heronce more, and said:

  "It is growing cool; shall I carry you indoors?"

  "Let me alone," she said crossly. "I am hot, keep farther away. I am nolonger ill, and could go indoors by myself if I wished; but grandmotherwill be here directly."

  Nebsecht rose, and sat down on a hen-coop that was some paces fromUarda, and asked stammering, "Shall I go farther off?"

  "Do as you please," she answered. "You are not kind," he said sadly.

  "You sit looking at me," said Uarda, "I cannot bear it; and I amuneasy--for grandfather was quite different this morning from his usualself, and talked strangely about dying, and about the great price thatwas asked of him for curing me. Then he begged me never to forget him,and was so excited and so strange. He is so long away; I wish he werehere, with me."

  And with these words Uarda began to cry silently. A nameless anxiety forthe paraschites seized Nebsecht, and it struck him to the heart that hehad demanded a human life in return for the mere fulfilment of aduty. He knew the law well enough, and knew that the old man would becompelled without respite or delay to empty the cup of poison if he werefound guilty of the theft of a human heart.

  It was dark: Uarda ceased weeping and said to the surgeon:

  "Can it be possible that he has gone into the city to borrow the greatsum of money that thou--or thy temple--demanded for thy medicine? Butthere is the princess's golden bracelet, and half of father's prize, andin the chest two years' wages that grandmother had earned by wailing heuntouched. Is all that not enough?"

  The girl's last question was full of resentment and reproach, andNebsecht, whose perfect sincerity was part of his very being, wassilent, as he would not venture to say yes. He had asked more in returnfor his help than gold or silver. Now he remembered Pentaur's warning,and when the jackals began to bark he took up the fire-stick,

  [The hieroglyphic sign Sam seems to me to represent the wooden stick used to produce fire (as among some savage tribes) by rapid friction in a hollow piece of wood.]

  and lighted some fuel that was lying ready. Then he asked himself whatUarda's fate would be without her grandparents, and a strange planwhich had floated vaguely before him for some hours, began now to take adistinct outline and intelligible form. He determined if the old mandid not return to ask the kolchytes or embalmers to admit him into theirguild--and for the sake of his adroitness they were not likely to refusehim--then he would make Uarda his wife, and live apart from the world,for her, for his studies, and for his new calling, in which he hoped tolearn a great deal. What did he care for comfort and proprieties, forrecognition from his fellow-men, and a superior position!

  He could hope to advance more quickly along the new stony path than onthe old beaten track. The impulse to communicate his acquired knowledgeto others he did not feel. Knowledge in itself amply satisfied him, andhe thought no more of his ties to the House of Seti. For three wholedays he had not changed his garments, no razor had touched his chin orhis scalp, not a drop of water had wetted his hands or his feet. He felthalf bewildered and almost as if he had already become an embalmer,nay even a paraschites, one of the most despised of human beings. Thisself-degradation had an infinite charm, for it brought him down to thelevel of Uarda, and she, lying near him, sick and anxious, with herdishevelled hair, exactly suited the future which he painted to himself.

  "Do you hear nothing?" Uarda asked suddenly. He listened. In the valleythere was a barking of dogs, and soon the paraschites and his wifeappeared, and, at the door of their hut, took leave of old Hekt, who hadmet them on her return from Thebes.

  "You have been gone a long time," cried Uarda, when her grandmother oncemore stood before her. "I have been so frightened."

  "The doctor was with you," said the old woman going into the houseto prepare their simple meal, while the paraschites knelt down by hisgranddaughter, and caressed her tenderly, but yet with respect, as if hewere her faithful servant rather than her blood-relation.

  Then he rose, and gave to Nebsecht, who was trembling with excitement,the bag of coarse linen which he was in the habit of carrying tied tohim by a narrow belt.

  "The heart is in that," he whispered to the leech; "take it out, andgive me back the bag, for my knife is in it, and I want it."

  Nebsecht took the heart out of the covering with trembling hands andlaid it carefully down. Then he felt in the breast of his dress, andgoing up to the paraschites he whispered:

  "Here, take the writing, hang it round your neck, and when you die Iwill have the book of scripture wrapped up in your mummy cloths like agreat man. But that is not enough. The property that I inherited is inthe hands of my brother, who is a good man of business, and I have nottouched the interest for ten years. I will send it to you, and you andyour wife shall enjoy an old age free from care."

