replace them. These inner chambers have rarely any external outlet,
though occasionally they are connected with the chapel by a small
opening, so narrow that it will hardly admit of a hand being passed
through it. Those who came to repeat prayers and burn incense at this
aperture were received by the dead in person. The statues were not mere
images, devoid of consciousness. Just as the double of a god could be
linked to an idol in the temple sanctuary in order to transform it into
a prophetic being, capable of speech and movement, so when the double of
a man was attached to the effigy of his earthly body, whether in stone,
metal, or wood, a real living person was created and was introduced into
the tomb. So strong was this conviction that the belief has lived on
through two changes of religion until the present day. The double still
haunts the statues with which he was associated in the past. As in
former times, he yet strikes with madness or death any who dare to
disturb is repose; and one can only be protected from him by breaking,
at the moment of discovery, the perfect statues which the vault
contains. The double is weakened or killed by the mutilation of these
his sustainers.*

* The legends still current about the pyramids of Gîzeh
furnish some good examples of this kind of superstition.
"The guardian of the Eastern pyramid was an idol... who had
both eyes open, and was seated on a throne, having a sort of
halberd near it, on which, if any one fixed his eye, he
heard a fearful noise, which struck terror to his heart, and
caused the death of the hearer. There was a spirit appointed
to wait on each guardian, who departed not from before
him." The keeping of the other two pyramids was in like
manner entrusted to a statue, assisted by a spirit. I have
collected a certain number of tales resembling that of