Notes for the Nile; together with a metrical rendering of the hymns of ancient Egypt and of the precepts of Ptah-Hotep,-the oldest book in the world

Front matter

My tbe same Hutbor SONNETS AT THE ENGLISH LAKES. Second Edition. Price 3s. 6d. SONNETS ROUND THE COAST. Price 35. 6d. POEMS, BALLADS, AND BUCOLICS. Price 5.9. EDWARD TURING: TEACHER AND POET. Price 3s. 6d. TOGETHER WITH A METRICAL RENDERING OF THE HYMNS OF ANCIENT EGYPT AND OF THE PRECEPTS OF PTAH-HOTEP (THE OLDEST BOOK IN THE WORLD) BY HARDWICKE D. RAWNSLEY, M.A. LONDON WILLIAM HEINEMANN 1892 [All rights reserved] TO EMILE BRUGSCH Who with such courage and care brought back the Pharaohs from the tomb, and to whom I personally owe thanks for great kindness and courtesy, shown me both at the Bulak and Gizeh Museums, AND TO FLINDE RS PETRIE To whose genius for exploration Egyptologists to-day are so much indebted, in memory of an interesting visit to him at MedUm, I DEDICATE THIS LITTLE BOOK A RETURN TO EGYPT There is a land where Time no count can keep, Where works of men imperishable seem; Where through death's barren solitude doth gleam Undying hope for them that sow and reap : Yea, land of life where death is but a deep Warm slumber, a communicable dream, Where from the silent grave far voices stream Of those who tell their secrets in their sleep.

Land of the palm-tree and the pyramid, Land of sweet waters from a mystic urn, Land of sure rest where suns shine on for ever, I left thee — in thy sands a heart was hid, My life, my love, were cast upon thy river, And, lo ! to seek Osiris I return. H. D. R. CONTENTS I'AGF, Introduction — Precepts for Travellers . . . ix Chap. I. On Tombs i II. With Flinders Petrie at the MbdCm ii, Pyramid III. How I saw the Great Pharaoh in the Flesh : A Reminiscence of the Bulak Museum 59 IV. Seti I., the Father of Pharaoh the Great : an Historical Sketch 101 V. First Impressions of Thebes . . . .162 VI. Hymns of Ancient Egypt 182 Festal Dirge of King Antef . . .185 The Song of the Harper . . . .190 Hymn or Ode to Pharaoh . . .107 The Dirge of Meneptah .... CONTENTS VIII Chap. VI. Hymns of Ancient Egypt — continued. page Hymn to Amen Ra 204 Hymn to the Nile ... . 223 Lamentations of Isis and Nephthys . 239 The Lament of the Dead Wife of Pasiierenptah 259 The Heroic Poem of Pen-ta-ur . . ■ 265 VII The Precepts of Ptah-hotep ; being a Metrical Rendering of the Oldest Book in the World

Introduction

PRECEPTS FOR TRAVELLERS This book ends with precepts for people in Egypt, from the oldest book in the world, b.c. 3666. It shall begin with precepts for travellers in Egypt in the year a.d. 1892. Three journeys to the East make one feel that guide-books are not sufficiently explicit as to such details as are here given, and this must be my apology for venturing to give the following bits of advice. 1. As to dress. Dress as you would in England in early summer, but take a good wrap : flannel shirts and flannel belt ; mornings and evenings are often chilly. Wear boots rather than shoes, because there are such things as asps in Egypt ; and brown rather than black, because of the heat. Cream for cleaning these boots, should be taken out from England, as it is not always procurable abroad, and if not used, the boots are soon spoiled by the dry hot sand.

Canvas leg gings for men, and a light serge skirt (walking length) for ladies, are advisable, because donkeys are dirty and tombs are dusty. Wear a sun helmet, or (better) a

INTRODUCTION.

X soft, grey felt wide-awake, double thickness. Take a strong white English-made umbrella, lined with green or blue, and a pair of glasses — smoked, not blue — for use when riding over desert-sand. 2. As to food, everything can be got in Cairo, except good English tea. On no pretext be induced to drink Nile water, when at anchor ; avoid it at all times, unless boiled. The Nile is the drain of all Egypt. Dwellers on the banks of it know that it contains a parasite which is a troublesome customer, if it takes up its abode in the human body. Light claret and St. Galmier and other mineral waters can be obtained for you by Gaze or Cook. Never let flies settle on your face ; they may bring ophthalmia. Use lotion at the first symptom. 3. Medicines. Pyretic saline, quinine, Dover's powder (these last in the form of pills), chlorodyne, a roll of plaster, lint, a bit of oil-silk, a box of mustard leaves, compound colocynth pills, an eye-douche and eye-lotion obtained in Cairo, are all that is necessary.