  The paraschites had taken the little bag with the strip of papyrus, andheard the leech to the end. Then he turned from him saying: "Keep thymoney; we are quits. That is if the child gets well," he added humbly.

  "She is already half cured," stammered Nebsecht. "But why will you--whywon't you accept--"

  "Because till to day I have never begged nor borrowed," said theparaschites, "and I will not begin in my old age. Life for life. Butwhat I have done this day not Rameses with all his treasure couldrepay."

  Nebsecht looked down, and knew not how to answer the old man.

  His wife now came out; she set a bowl of lentils that she had hastilywarmed before the two men, with radishes and onions,

  [Radishes, onions, and garlic were the hors-d'oeuvre of an Egyptian dinner. 1600 talents worth were consumed, according to Herodotus. during the building of the pyramid of Cheops--L360,000 (in 1881.)]

  then she helped Uarda, who did not need to be carried, into the house,and invited Nebsecht to share their meal. He accepted her invitation,for he had eaten nothing since the previous evening.

  When the old woman had once more disappeared indoors, he asked theparaschites:

  "Whose heart is it that you have brought me, and how did it come intoyour hands?"

  "Tell me first," said the other, "why thou hast laid such a heavy sinupon my soul?"

  "Because I want to investigate the structure of the human heart," saidNebsecht, "so that, when I meet with diseased hearts, I may be able tocure them."

  The paraschites looked for a long time at the ground in silence; then hesaid:

  "Art thou speaking the truth?"

  "Yes," replied the leech with convincing emphasis. "I am glad," said theold man, "for thou givest help to the poor."

  "As willingly as to the rich!" exclaimed Nebsecht. "But tell me nowwhere you got the
heart."

  "I went into the house of the embalmer," said the old man, after he hadselected a few large flints, to which, with crafty blows, he gave theshape of knives, "and there I found three bodies in which I had to makethe eight prescribed incisions with my flint-knife. When the dead liethere undressed on the wooden bench they all look alike, and the beggerlies as still as the favorite son of a king. But I knew very well wholay before me. The strong old body in the middle of the table was thecorpse of the Superior of the temple of Hatasu, and beyond, close byeach other, were laid a stone-mason of the Necropolis, and a poor girlfrom the strangers' quarter, who had died of consumption--two miserablewasted figures. I had known the Prophet well, for I had met him ahundred times in his gilt litter, and we always called him Rui, therich. I did my duty by all three, I was driven away with the usualstoning, and then I arranged the inward parts of the bodies with mymates. Those of the Prophet are to be preserved later in an alabastercanopus,

  [This vase was called canopus at a later date. There were four of them for each mummy.]

  those of the mason and the girl were put back in their bodies.

  "Then I went up to the three bodies, and I asked myself, to which Ishould do such a wrong as to rob him of his heart. I turned to the twopoor ones, and I hastily went up to the sinning girl. Then I heard thevoice of the demon that cried out in my heart 'The girl was poor anddespised like you while she walked on Seb,

  [Seb is the earth; Plutarch calls Seb Chronos. He is often spoken of as the "father of the gods" on the monuments. He is the god of time, and as the Egyptians regarded matter as eternal, it is not by accident that the sign which represented the earth was also used for eternity.]

  perhaps she may find compensation and peace in the other world if youdo not mutilate her; and when I turned to the mason's lean corpse, andlooked at his hands, which were harder and rougher than my own, thedemon whispered the same. Then I stood before the strong, stout corpseof the prophet Rui, who died of apoplexy, and I remembered the honor andthe riches that he had enjoyed on earth, and that he at least for a timehad known happiness and ease. And as soon as I was alone, I slipped myhand into the bag, and changed the sheep's heart for his.

