acquired their essential features. The prayers focused on two themes: the request for offerings, and the request for a good reception in the West, the land of the dead. The prayer for offerings became standardized to a basic formula, subject to variation and expansion. It invoked the king and the god Anubis, the guardian of the dead, as the powers from whom the desired bounty would come. Though capable of considerable literary elaboration, the prayer was essentially a function of the cult of the