This noble thoroughfare, as we drove slowly along that I might admire its grandeur and beauty, was thronged with people going to and coming from the city. There were processions returning from having deposited their dead in one of the many tombs which covered the vast plain; processions of the humbler orders, with but few signs of display and wealth, proceeding, with real mourners, to the tomb. There were groups of children, their hands filled with garlands, going to place them upon the sarcophagus of a departed parent; for the custom of decorating the resting-places of the dead with wreaths often renewed, belongs to Egypt as well as to Syria. We overtook a rich lady in a gilded palanquin, borne on the shoulders of four slaves. She was opulently and handsomely attired, and carried a blue and green fan, while an attendant walked behind and held over her head a large parasol. Two chariots, containing young Egyptian lords, dashed by us at full speed in the excitement of a race, each driving his own ornamented car, the charioteers standing a little in the rear. People selling little images of gods, or of eminent deceased persons, or fruit, or flowers, or scarabæi, and amulets, were seated all along the highway, upon pedestals, or in the shade of statues and tombs; while along the road walked sellers of vegetables, and fowls, and bread. Indeed, the way was crowded with life and activity. With no other people would the avenue to its tombs be the most thronged of any, and the favorite of all in the city; for Memphis, which extends from and includes Jizeh, past the pyramids south for six miles, has noble streets, but none like this leading to the pyramids. The Egyptians say that the house is but the temporary abode of man, but in the tombs his embalmed body dwells forever. "Let us, therefore, decorate our tombs with paintings and art, and fill them with flowers, and adorn the homes which are to be permanent." Hence the "dead-life" of the sepulchres is not less a reality to the Egyptian than his life in the city. The poor, however, do not find tombs. They are buried in graves or pits, like the Hebrew people. On the other side of the river lies the most ancient burial-place of Memphis; but since the construction of the Lake of the Dead, it is no longer necessary to cross the Nile (for the dead _must_ be ferried across water) for interment. As we drove on, we came to a stately sepulchre, before which was gathered a large multitude. The coffin had just been removed from a gorgeous hearse and set down upon the step of the tomb. It was the funeral of a lady. I never saw any painting so rich as that which adorned the mummy-case. It was an Osirian coffin, and covered in every part with columns of hieroglyphics or emblematical figures, among which were represented the winged serpent, the ibis, the cynocephalus or the genii of Amenthe, and the scarabæus. "The hieroglyphics," said my companion, "contain the name and qualities of the deceased."