  "Perhaps I am doubly guilty for playing such an accursed trick with theheart of a high-priest; but Rui's body will be hung round with a hundredamulets, Scarabaei

  [Imitations of the sacred beetle Scarabaeus made of various materials were frequently put into the mummies in the place of the heart. Large specimens have often the 26th, 30th, and 64th chapters of the Book of the Dead engraved on them, as they treat of the heart.]

  will be placed over his heart, and holy oil and sacred sentenceswill preserve him from all the fiends on his road toAmenti,--[Underworld]--while no one will devote helping talismans to thepoor. And then! thou hast sworn, in that world, in the hall of judgment,to take my guilt on thyself."

  Nebsecht gave the old man his hand.

  "That I will," said he, "and I should have chosen as you did. Now takethis draught, divide it in four parts, and give it to Uarda for fourevenings following. Begin this evening, and by the day after to-morrow Ithink she will be quite well. I will come again and look after her. Nowgo to rest, and let me stay a while out here; before the star of Isis isextinguished I will be gone, for they have long been expecting me at thetemple."

  When the paraschites came out of his but the next morning, Nebsecht hadvanished; but a blood-stained cloth that lay by the remains of the fireshowed the old man that the impatient investigator had examined theheart of the high-priest during the night, and perhaps cut it up.

  Terror fell upon him, and in agony of mind he threw himself on his kneesas the golden bark of the Sun-God appeared on the horizon, and he prayedfervently, first for Uarda, and then for the salvation of his imperilledsoul.

  He rose encouraged, convinced himself that his granddaughter wasprogressing towards recovery, bid farewell to his wife, took his flintknife and his bronze hook,

  [The brains of corpses were drawn out of the nose with a hook. Herodotus II. 87.]

  and went to the house of the embalmer to follow his dismal calling.

  The group of buildings in which the greater number of the corpsesfrom Thebes went through the processes of mummifying, lay on the baredesert-land at some distance from his hovel, southwards from the Houseof Seti at the foot of the mountain. They occupied by themselves afairly large space, enclosed by a rough wall of dried mud-bricks.

  The bodies were brought in through the great gate towards the Nile, anddelivered to the kolchytes,--[The whole guild of embalmers]--while thepriests, paraschites, and tariclleutes,--[Salter of the bodies]--bearersand assistants, who here did their daily work, as well as innumerablewater-carriers who came up from the Nile, loaded with skins, found theirway into the establishment by a side gate.

  At the farthest northern building of wood, with a separate gate, inwhich the orders of the bereaved were taken, and often indeed thoseof men still in active life, who thought to provide betimes for theirsuitable interment.

  The crowd in this house was considerable. About fifty men and women weremoving in it at the present moment, all of different ranks, and notonly from Thebes but from many smaller towns of Upper Egypt, to makepurchases or to give commissions to the functionaries who were busyhere.

  This bazaar of the dead was well supplied, for coffins of every formstood up against the walls, from the simplest chest to the richly giltand painted coffer, in form resembling a mummy. On wooden shelveslay endless rolls of coarse and fine linen, in which the limbs of themummies were enveloped, and which were manufactured by the people of theembalming establishment under the protection of the tutelar goddessesof weavers, Neith, Isis and Nephthys, though some were ordered from adistance, particularly from Sais.

  There was free choice for the visitors of this pattern-room in thematter of mummy-cases and cloths, as well as of necklets, scarabaei,statuettes, Uza-eyes, girdles, head-rests, triangles, split-rings,staves, and other symbolic objects, which were attached to the dead assacred amulets, or bound up in the wrappings.

  There were innumerable stamps of baked clay, which were buried in theearth to show any one who might dispute the limits, how far each graveextended, images of the gods, which were laid in the sand to purify andsanctify it--for by nature it belonged to Seth-Typhon--as well as thefigures called Schebti, which were either enclosed several together inlittle boxes, or laid separately in the grave; it was supposed that theywould help the dead to till the fields of the blessed with the pick-axe,plough, and seed-bag which they carried on their shoulders.

