There is no doubt that the offerings to the dead became somewhat of a drain on the resources of these ancient Nile dwellers, so again they solved the problem in quite a simple way. If they painted all the offerings on the walls of the tombs, and prayed to the gods to provide the departed with the things needed in the afterworld, such painted offerings would last for ever, and relieve the living of the demands on their foodstuffs. Consequently, all over the tombs, these pictures of offerings may be found, to serve the deceased if he should need food during his wanderings to the Egyptian Paradise. The little images known as Ushabti were placed in the tomb, in case the deceased were called upon to work in the next world. They were his servants, who would labour for him and save their master from performing menial tasks. The boats or barges that are found were to ferry the dead man over the sacred waters to the Fields of the Blessed. The Egyptians, indeed, considered that everything required in this life would be needed in the next. It is well for us that they had these ideas, for they have resulted in many remarkable relics being found in the tombs, relics which help the scientists to reconstruct the life of these wonderful ancients, to revive the romance of their lost civilization. In order that the dead man might not lose his identity, his name was graven within the tomb, and in time the outstanding features of his life were also mentioned, so that the gods should be conversant with all he had done. Some of these notes are short, others long, but all of them are of importance as showing us what happened while the dead man was alive. We have our own National Biography printed on paper, and carefully bound to place on our shelves, but the National Biography of Ancient Egypt is carved upon mountains of stones in the tombs of the land. They are the books of the distant past, but there is the possibility that they will survive when many of our modern books have perished utterly from the earth. [Illustration: _By courtesy of the British Museum_ A SCENE FROM THE FAMOUS BOOK OF THE DEAD, PAINTED 3,000 YEARS AGO ON PAPYRUS, SHOWING KING HER-HERU AND QUEEN NETCHEMET PRAYING TO OSIRIS WHILE THE HEART OF THE QUEEN IS BEING WEIGHED IN THE BALANCE] The commonest of all the ancient manuscripts that have survived to our day is the well-known Book of the Dead. It is another relic which serves to indicate the thought devoted by the Egyptians to life in the next world. The Book of the Dead is a sacred book, which tells the dead man what to say to the gods when he meets them, how to answer their questions. Osiris is the Judge who weighs the man’s heart, and considers if he be worthy to enter the Realms of Bliss. And the departed is instructed what to say. “I have not played the hypocrite,” he avers. “I have not stolen,” is another answer he must make. “I have not lied. I have not committed adultery. I am no slayer of men.”