of them are simply square cavities hewn out of the rock; others
are chambers, with one or more rows of niches in their sides to
receive the bodies of the dead; and frequently there • are several
of these chambers, communicating with each other. The roofs of
some are flat, of others vaulted, and some rise in domes over circular
areas. The walls of some are perfectly plain; those of others
are covered with insculptured hieroglyphics, adorned with bass
reliefs, or embellished with a profusion of painting and gilding.
Occasionally we meet with statues in them, as large as life, in
sitting postures, with hieroglyphics upon scrolls resting in their
laps, or upon the adjacent walls; probably the epitaphs of the
persons represented by the statues, and containing a brief chronicle
of their lives.
Neither were these places of sepulture confined to the reception
of human bodies. The ibis was embalmed with religious
care, enclosed in an earthen iim, and then deposited in a subterranean
vault. There are galleries of this kind forty or fifty feet
beneath the surface of the ground, in the sides of which are
several chambers filled with earthen vessels, each containing an
embalmed ibis enveloped with linen. Other animals held in veneration
by the egyptians were embalmed and inhumed in a
similar manner.
In some of these subterranean grottoes, as well as in the pyramids,
sarcophagi are found; and there is a very curious one at
Cairo made of basaltes, a delineation of which is here given, from
the hieroglyphics on it evidently of ancient egyptian workman-
ship, yet ornamented with volutes, which have been considered