This conception is not peculiar to Egypt. The _double_ of the Egyptian sepulchral records corresponds exactly to the εἴδωλον[119] of the Greeks and the _umbra_ of the Latins. Both Greeks and Latins believed that when the funeral rites had been duly accomplished, this image or shadow entered upon the possession of a subterranean dwelling and began a life which was no more than the continuation of that in the light.[120] The dead thus remained in close relation with the living, on the one hand by the nourishment which they received, on the other by the protection which they afforded; even in the funeral repast they took their parts, in the strictest sense of the word, in the eating and drinking.[121] They looked impatiently forward to these supplies because, for a moment, they awoke their dormant thoughts and feelings and gave them glimpses of the true life, the life above ground and in the sunshine.[122] If they were kept waiting too long they became angry and revenged themselves upon those who had caused their sufferings. Woe to the family or city which was not careful to interest the dead in its stability and thus to associate them with its prosperity![123] [119] Εἴδωλα καμόντων (_Il._ xxiii. 72; _Od._ xi. 476; xxiv. 14). [120] This belief is clearly stated in a passage from Cicero quoted by Fustel: "Sub terrâ censebant reliquam vitam agi mortuorum" (_Tusc._ i. 16). This belief was so strong that it subsisted even after the universal establishment of the custom of burning the bodies of the dead. [121] Texts to this effect abound. FUSTEL brought the more remarkable of them together in his _Cité antique_ (p. 14). We shall be content with quoting three: "Son of Peleus," said Neoptolemus, "take this drink which is grateful to the dead; come and drink this blood" (Hecuba, 536). Electra says when she pours a libation: "This drink has penetrated the earth; my father has received it" (Choephorœ, 162). And listen to the prayer of Orestes to his dead father: "Oh my father, if I live thou shalt have rich banquets; if I die thou wilt have no portion of those smoking feasts which nourish the dead" (Choephorœ, 482-484). Upon the strange persistence of this belief, traces of which are still found in Eastern Europe, in Albania, in Thessaly, and Epirus, the works of HEUZEY (_Mission archéologique de Macédoine_, p. 156), and ALBERT DUMONT (_le Balkan et l'Adriatique_, pp. 354-356), may be consulted. Some curious details relating to the funeral feasts of the Chinese are to be found in the _Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Inscriptions_, 1877, p. 325. There are some striking points of resemblance between the religion of China and that of ancient Egypt; in both one and the other the same want of power to develop may be found. Taking them as a whole, both the Chinese and the Egyptians failed to emerge from the condition of fetichism.