As the mummy of the dead was placed in a barge to be taken across the Lake of the Dead-for it was the manner of the Egyptians to bear the bodies about to be entombed across the water to the place of the sepulture-the members of the household, especially the women, were wont to follow in another barge, and with uplifted hands and unbound hair to cry out for the lost.-Ridpath, 1885