  The widow and the steward of the wealthy Superior of the temple ofHatasu, and with them a priest of high rank, were in eager discussionwith the officials of the embalming-House, and were selecting themost costly of the patterns of mummy-cases which were offered totheir inspection, the finest linen, and amulets of malachite, andlapis-lazuli, of blood-stone, carnelian and green felspar, as well asthe most elegant alabaster canopi for the deceased; his body was to beenclosed first in a sort of case of papier-mache, and then in a woodenand a stone coffin. They wrote his name on a wax tablet which was readyfor the purpose, with those of his parents, his wife and children,and all his titles; they ordered what verses should be written on hiscoffin, what on the papyrus-rolls to be enclosed in it, and what shouldbe set out above his name. With regard to the inscription on the wallsof the tomb, the pedestal of the statue to be placed there and the faceof the stele--[Stone tablet with round pediment.]--to be erected in it,yet further particulars would be given; a priest of the temple ofSeti was charged to write them, and to draw up a catalogue of the richofferings of the survivors. The last could be done later, when, afterthe division of the property, the amount of the fortune he had leftcould be ascertained. The mere mummifying of the body with the finestoils and essences, cloths, amulets, and cases, would cost a talent ofsilver, without the stone sarcophagus.

  The widow wore a long mourning robe, her forehead was
lightly daubedwith Nile-mud, and in the midst of her chaffering with the functionariesof the embalming-house, whose prices she complained of as enormous andrapacious, from time to time she broke out into a loud wail of grief--asthe occasion demanded.

  More modest citizens finished their commissions sooner, though it wasnot unusual for the income of a whole year to be sacrificed for theembalming of the head of a household--the father or the mother of afamily. The mummifying of the poor was cheap, and that of the pooresthad to be provided by the kolchytes as a tribute to the king, to whomalso they were obliged to pay a tax in linen from their looms.

  This place of business was carefully separated from the rest of theestablishment, which none but those who were engaged in the processescarried on there were on any account permitted to enter. The kolchytesformed a closely-limited guild at the head of which stood a certainnumber of priests, and from among them the masters of the manythousand members were chosen. This guild was highly respected, even thetaricheutes, who were entrusted with the actual work of embalming, couldventure to mix with the other citizens, although in Thebes itself peoplealways avoided them with a certain horror; only the paraschites, whoseduty it was to open the body, bore the whole curse of uncleanness.Certainly the place where these people fulfilled their office was dismalenough.

  The stone chamber in which the bodies were opened, and the halls inwhich they were prepared with salt, had adjoining them a variety oflaboratories and depositaries for drugs and preparations of everydescription.

  In a court-yard, protected from the rays of the sun only by an awning,was a large walled bason, containing a solution of natron, in whichthe bodies were salted, and they were then dried in a stone vault,artificially supplied with hot air.

  The little wooden houses of the weavers, as well as the work-shopsof the case-joiners and decorators, stood in numbers round thepattern-room; but the farthest off, and much the largest of thebuildings of the establishment, was a very long low structure, solidlybuilt of stone and well roofed in, where the prepared bodies wereenveloped in their cerements, tricked out in amulets, and made ready fortheir journey to the next world. What took place in this building--intowhich the laity were admitted, but never for more than a fewminutes--was to the last degree mysterious, for here the gods themselvesappeared to be engaged with the mortal bodies.

  Out of the windows which opened on the street, recitations, hymns, andlamentations sounded night and day. The priests who fulfilled theiroffice here wore masks like the divinities of the under-world. Many werethe representatives of Anubis, with the jackal-head, assisted by boyswith masks of the so-called child-Horus. At the head of each mummy stoodor squatted a wailing-woman with the emblems of Nephthys, and one at itsfeet with those of Isis.

  Every separate limb of the deceased was dedicated to a particulardivinity by the aid of holy oils, charms, and sentences; a speciallyprepared cloth was wrapped round each muscle, every drug and everybandage owed its origin to some divinity, and the confusion of sounds,of disguised figures, and of various perfumes, had a stupefying effecton those who visited this chamber. It need not be said that the wholeembalming establishment and its neighborhood was enveloped in a cloudof powerful resinous fumes, of sweet attar, of lasting musk, and pungentspices.

  When the wind blew from the west it was wafted across the Nile toThebes, and this was regarded as an evil omen, for from the south-westcomes the wind that enfeebles the energy of men--the fatal simoon.

