Offerings of real provisions were not indispensable to this end; any chance visitor in times to come who should simply repeat the formula of the stela aloud would thereby secure the immediate enjoyment of all the good things enumerated to the unknown dead whom he evoked.
[Illustration: Fig.

127 .-- Wall scene of funerary offerings, from mastaba of Ptahhotep, Fifth Dynasty.] [Illustration: Fig.

128 .-- Wall-painting, funeral voyage; mastaba of Urkhuu, Gizeh, Fourth Dynasty.] [Illustration: Fig.

129 .-- Wall-scene from mastaba of Ptahhotep, Fifth Dynasty.] The living having taken their departure, the Double was supposed to come out of his house and feed.

In principle, this ceremony was bound to be renewed year by year, till the end of time; but the Egyptians ere long discovered that this could not be.