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"
"Where are the servants?" I asked.
"The little Ushabti figures," she answered; "they were the attendants of
the dead, you know, his servants in the under-world. It was a quaint
idea, wasn't it? But it was all very complete and consistent, and quite
reasonable, too, if once one accepts the belief in the persistence of
the individual apart from the body."
"Yes," I agreed, "and that is the only fair way to judge a religious
system, by taking the main beliefs for granted. But what a business it
must have been, bringing all these things from Egypt to London."
"It was worth the trouble, though, for it is a fine and instructive
collection. And the work is all very good of its kind. You notice that
the Ushabti figures and the heads that form the stoppers of the Canopic
jars are quite finely modelled. The mummy itself, too, is rather
handsome, though that coat of bitumen on the back doesn't improve it.
But Sebek-hotep must have been a fine-looking man."
"The mask on the case is a portrait, I suppose?"
"Yes; in fact, it is rather more.


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