For use amongst natives, a box of eye ointment (red oxide of mercury). Good doctors are at Luxor and on the Nile steamers ; and in case of typhoid, most devoted nursing, with the best possible medical skill, can be obtained at the German Dea conesses' Hospital in Cairo. If ill, do not stay in the hotel, but remove at once, under doctor's orders, to the hospital.

INTRODUCTION.

XI 4. Take a reel of magnesium wire ; there is great difficulty in obtaining a satisfactory lamp for the con tinuous burning of magnesium wire. Procure a tin reflector, like a stable lantern, to hold five candles, with socket and long stick. This enables the traveller to see the more interesting drawings and sculptures, which are generally best preserved on the upper parts of tombs and temples. Good writing and drawing materials, note-books, &c, are not obtainable in Cairo. The little " Kodak " camera is very useful for instan taneous photographs of figures, &c. 5. Donkeys. In Cairo, engage and pay for your donkeys through the hotel porter. Examine for raw place under broad belt and under tail, before engag ing. If you find a donkey falls, change him ; he will do it again. On going up Nile, see the ladies' saddles, and have them marked before leaving, or you may be put off with native-made instead of English-made saddles, which are often unusable, and the straps of which are generally rotten.

See that your side-saddles, are not whisked off from your steamer, as you return, on to another steamer passing up. 6. Dragomen. However well recommended, never expect your dragoman to know anything about Egyptian history or the monuments up Nile. Go, knowing what you want to see, and insist on seeing it. Refuse to allow your dragoman to take " a squeeze "

INTRODUCTION.

for you from any of the monuments. He is generally very ready to do so, and much damage has been done in this way. In Cairo it will save you time and expense to engage a dragoman for the day. He knows the mosques best worth seeing, and can get all the neces sary orders, and will easily save you his day's pay at the bazaars. 7. In dealing with the people, treat them as gentle men. The Eastern, who is always polite, appreciates this. He understands a joke also. One often escapes the importunity of those who ask for " bakhsheesh " by nodding, and saying with a smile, " Bookra," which means " To-morrow." Above all things, remember the religion of Muhammad is a real thing in Egypt. Show deference to religious belief and custom, and a becom ing reverence when you enter any of their mosques. To avoid missing interesting scenes, ascertain the days of religious festivals. 8.

If you want to see the monuments, remember that this cannot possibly be done in a crowd. Travel lers by small steamer or dahabieh will have the best of it in this matter. It is well to ask if there is any peasant in the neighbourhood, who has been in the employ of one or other of the explorers of late years. These men have exact memories, and can often point out to you objects of interest that you would otherwise miss. Make a

INTRODUCTION.

XIII public example of any one in your company you catch defacing a monument, either by scribbling his name or by taking fragments of it away. Posterity will bless you. 9. As to scarabs, never purchase, except at the Gizeh Museum, unless you are an expert. Nineteen out of twenty, offered for sale up Nile, were manufac tured in the scarab-makers' shops, and buried or worn next to the skin by the vendor, to give the appearance of age, and colour. As to papyri, do not refuse a portion of one — it may contain a valuable text. If you obtain possession of one that has not been unrolled, do not attempt to unroll it, or allow the man from whom you buy it to do so ; but take it to your national museum, let the authorities examine it, and if important, leave it with them. It is necessary to allow scholars of the Egyptian language the fullest possible access to any texts that are discovered. 10.

It will save you much perplexity, and add to the pleasure of the Nile voyage, if you have made yourself familiar, beforehand, with the main historical facts and characteristics of the various epochs and dynasties ; if you know the cartouches of the more important kings • and if the leading features and symbols of the ancient Egyptian religion and divinities, the localities of the various gods, and the general arrangement of temple worship, are grasped. For this latter, see Mariette

INTRODUCTION.

