Ushabti
The ushabti (also called shabti or shawabti, with a number of variant spellings, Ancient Egyptian plural: ushabtiu) was a funerary figurine used in Ancient Egypt. Ushabtis were placed in tombs among the grave goods and were intended to act as servants or minions for the deceased, should he/she be called upon to do manual labor in the afterlife. The figurines frequently carried a hoe on their shoulder and a basket on their backs, implying they were intended to farm for the deceased. They were usually written on by the use of hieroglyphs typically found on the legs. Called “answerers,” they carried inscriptions asserting their readiness to answer the gods' summons to work. The practice of using ushabtis originated in the Old Kingdom (c. 2600 to 2100 BCE) with the use of life-sized reserve heads made from limestone, which were buried with the mummy. Most ushabtis were of minor size, and many produced in multiples – they sometimes covered the floor around a sarcophagus. Exceptional ushabtis are of larger size, or produced as a one of-a-kind master work.
Podcasts:
Ichabod
by: Mark Erelli(John Greenleaf Whittier & Lorne Entress)
So fallen, so lost, the light withdrawn
Which once he wore
The glory from his gray hair gone
Forevermore
Revile him not, the Tempter hath
A snare for all
And pitying tears, not scorn and wrath
Befit his fall
Oh dumb be passion's stormy rage
When he who might
Have lighted up and led his age
Falls back in night
Scorn, would the angels laugh to mark
A bright soul driven
Fiend-goaded down the endless dark
From hope and heaven
Let not the land once proud of him
Insult him now
Nor brand with deeper shame his dim
Dishonored brow
But let its humbled sons instead
From sea to lake
A long lament, as for the dead
In sadness make
Of all we loved and honored
Naught save power remains
A fallen angel's pride of thought
Still strong in chains
All else is gone from those great eyes
The soul has fled
When faith is lost when honor dies
The man is dead
Then pay the reverence of old days
To his dead fame