The idea that the souls of the dead were ferried over to the Land of the Blessed by a righteous ferryman passed from the Books of the Dead into the literature of the Christian Egyptians, or Copts. Thus St. John Chrysostom tells us that our Lord gave to John the Baptist a boat of gold, which he was to use in transporting the souls of the righteous over the river of fire in Amente. This boat was provided with oars, to which lamps were attached. The oars, apparently, worked themselves under the direction of John the Baptist, and when the souls landed from the boat the lamps kindled themselves and lighted the paths over the roads of darkness until John brought the souls to the Third Heaven.1

THE SPIRIT HOUSE

THE religious literature of Egypt of all periods is full of statements concerning the occupation and enjoyments of the beatified, or glorious spirits," in the Țuat, or Other World, but in spite of their celestial delights the souls of the dead wished to have a settled place of abode, or house, on the earth. Chapter CLII of the Book of the Dead is entitled " Chapter of building a house on the earth,” and in the Vignette the

deceased is seen building a rectangular house, with a door in one end. From the text we gather that the god Nebt and the goddess Sesheta assist the deceased to carry out the command, which Anubis gave him, to build the house, and that Osiris himself will take care that the "honourable spirit" is provided with provisions in his house. The craving for a house on earth existed at all periods, and the primitive Egyptians had buried with them earthenware models of the houses in which they hoped to live in the Other World. Some twenty years ago a number of these models were found in Upper Egypt, and several typical examples were acquired by the British Museum. In one of these (B.M. 32609) the house is rectangular and stands at one end of a rectangular courtyard, has two rooms, each with a doorway, and the roof is approached by a stairway on the left side of the courtyard, on each side of which is a low wall. On the right side of the courtyard, in the corner by the house, is a stand with water-pots on it, of much the same shape as the stands that hold the large zîrs (water-jars) in modern houses in Egypt. Lying on the ground in front of the house are models of joints of meat, breadcakes, etc., and in front of these is a rectangular tank, which was emptied and filled by means of two small channels cut in the outside. border. This "spirit-house" and courtyard measure 15 inches by 14 inches by 7 inches.

1 See Budge, Coptic Apocrypha, pp. 347-49.

Model of a funerary boat with a mummy lying on its bier under a canopy; the figures of women at the head and foot of the bier represent Isis and Nephthys. XIIth dynasty. B.M. No. 9425.

Another example (B.M. 32610) shows the house standing on a plot of ground which is rounded on one side. The house consists of a single room and is entered through a rounded doorway; on one side of it is a square opening divided into two parts by a pillar, and the upper part of the framework is decorated with little roundels. On the right is a stairway leading up to the roof, where there is a small chamber, which was probably used for sleeping in; it has a doorway, and part of its roof is open. The roof is surrounded by a wall which is as high as the sleeping chamber, and is pierced in one place by a circular hole. Below this hole is a spout, which suggests that the hole served as an escape, or drain, for rain-water. The upper part of the wall below the spout bulges outwards, so that the water running from the spout might drop on the ground away from the foundation, and not run down the wall itself. In the courtyard are models of an animal bound for roasting, joints of meat, a water-pot resting on a circular base, bread-cakes, and a number of other articles which would be eaten, presumably at a festival. The deceased wished to have not only a house of the kind that he approved of, but also a good supply of food. This example measures 16 inches by 14 inches by 7 inches.

Another model (B.M. 22783) represents what may be described as two one-storeyed houses, separated by a common party-wall; even the courtyard is divided by a low wall. Each house has one large, lofty room on the ground floor, with an opening, or window, in the back wall, and one upper room, with one opening in the front wall and another in the back wall. Before the rooms on the upper floor is a wide ledge like the floor of a balcony, supported on a pillar standing in the courtyard and divided by a wall the height of the rooms. Access to the upper floor and to the roof was obtained by two flights of stairs, one flight on each side of the girdle-wall, and thus the occupant of each of these semi-detached houses was in every way independent of his neighbour. On the floor of each half of the courtyard are laid out groups of articles of food, and against the wall of each of the lower rooms rest the same number of jars of wine (?). It is probable that, when these models were placed with the dead, words of power were recited on behalf of the deceased persons which would enable them to command them to turn into full-sized houses whenever they had need of them.

B.M. 32611 is a model of a different class of building. Here we have a small pylon-shaped edifice standing at the rounded end of a walled enclosure, and its general appearance suggests that it represents the sanctuary of some god. Above the doorway, the sides of which are adorned with two pillars, are two square openings. Inside the building, set against the back wall, is a seat of state, or throne, with raised sides, which are now partly broken away, and this was reached by means of three steps. The walls of the shrine rise above the level of the roof, and form a protecting wall, against which models

of some kind of objects rest; a flight of stairs leads from the courtyard to the roof. In the centre of the courtyard is a rectangular garden (?), with a channel for water on all four sides; the water flowed into the channel on the right, and drained away by that on the left. On one side of the garden (?) lies an animal with large horns, and with his four feet tied together ready for sacrifice; on the other side are other offerings which I cannot identify. The front of the girdle-wall is adorned with four projections, two on each side of the lower portion of it, by which access to the enclosure might be obtained. This model measures 16 inches by 13 inches by 5 inches.

WANDS AND OTHER OBJECTS IN IVORY

AMONG the objects found in 1887 at Kûrnah, in Western Thebes, was the mummy of a woman, who was buried in a plain rectangular wooden coffin of the XIth or XIIth dynasty, and in the coffin by her side lay the ivory object which is reproduced on p. 469. This object is semi-circular and slightly convex, and has rounded ends; it is 143 inches in length and about 27 inches wide in its widest part. On each side of it, cut in outline, is a series of figures of gods and fabulous and mythological creatures. On the obverse are: a lion couchant, a serpent with a knife in front of him, the hippopotamusgoddess holding a knife, a god, full-faced, with long hair, grasping in each hand a serpent, the symbol of fire,, and a knife, —; a hawk-headed leopard, with a pair of wings between which is a human head, the solar disk,, the figure of a woman or goddess, holding in her right hand and a sceptre in her left, Ta-urt, a crocodile, a jackal-headed sceptre, with a knife, a cobra, fire,, a hawk, the solar disk,, a knife,, Ta-urt holding in her left paw a knife which rests on , the Utchat, and another knife and serpent. On the reverse are the figures of lions, serpents, knives, the full-faced god holding serpents, etc., and besides these we have: a serpent-headed god holding a serpent in each hand, the head of a ram, two crocodile heads, a beetle, the lion-god Aker (?), with a human head at each end of his body, a beetle, a lion with a greatly elongated neck, a frog, a lion with each of his four legs resting on an animal-headed sceptre with knife attached, and the goddess Ta-urt. A line of hieroglyphs on the obverse shows that this object belonged to “the lady of the house, Senbet,' (B.M. 18175).

Another example of this class of object is B.M. 24426, but it is only