XIV Bey's "Monuments of Upper Egypt," pp. 38 and 127. By no means fail to take this last passage in your hand when visiting the temple of Denderah. The best books for those who would study the Egyptian monuments and history are the Egyptian collections in the various national museums. Tra vellers, before starting for the Nile, should, if possible, have visited the British Museum and the Louvre, and before sailing up river, should make a point of spend ing some considerable time in the Gizeh Museum. n. Books to be read before going to Egypt: — Brugsch Bey's " Egypt under the Pharaohs," last edition ; G. Maspero's " Histoire Ancien des Peuples de l'Orient " ; Page Renouf 's " Hibbert Lectures," 1879; "Records of the Past," Series I. and II. (Bagster) ; Wilkinson's " Ancient Egyptians"; Lane's "Modern Egyptians " ; Stuart Poole's " Cities of Egypt " ; S. Birch's " Ancient History from the Monuments " ; Wallis Budge's "The Dwellers on the Nile"; Pro fessor Rawlinson's " Ancient Egypt " in the Story of the Nations Series; Villiers Stuart's " Nile Gleanings"; Berkley's "The Pharaohs and their People" ; Miss Edwards' " A Thousand Miles up the Nile " ; Ebers' "Egypt Illustrated"; "The History of Ancient Egyptian Art," by Perrot and Chipiez; " The Egyptian Exploration Fund Transactions " ; and anything that Mr. Flinders Petrie has written on Egypt. Books to be taken out to Egypt: — Baedeker's

INTRODUCTION.

XV " Lower Egypt," for Cairo, Pyramids, and Sakkarah ; Murray's " Egypt," last edition, for up Nile ; Wallis Budge's " The Nile " (this admirable handbook is the property of Messrs. Cook & Son, and not obtainable from the booksellers); Mariette Bey's "Outlines of Ancient Egyptian History " ; " Mariette Bey's " The Monuments of Upper Egypt." I wish here to express my personal indebtedness to the writers of all these books for the help they have accorded me. Hardwicke D. Rawnsley.

Chapter I. On Tombs

Egyptian history proper begins with the reign ot King M'na, Mena, or Menes, the first king of the first dynasty. Before his time all is legend, and the legend takes the form of the assertion that Egypt was governed first by divinities, then by heroes, part man part god. But Mena is no mythical person. He was the first overlord or tribal king who in his person united several petty chieftains of the then inhabitants of the land of Nile — the dark men whose skin was of the colour of the crocodile (kam), and the soil of whose fields (the land of Ham) was dark as the colour of their hands. Whether or not he came as a conqueror from Mesopotamia, and moving from This or Thinis, near A Abydos * set up his capital at the " Haven of the Good " (Menefer or Memphis of to-day), and con structed a gigantic dam to turn aside the river Nile from its bed, and give him the security of fields, encircled by its silver arm of defence, is conjectural.

This much we may be pretty certain of, that Mena reigned not later than 4400 b.c. (Brugsch), perhaps as early as 5004 B.C. (Mariette), and was the founder of the ancient empire. For convenience' sake, Egyptian history, the history of the thirty-one dynasties of rulers, is divided into three periods — the Ancient, the Middle, the New Empires. The Ancient Empire includes the first eleven dynasties, and, if we accept Mariette's date, lasted 1940 years ; if we accept Brugsch's date, it lasted from 4400 B.C. to 2500 B.C. — that is, 1900 years ; a longer time, as both of these writers agree, than the Christian era. The Middle Empire includes the next nine dynasties, the twelfth up to the twentieth inclusive, from 2466 b.c. to 1200 b.c. The New Empire includes the remaining ten dynasties, and lasts from 1200 b.c. to 360 b.c. After Nectanebo, the last of the Egyptian kings, came the Persians, to be followed by the Macedonians under Alexander the Great in 332 b.c, by the Ptolemies in 305 b.c, and by the Romans in 27 b.c. * It has been suggested of late that the modern Girgeh may be the site of ancient This.

