Uarda | Page 5

assessors of the subterranean
court of justice.
What took place within the temples was concealed from view, for each
was surrounded by a high enclosing wall with lofty, carefully-closed
portals, which were only opened when a chorus of priests came out to
sing a pious hymn, in the morning to Horus the rising god, and in the
evening to Tum the descending god.
[The course of the Sun was compared to that of the life of Man. He rose
as the child Horns, grew by midday to the hero Ra, who conquered the
Uraeus snake for his diadem, and by evening was an old Man, Tum.
Light had been born of darkness, hence Tum was regarded as older than
Horns and the other gods of light.]
As soon as the evening hymn of the priests was heard, the Necropolis
was deserted, for the mourners and those who were visiting the graves
were required by this time to return to their boats and to quit the City of
the Dead. Crowds of men who had marched in the processions of the
west bank hastened in disorder to the shore, driven on by the body of
watchmen who took it in turns to do this duty and to protect the graves
against robbers. The merchants closed their booths, the embalmers and
workmen ended their day's work and retired to their houses, the priests
returned to the temples, and the inns were filled with guests, who had
come hither on long pilgrimages from a distance, and who preferred
passing the night in the vicinity of the dead whom they had come to
visit, to going across to the bustling noisy city farther shore.
The voices of the singers and of the wailing women were hushed, even
the song of the sailors on the numberless ferry boats from the western
shore to Thebes died away, its faint echo was now and then borne
across on the evening air, and at last all was still.
A cloudless sky spread over the silent City of the Dead, now and then
darkened for an instant by the swiftly passing shade of a bat returning

to its home in a cave or cleft of the rock after flying the whole evening
near the Nile to catch flies, to drink, and so prepare itself for the next
day's sleep. From time to time black forms with long shadows glided
over the still illuminated plain--the jackals, who at this hour frequented
the shore to slake their thirst, and often fearlessly showed themselves in
troops in the vicinity of the pens of geese and goats.
It was forbidden to hunt these robbers, as they were accounted sacred to
the god Anubis, the tutelary of sepulchres; and indeed they did little
mischief, for they found abundant food in the tombs.
[The jackal-headed god Anubis was the son of Osiris and Nephthys,
and the jackal was sacred to him. In the earliest ages even he is
prominent in the nether world. He conducts the mummifying process,
preserves the corpse, guards the Necropolis, and, as Hermes
Psychopompos (Hermanubis), opens the way for the souls. According
to Plutarch "He is the watch of the gods as the dog is the watch of
men."]
The remnants of the meat offerings from the altars were consumed by
them; to the perfect satisfaction of the devotees, who, when they found
that by the following day the meat had disappeared, believed that it had
been accepted and taken away by the spirits of the underworld.
They also did the duty of trusty watchers, for they were a dangerous foe
for any intruder who, under the shadow of the night, might attempt to
violate a grave.
Thus--on that summer evening of the year 1352 B.C., when we invite
the reader to accompany us to the Necropolis of Thebes--after the
priests' hymn had died away, all was still in the City of the Dead.
The soldiers on guard were already returning from their first round
when suddenly, on the north side of the Necropolis, a dog barked
loudly; soon a second took up the cry, a third, a fourth. The captain of
the watch called to his men to halt, and, as the cry of the dogs spread
and grew louder every minute, commanded them to march towards the
north.

The little troop had reached the high dyke which divided the west bank
of the Nile from a branch canal, and looked from thence over the plain
as far as the river and to the north of the Necropolis. Once more the
word to "halt" was given, and as the guard perceived the glare of
torches in the direction where the dogs were barking loudest, they
hurried forward and came up with the author of the disturbance near the
Pylon of the temple