These statuettes are of different sizes and materials. As a rule they do not exceed from eight to twelve inches, but there are a few which are three feet or more in height. Some are in wood, some in limestone, and some in granite, but as a rule they are made of that kind of terra cotta which, when covered with green or blue enamel, has been called Egyptian porcelain. They are like a mummy in appearance; their hands are crossed upon the breast and hold instruments of agriculture such as hoes and picks, and a sack meant for grain hangs from their shoulders. The meaning of all this is to be sought in the Egyptian notions of a future life; it is also explained by the picture in chapter XC. of the _Ritual_, which shows us the dead tilling, sowing and harvesting in the fields of the other world. The texts of the Ritual and of certain inscriptions call these little figures _oushebti_ or _answerers_ from the verb _ousheb_, to answer. It is therefore easy to divine the part attributed to them by the popular imagination. They answered to the name traced upon the tomb and acted as substitute for its tenant in the cultivation of the subterranean regions.[141] With the help of the attendants painted and sculptured upon the walls they saved him from fatigue and from the chance of want. This is another branch of the same old idea. In his desire to take every precaution against the misery and final annihilation which would result from abandonment, the Egyptian thought he could never go too far in furnishing, provisioning and peopling his tomb. [141] PIETSCHMANN (_Der Egyptische Fetischdienst_, &c., p. 155), has well grasped the character and significance of these statuettes. Conf. PIERRET, _Dictionnaire d'Archéologie égyptienne_, vol. v. See also, in connection with the personality attributed to them and to the services which were expected from them, a note by M. MASPERO, _Sur une Tablette appartenant à M. Rogers_. (_Recueil de Travaux_, vol. ii. p. 12.) [Illustration: FIGS. 95, 96.--Sepulchral statuettes, from the Louvre.]