We shall deal in this chapter chiefly with funeral monuments of the Ancient Empire, and shall only introduce tomb monuments of a later period for illus tration's sake. The belief in the persistence of life after death is discovered in all religions. Ancestor-worship, or the desire to offer propitiatory offerings to the manes of the dead, is seen in the "Inferiæ" and "Parentalia" of Rome, and in the " Enagismata " of the Greeks. When we turn to Indo-European nations, we find the Hindu worshipping the " Pitris," and the Iranians believing in a kind of disembodied spirit of the dead, called " Fravashi " ; while, turning to China, we note there that the oldest institution of the oldest civilisation now extant is the celebration of rites in honour of defunct ancestors.* It may or may not be true, as according to Mr. Herbert Spencer, that the rudimentary form in all religion is the propitiation of dead ancestors ; but it is certain that, as far as Egypt goes, this belief had been already superseded by a very different set of notions as long ago as the founding of the pyramids ; for the oldest form of prayer extant in that far-off time of advanced Egyptian civilisation which we speak of as the age of the pyramids — 3766 b.c. to 3366 b.c. — shows us that the Egyptians, in their most ancient propitiation of ancestors, always made it through * Cf. Page Renouf, " Hibbert Lectures," p. 124. prayer, not to the ancestor, but to Anubis, Osiris, or some other god ; whilst the deceased is described in the funeral inscription as " faithful to the great God."

Diodorus tells us : " The Egyptians call their houses hostelries, on account of the short time during which they inhabit them, but the tombs they call eternal dwelling-places." And this, as Page Renouf points out to us, is literally and entirely true. In the oldest inscriptions the tomb is described as " Pa t'eta " — eternal dwelling-place ; whilst the de parted are spoken of as "Anchiu" — that is, "the living ones." There are in the Egyptian court of the British Museum the fragments of the wooden coffin of Mycerinus or Menkaura, the builder of the third pyramid of Gizeh, 3633 b.c., and one of the names that is written thereon, to describe the sarcophagus in which the good king was buried, is Neb Ancb, which means " The Lord of Life." That sarcophagus, it is believed, never contained the body of the pious king ; but he lives for ever in the praises of Herodotus, for the historian says of him : " That he restored the religious services, opened the temples, made the most just decisions of all the kings ; and if a man complained of the decision of the judgment, he made a present to him out of his own treasury, and pacified his anger."

This by way of parenthesis, but 'tis passing strange how, after the lapse of fifty-five centuries, the name of Mycerinus, good and just, smells sweet, and blossoms from the desert dust. But where did the Egyptians stow their sarcophagi, these coffins that were the " chests of the living," as they were called ? Rest assured that they would take care to place them in security if possible, and so, since the Nile was a great high roadway or high waterway, the ancients buried their dead, generally, as far from the Nile banks as they could, and though they did not always do so, yet they seem to have affected the western side of the Nile where possible; partly because, as is the case with the great burial-ground that stretches from Gizeh to Dahshur and the Medum — from the Pyramid of Abu Roash, in the north, to the Pyramid of Seneferu in the south, the Nile flowed farthest away from their necropolis, and enemies and robbers of tombs were least likely to advance from the barren western desert ; and partly because the great principle of life, the sun, entered the realm of darkness each day in the west, and symbolised that sunset of existence here on earth which the tomb chambers bore witness to.

Sometimes, of course, the Libyan Desert, to the west, gave no limestone plateau to dig the tombs in, or raise the pyramid and mastaba on, no good resting ground for the eternal dwelling-places, and then the Egyptians sought to the plateau cliff on the eastern side, and, as at Beni hasan, Tel El Amarna and El- Kab, they hewed them sepulchral halls and pits for the burial of their dead in the cliffs of the morning sun. But when, as happens at Gebel Silsilis, the cliffs come right up on each side to the river, and good substantial rock tombs are obtainable on either side, there we find that the old love of burial in the land of the sunset comes to the front again, and the tomb chambers are hewn only on the western side. We have spoken of sepulchral halls and pits : what do we mean ? We remember the verse in the psalm, " Our bones lie scattered before the pit, like as when one breaketh and heweth wood upon the earth ; " or again, " Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in a place of darkness and in the deep."

We remember the old Hebrew expression of " going down into the pit," and these sayings are but so many reminders that the Hebrews had been dwellers in Egypt, where the abode of eternity, the tomb proper, was always, if possible, placed at the bottom of a deep shaft sunk into the solid rock. The traveller in Egypt to-day, who enters the tomb of Tih or Ptah-hotep at Sakkara, the rock grottos at Beni hasan, Tel El Amarna, El-Kab, or Gebel Silsilis, Asyut, or Aswan, has to remember that he is not visiting any tomb proper at all. These halls and grottos are but the festal meeting-places for friends of the dead, votive and memorial chambers. The dead man, to whose memory they were hewn and decorated, slept in his chamber-tomb at the bottom of the pit, many yards beneath the feet of those who came to gether to propitiate the gods and feed the dead man's " Ka," or spirit, or genius, or double, and make mention of his name with song and festal pomp on the funeral-feast days.

