The inscriptions run to a less or greater length according to the caprice of the scribe; the false door loses its architectural character, and is frequently replaced by a mere stela engraved with the name and rank of the master; yet, whether large or small, whether richly decorated or not decorated at all, the chapel is always the dining-room--or, rather, the larder--to which the dead man has access when he feels hungry.
[Illustration: Fig.

131 .-- Plan of serdab and chapel in mastaba of Rahotep at Sakkarah, Fourth Dynasty.] [Illustration: Fig.

132 .-- Plan of serdab and chapel in mastaba of Thenti I.
at Sakkarah, Fourth Dynasty.] On the other side of the wall was constructed a hiding-place in the form of either a high and narrow cell, or a passage without outlet.

To this hiding- place archaeologists have given the Arab name of "_serdab_." Most mastabas contain but one; others contain three or four (fig.

130).