Many other substitutes might, perhaps, be found.
It is, for instance, practically impossible to obtain reliable evidence as to the regularity of employment in any industry in the 17th century, and the best approximations and devices we can invent are very poor substitutes for what we really want.
Over a large part of India there are carved representations of cobras (Nagas) or stones as substitutes; to these human food and flowers are offered and lights are burned before the shrines.
With both are elected an equal number of substitutes, who assume office in case of vacancy.
As the corpse was found generally to disappear and decay in spite of preservative magic, especially in the early ages, various substitutes were resorted to; statues and statuettes were thought efficacious, but, apart from their costliness, even these were subject to decay or destruction by violence, and in the absence of anything more substantial the Egyptians doubtless reflected that magic words alone in the last resort made everything right.
