ABSTRACT
In the " Liturgy of Funerary Offerings," of which a translation has been given in the preceding volume, the reader will have noticed several allusions to the " Opening of the Mouth " of the deceased, and it will also have been seen that this was believed to be effected chiefly through the offerings which were presented by the living to him. In one place1 mention is made of the instrument " Kef-pesesh," 3 with which the mouth of the statue was touched, and in another2 we find that two axes, one made of iron of the South, and another of iron of the North, were employed in the same way. The deduction which we should naturally make from the formulae in which these instruments are mentioned would be that each instrument was presented in turn to the statue, that some action was performed upon it by the priest with each, and that as a result of these actions the mouth of the statue became " opened." If, however, the lists of offerings which appear in the tombs of the IVtli and the early part of the Yth Dynasty be compared with those in the tombs of the latter part of the Yth and those of the V lth Dynasty, it will be found that in the earlier groups no mention is made of the " Kehpesesh " and the axes.