It is true that the poor men in ancient times were simply wrapped in reed mats, and huddled within the clay — instances of which burial I saw last year near Seneferu's Pyramid ; but the man who could afford for his body his bath of brine for seventy days, and his tub of oil and resin and unguents for a like period, and could pay from j£6o to for the embalmer's process, took care in life to have a proper house for eternity prepared for his mortal remains. This tomb, under the ancient empire generally, consisted of five parts. First. A visible mound of sun-burnt brick or stone, which might measure in length and breadth 170 feet by 86 feet, or 36 feet by 20 feet, and might be 13 feet high, which took the form of an oblong and truncated pyramid, and which is called to-day a " mastaba," because it resembles a long low bench or divan in shape, such as the Arabs use in their houses, and call by that name.

The pyramid proper is probably only a natural outgrowth from those early mounds, or mastabas. Secondly. There comes an outer chamber, generally on the eastern or northern side, which forms a kind of vestibule to the inner chamber, and which some times is built as a portico or a prolongation from the mastaba, as in the tomb of Tih. Sometimes it is, as it were, hewn out of the second skin or outside coating of stone or brick of the mastaba, as may be seen in the Medum necropolis. Thirdly. We have the important inner, or fune ral chamber, wherein at certain times the friends assembled. This chamber was richly adorned with colour and sculpture, and here, under the ancient empire, people saw the dead man brought to life again, as far as art could do it, and superintending, as was his habit in life, the labour of his field, the hunting, the fishing, the boat-building, &c, that he had cared for on earth.

Fourthly. At the further end of this chamber was a recess, walled across, and having generally only a tiny slit in the screen wali for the fumes of incense, used on the memorial days to pass inside. Some times even this means of access was closed. This stone recess or cupboard was called the " sirdab,"and in it were placed life-like images of the deceased carved in stone or wood, which might be looked upon as so many media or forms for the Ka, or genius, or spirit, of the departed to enter into and inhabit : so many possibilities of a kind of spirit-possession or re-embodiment for the defunct. In front was generally placed a little offering stool and votive slab. For the sirdab was the holy of holies of the tomb guest chamber. But the important part of the eternal house was the fifth or last part — viz., the pit.

This was driven down into the solid rock, sometimes from the ante chamber, sometimes from the inner chamber, some times from the centre of the mastaba, and hewn of such a size as that a mummy or sarcophagus could be lowered into place. Such a pit shaft is familiar to all who visit Campbell's tomb at Gizeh. At the bottom of this pit, 40 or 50 feet deep, was hewn a side passage, generally on the south and east side, that gradually broadened out into a good-sized chamber ; the trend of this passage was so arranged as to bring this subterranean chamber exactly under the upper or guest-chamber, where from time to time the friends assembled to pour wine and offer flowers and incense upon the sirdab, or recess, behind whose wall were hid the images or statues of the departed. This was the tomb proper ; the sarcophagus rested there, and, once lowered down the shaft and taken into its house of eternity, a huge block of stone was lowered into place, to fill the entrance into the passage at the bottom of the well or shaft.

The shaft itself was filled up with rubble and sand and stones ; and the dead man's body waited for the 3000 years to pass before it should arise from its dust and begin its earthly life again. In such sanctity of undisturbed repose have many of the Egyptian dead, buried under the ancient empire, remained till this day, that explorers have even found in the soft sand, the tracks of the feet of the bearers who bore the body to its rest in the sub terranean tomb-chamber, more than 3000 years before Christ. Of course, when the pyramids arose the ante chamber and chamber were dispensed with, and friends met in the little temple outside the pyramid to offer prayer and praise and vows in memory of the dead king. Such a continuity of endowment was allowed to that old Egyptian way of worship, that in the time of the twenty-sixth dynasty we find from a tablet in the Louvre that a priest of Chufu or Cheops, Psamtik by name, is keeping up the memory of Chufu, who built the Great Pyramid and endowed the temple services more than 2000 years before, according to the prescribed ritual of pyramid days, and the pious wishes of the founder.

