Compared to the earthly abode, which was temporary, the tomb was eternal; hence the care that was lavished upon the tomb by the Egyptians. While yet young, a man began to build his final resting place. If he died before it was completed, some relative supervised its completion, but in most cases tombs left thus unfinished show signs of hasty conclusion. The survivor was chiefly interested in his own tomb, and could give but passing attention to that of the departed. In the Old Empire, tombs were constructed of brick masonry. The mummy was placed some distance below the brick work which was elevated a few feet above the ground. During the Middle Empire, grotto tombs came into favor. These were hewed out of the living rock. A large excavation was made and chambers were sometimes formed by masonry, sometimes hollowed from the rock itself. It was during this period that pictures of food offerings were made in addition to the food formerly offered alone. During the New Empire tombs were generally cut in rocks, and now it became customary to have the heart removed from the deceased and placed in a jar. The idea of reward and punishment was emphasized. "From the calm assurance of purely material happiness which the earliest Egyptian loved to dwell on, there developed a keener sense of the trials through which the soul must pass, together with a higher ideal of the future life, a strong conviction of the moral qualities and acts essential to the justification of the individual. Later this spiritual degenerated into a reliance upon ritual and formulas in a merely magical sense."[1] The nature of the burial depended upon the means of the family. The middle class interment was less pretentious than that of the noble, and the poor appropriated some old, neglected tomb, or paid for space in a public tomb. Even in such cases, some offerings were made. The burial of royalty was splendid, as tombs recently discovered in the Valley of the Kings have attested. Furniture, receptacles, toilet articles--even a boat and a chariot were in some cases provided. In the tombs of the wealthy were enclosed little images of servants, or "answerers." To the unimaginative Egyptian, the future world could only be a place, like his own Egypt, where he would sow and reap, under conditions most favorable. Water would be plentiful, and work would be so easy that it would be a joy to perform it. This satisfied the masses, who knew only how to reap and sow. But the wealthy had not been accustomed to cultivate the soil in this life and were not pleased with the prospect of doing so through countless ages. Lest such menial tasks be required of them in the realm of Osiris, they had with them these images of servants--these answerers--who might respond when they were called upon: "Here am I, thy servant." Thus the noble would have his work performed by others, as it had always been.