  In the court of the pattern-house stood several groups of citizensfrom Thebes, gathered round different individuals, to whom they wereexpressing their sympathy. A new-comer, the superintendent of thevictims of the temple of Anion, who seemed to be known to many and wasgreeted with respect, announced, even before he went to condole withRui's widow, in a tone full of horror at what had happened, that anomen, significant of the greatest misfortune, had occurred in Thebes, ina spot no less sacred than the very temple of Anion himself.

  Many inquisitive listeners stood round him while he related that theRegent Ani, in his joy at the victory of his troops in Ethiopia, haddistributed wine with a lavish hand to the garrison of Thebes, and alsoto the watchmen of the temple of Anion, and that, while the people werecarousing, wolves

  [Wolves have now disappeared from Egypt; they were sacred animals, and were worshipped and buried at Lykopolis, the present Siut, where mummies of wolves have been found. Herodotus says that if a wolf was found dead he was buried, and Aelian states that the herb Lykoktonon, which was poisonous to wolves, might on no account be brought into the city, where they were held sacred. The wolf numbered among the sacral animals is the canis lupaster, which exists in Egypt at the present day. Besides this species there are three varieties of wild dogs, the jackal, fox, and fenek, canis cerda.]

  had broken into the stable of the sacred rams. Some were killed, but thenoblest ram, which Rameses himself had sent as a gift from Mendes whenhe set out for the war--the magnificent beast which Amon had chosen asthe tenement of his spirit, was found, torn in pieces, by the soldiers,who immediately terrified the whole city with the news. At the same hournews had come from Memphis that the sacred bull Apis was dead.

  All the people who had collected round the priest, broke out into afar-sounding cry of woe, in which he himself and Rui's widow vehementlyjoined.

  The buyers and functionaries rushed out of the pattern-room, and fromthe mummy-house the taricheutes, paraschites and assistants; theweavers left their looms, and all, as soon as they had learned what hadhappened, took part in the lamentations, howling and wailing, tearingtheir hair and covering their faces with dust.

  The noise was loud and distracting, and when its violence diminished,and the work-people went back to their business, the east wind broughtthe echo of the cries of the dwellers in the Necropolis, perhaps too,those of the citizens of Thebes itself.

  "Bad news," said the inspector of the victims, "cannot fail to reachus soon from the king and the army; he will regret the death of the ramwhich we called by his name more than that of Apis. It is a bad--a verybad omen."

  "My lost husband Rui, who rests in Osiris, foresaw it all," said thewidow. "If only I dared to speak I could tell a good deal that manymight find unpleasant."

  The inspector of sacrifices smiled, for he knew that the late superiorof the temple of Hatasu had been an adherent of the old royal family,and he replied:

  "The Sun of Rameses may be for a time covered with clouds, but neitherthose who fear it nor those who desire it will live to see its setting."

  The priest coldly saluted the lady, and went into the house of a weaverin which he had business, and the widow got into her litter which waswaiting at the gate.

  The old paraschites Pinem had joined with his fellows in the lamentationfor the sacred beasts, and was now sitting on the hard pavement of thedissecting room to eat his morsel of food--for it was noon.

  The stone room in which he was eating his meal was badly lighted; thedaylight came through a small opening in the roof, over which the sunstood perpendicularly, and a shaft of bright rays, in which danced thewhirling motes, shot down through the twilight on to the stone pavement.Mummy-cases leaned against all the walls, and on smooth polished slabslay bodies covered with coarse cloths. A rat scudded now and thenacross the floor, and from the wide cracks between the stones sluggishscorpions crawled out.

  The old paraschites was long since blunted to the horror which pervadedthis locality. He had spread a coarse napkin, and carefully laid on itthe provisions which his wife had put into his satchel; first half acake of bread, then a little salt, and finally a radish.

  But the bag was not yet empty.

  He put his hand in and found a piece of meat wrapped up in twocabbage-leaves. Old Hekt had brought a leg of a gazelle from Thebesfor Uarda, and he now saw that the women had put a piece of it into hislittle sack for his refreshment. He looked at the gift with emotion, buthe did not venture to touch it, for he felt as if in doing so he shouldbe robbing the sick girl. While
eating the bread and the radish hecontemplated the piece of meat as if it were some costly jewel, and whena fly dared to settle on it he drove it off indignantly.

