They are generally
very much like one another; the workmanship of the reliefs is fine, and
the portrait of the owner of the tomb is always in evidence.
Several of the smaller mastabas have lately been disposed of to the
various museums, as they are liable to damage if they remain where they
stand; moreover, they are not of great value to the Museum of Cairo,
but are of considerable value to various museums which do not already
possess complete specimens of this class of tombs. A fine one, belonging
to the chief Uerarina, is now exhibited in the Assyrian Basement of the
British Museum; another is in the Museum of Leyden; a third at Berlin,
and so on. Most of these are simple tombs of one chamber. In the centre
of the rear wall we always see the _stele_ or gravestone proper,
built into the fabric of the tomb. Before this stood the low table
of offerings with a bowl for oblations, and on either side a tall
incense-altar. From the altar the divine smoke (_senetr_) arose when
the _hen-ka_, or priest of the ghost (literally, "Ghost's Servant"),
performed his duty of venerating the spirits of the deceased, while the
_Kher-heb_, or cantor, enveloped in the mystic folds of the leopard-skin
and with bronze incense-burner in hand, sang the holy litanies and
spells which should propitiate the ghost and enable him to win his way
to ultimate perfection in the next world.
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