[Frequently in the tombs is figured a scene in which a harper plays before the deceased. His song is ever on the same theme: Enjoy life while it lasts, for all things pass away, and are succeeded by others which also perish in their turn. Such were the encouragements to conviviality which the Egyptians put into the mouths of their minstrels. One of these songs was apparently engraved in front of the figure of a harper in the tomb or pyramid of King Antef (of the XIth or perhaps XIIIth Dynasty, not less than 2000 B.C.), and a copy of it has been handed down to us on a papyrus of the XVIIIth Dynasty: fragments of the same song are moreover preserved at Leyden on slabs from a tomb of the same period. Part of another song of the same kind may be read on the walls of the fine tomb of Neferhetep at Thebes (_temp._ XVIIIth Dynasty). This song was a long one, but the latter part of it is now mutilated and hopelessly destroyed; yet enough of the sequel remains to show that it rose to a somewhat higher level of teaching than the first song, and counseled men to feed the poor and to win a good name to leave behind them after death. The songs seem to fall naturally into stanzas of ten lines each, though the inscriptions and papyri on which they are preserved to us are not punctuated to indicate these divisions. In the first song the ten lines fall readily into pairs, thus producing five-line stanzas.] I _Songs which are in the tomb of King Antef, justified, which are in front of the singer on the harp_ Happy is this good lord! | A goodly fate is spoiled. One body passeth | and others are set up since the time of the ancestors. The gods[227] who were aforetime | rest in their sepulchres, So also the nobles glorified | buried in their sepulchres. Palaces are built and their places are not | behold what hath been done with them! I have heard the words of Imhetep and Herdedef | who spake thus continually in their sayings: "Behold their places, their walls are ruined | their places are not, as though they had not been. None cometh thence to tell their lot | to tell their estate, To strengthen our hearts | until ye approach the place to which they have gone." Be thou of good cheer thereat | [as for me] my heart faileth me in singing thy dirge. Follow thy heart so long as thou existest | put frankincense on thy head; Be clothed in fine linen, be anointed with pure ben oil | things fit for a god. Enjoy thyself beyond measure | let not thy heart faint. Follow thy desire and thy happiness while thou art on earth | fret not thy heart till cometh to thee that day of lamentations. The Still-of-Heart heareth not their lamentations | the heart of a man in the pit taketh no part in mourning.