Let the Christian disestab lishers and disendowers of particular forms of religion, on the ground of emptiness of title after lapse of years, note this. OAT TOMBS 11 When we turn away from the mastabas of the ancient dynasty, and leave the necropolis of Gizeh and Sakkara, Abusir, Dahshur and Medum, for the rock grottos of Beni hasan, Tel El Amarna, El-Kab, Silsilis, Asyut, and Aswan, we find that the ante chamber has been dispensed with, and we enter beneath a porch, at once, into the Hall of Guests, often splendidly adorned, with its niche, or sirdab, behind whose partition wall the statues of the defunct were immured, and sometimes in which, perhaps with little more than a low protecting wall between the spectators and themselves, their life-size statues, carved in the living rock, sat to receive the gifts of worshippers.* Now, what we have to bear in mind is that the tomb * At El-Kab, and also at Aswan, in the tombs opened by Sir W. Grenfell, there were evidences on the ground, of a par tition wall which may at one time have entirely screened the statues from sight, but which in the lapse of years had been broken away by the tomb-breakers.

It is true that in tombs of the middle or later empire the sirdab disappears. This may perhaps be accounted for by the fact that the embalmer's process became so perfect that it was not felt necessary to carve any life-size statues for the Ka, or double, or genius, to enter into and inhabit. And it is thought that, with the falling away of this practice of carving statues, another practice may have after obtained — viz., the bringing of the wooden coffin from its rest chamber to the guest-chamber at stated intervals, or, as is more probable, of having a dummy coffin to use for this purpose on festal days. proper is not here, but that a pit or shaft has been sunk deep down into the rock, sometimes as at Asyut and Beni hasan, from inside the guest-chamber, some times, as at El-Kab, from the terrace outside, or from within the portico to the guest-chamber ; and that the tomb is beneath our feet as we gaze at the mural decorations of the guest-chamber above.

Occasionally in these guest-chambers is seen a slab whereon a likeness of the mummy was laid at certain seasons, or whereon his body was placed for a time, before it was finally taken down by pit, or sloping underground passage to its sarcophagus beneath. Sometimes upon the entrances to this subterranean rest chamber are seen bits of the clay seal, still sticking, which sealed the doorway to the block-fitting, while clay seals, cones of clay six inches long, have been found in the sand close by. What we have still to remember is that we who visit the tomb of Tih at Sakkara, or the tomb of Ameni, or Knoum-hotep, to-day at Beni hasan, are really not in their tombs at all, but only in the guest-chamber above the tomb, wherein of old time the friends met on stated occasions, to do honour to the dead man, not yet out of mind.

The stone sarcophagus and the sarcophagus-chamber were often unornamented, the latter, if ornamented, only had lists of festival days and calendars of offerings upon its walls, such as we see upon the walls of the tomb of Horhotpou, the son of Sonit-she, a noble who lived at Thebes in the eleventh dynasty, 2500 b.c. Visitors to the Gizeh Museum will remember that wonderful tomb, with its great calendar of days for offerings, its wall paintings of bows and arrows, of mace and hatchet, of pots of oil and jars of wine, of mirrors, of shoes, of little bags of unguent and henna for the hands, or of kohl powder for the eyes, its pots of seven essences, its green and black paint for face or body ; the accessories, in short, of a gentleman's toilet in the last days of the ancient empire, all so necessary to the wellbeing of the Ka, or spirit of Horhotpou, in the world of Amenti, the world beyond the grave, when he came visiting the dead.

The important decoration of these tomb-chambers was lavished on the guest-hall, and, as in the tombs of the kings, upon the long subterranean pas sages. But in the guest-chambers of the tombs of the early empire, there is a very great difference in the motive of the ornament, from that which is found in tombs of the middle and new empire. In the tombs of the end of the middle, and beginning of the new empire, it is plain to be seen that the whole idea of the decoration is to set forth the journey of the soul in the next world through all the ordeals it has to go, upon its way to the Hall of Judgment and Justification. The gods are the principals in all these scenes ; and the spirit of evil, the serpents spitting fire, the burning fiery furnaces, the crocodiles that open their jaws, are some of the torments the soul must meet with on its way to its eternal rest.