  At last he tasted the meat, and thought of many former noon-day meals,and how he had often found a flower in the satchel, that Uarda hadplaced there to please him, with the bread. His kind old eyes filledwith tears, and his whole heart swelled with gratitude and love. Helooked up, and his glance fell on the table, and he asked himself how hewould have felt if instead of the old priest, robbed of his heart, thesunshine of his old age, his granddaughter, were lying there motionless.A cold shiver ran over him, and he felt that his own heart would nothave been too great a price to pay for her recovery. And yet! In thecourse of his long life he had experienced so much suffering and wrong,that he could not imagine any hope of a better lot in the other world.Then he drew out the bond Nebsecht had given him, held it up with bothhands, as if to show it to the Immortals, and particularly to the judgesin the hall of truth and judgment, that they might not reckon with himfor the crime he had committed--not for himself but for another--andthat they might not refuse to justify Rui, whom he had robbed of hisheart.

  While he thus lifted his soul in devotion, matters were getting warmoutside the dissecting room. He thought he heard his name spoken, andscarcely had he raised his head to listen when a taricheut came in anddesired him to follow him.

  In front of the rooms, filled with resinous odors and incense, in whichthe actual process of embalming was carried on, a number of taricheuteswere standing and looking at an object in an alabaster bowl. The kneesof the old man knocked together as he recognized the heart of the beastwhich he had substituted for that of the Prophet.

  The chief of the taricheutes asked him whether he had opened the body ofthe dead priest.

  Pinem stammered out "Yes." Whether this was his heart? The old mannodded affirmatively.

  The taricheutes looked at each other, whispered together; then one ofthem went away, and returned soon with the inspector of victims from thetemple of Anion, whom he had found in the house of the weaver, and thechief of the kolchytes.

  "Show me the heart," said the superintendent of the sacrifices as heapproached the vase. "I can decide in the dark if you have seen rightly.I examine a hundred animals every day. Give it here!--By all the Gods ofHeaven and Hell that is the heart of a ram!"

  "It was found in the breast of Rui," said one of the taricheutesdecisively. "It was opened yesterday in the presence of us all by thisold paraschites."

  "It is extraordinary," said the priest of Anion. "And incredible. Butperhaps an exchange was effected.--Did you slaughter any victims hereyesterday or--?"

  "We are purifying ourselves," the chief of the kolchytes interrupted,"for the great festival of the valley, and for ten days no beast canhave been killed here for food; besides, the stables and slaughterhousesare a long way from this, on the other side of the linen-factories."

  "It is strange!" replied the priest. "Preserve this heart carefully,kolchytes: or, better still, let it be enclosed in a case. We will takeit over to the chief prophet of Anion. It would seem that some miraclehas happened."

  "The heart belongs to the Necropolis," answered the chief kolchytes,"and it would therefore be more fitting if we took it to the chiefpriest of the temple of Seti, Ameni."

  "You command here!" said the other. "Let us go." In a few minutesthe priest of Anion and the chief of the kolchytes were being carriedtowards the valley in their litters. A taricheut followed them, who saton a seat between two asses, and carefully carried a casket of ivory, inwhich reposed the ram's heart.

  The old paraschites watched the priests disappear behind the tamariskbushes. He longed to run after them, and tell them everything.

  His conscience quaked with self reproach, and if his sluggishintelligence did not enable him to take in at a glance all the resultsthat his deed might entail, he still could guess that he had sown aseed whence deceit of every kind must grow. He felt as if he had fallenaltogether into sin and falsehood, and that the goddess of truth, whomhe had all his life honestly served, had reproachfully turned her backon him. After what had happened never could he hope to be pronounced a"truth-speaker" by the judges of the dead. Lost, thrown away, was theaim and end of a long life, rich in self-denial and prayer! His soulshed tears of blood, a wild sighing sounded in his ears, which saddenedhis spirit, and when he went back to his work again, and wanted toremove the soles of the feet

  [One of the mummies of Prague which were dissected by Czermak, had the soles of the feet removed and laid on the breast. We learn from Chapter 125 of the Book of the Dead that this was done that the sacred floor of the hall of judgment might not be defiled when the dead were summoned before Osiris.]

  from a body, his hand trembled so that he could not hold the knife.