DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4862#0070
THE HUNT
some miracle of legerdemain, five spare shafts.1 At his feet a hunting
dog of extreme spareness bounds forward ventre a terre, as if bent on
keeping pace with his master's arrow.2 The descriptive note is in stereo-
typed words—"Puyemre traversing the hills, threading the desert
wastes, enjoying the shooting of the wild animals."3
The lowest register is occupied by servants who carry or bring for-
ward the captured animals. A gazelle is borne on the shoulders (?) of
the first, an oryx (?) brought up by the last. In the row above this (if
the fragments have been correctly replaced) a dog approaches a wounded
gazelle cautiously; four hares scurry away to hide among the bushes
(the Egyptian chisel is exact to foolishness in the matter of a hare's
whiskers), but an ostrich cannot find even this temporary safety. Above
this again the scene grows clearer. A hyena wounded by an arrow (?)
faces the hunter angrily: its mate (colored a bluish gray) is transfixed
by another shaft. A hunting bitch leaps on the back of a bubale (?)
whose hind quarter an arrow has pierced: its fellow vainly tries to out-
strip in speed a dog racing at its side. Beyond a slim tree, a dog (of the
usual white Punt breed with pinkish markings and head) is at the
throat of a grassed gazelle. The pair of deer spoken of above hide be-
hind a straggling tree, as if aware how much its branches resemble their
own antlers. In the topmost scene a gazelle, shot at close quarters,
turns a complete somersault. A pair of dogs cleverly outflank a group
of wounded oryxes, and are content to wait till loss of blood forces
their quarry to abate its frenzied pace. Few or none escape. A gazelle
doubles back but receives at once an arrow in the neck and a hound
on her back, while another dog checks in full career to join in the attack.
Similarly, two ibexes, turning from the lower palisade at a hot gallop,
I, PI. VII. In the evening when the game has passed down the wady to feed in the sel (the broad water-
course in the plain; dry, but with sparse desert shrubs), a line of nets secured to posts is run across their
only way of retirement. As, with the rising sun, the animals make their way back again up the ravine, a
similar barrage is raised behind them and the concealed hunters and hounds have the terrified creatures at
their mercy. The red posts and white net, being painted in, have almost faded away. The central opening
in the netting is merely an artist's device to leave the arrow clear.
'So also in Tomb 81 (Wilkinson, M. and C, I, p. 2o4)-
2 The head replaced by me. For the lean dog compare Davies, Five Theban Tombs, PL XII.
The general
disposition of
the hunting
scene
Its details
kn
some miracle of legerdemain, five spare shafts.1 At his feet a hunting
dog of extreme spareness bounds forward ventre a terre, as if bent on
keeping pace with his master's arrow.2 The descriptive note is in stereo-
typed words—"Puyemre traversing the hills, threading the desert
wastes, enjoying the shooting of the wild animals."3
The lowest register is occupied by servants who carry or bring for-
ward the captured animals. A gazelle is borne on the shoulders (?) of
the first, an oryx (?) brought up by the last. In the row above this (if
the fragments have been correctly replaced) a dog approaches a wounded
gazelle cautiously; four hares scurry away to hide among the bushes
(the Egyptian chisel is exact to foolishness in the matter of a hare's
whiskers), but an ostrich cannot find even this temporary safety. Above
this again the scene grows clearer. A hyena wounded by an arrow (?)
faces the hunter angrily: its mate (colored a bluish gray) is transfixed
by another shaft. A hunting bitch leaps on the back of a bubale (?)
whose hind quarter an arrow has pierced: its fellow vainly tries to out-
strip in speed a dog racing at its side. Beyond a slim tree, a dog (of the
usual white Punt breed with pinkish markings and head) is at the
throat of a grassed gazelle. The pair of deer spoken of above hide be-
hind a straggling tree, as if aware how much its branches resemble their
own antlers. In the topmost scene a gazelle, shot at close quarters,
turns a complete somersault. A pair of dogs cleverly outflank a group
of wounded oryxes, and are content to wait till loss of blood forces
their quarry to abate its frenzied pace. Few or none escape. A gazelle
doubles back but receives at once an arrow in the neck and a hound
on her back, while another dog checks in full career to join in the attack.
Similarly, two ibexes, turning from the lower palisade at a hot gallop,
I, PI. VII. In the evening when the game has passed down the wady to feed in the sel (the broad water-
course in the plain; dry, but with sparse desert shrubs), a line of nets secured to posts is run across their
only way of retirement. As, with the rising sun, the animals make their way back again up the ravine, a
similar barrage is raised behind them and the concealed hunters and hounds have the terrified creatures at
their mercy. The red posts and white net, being painted in, have almost faded away. The central opening
in the netting is merely an artist's device to leave the arrow clear.
'So also in Tomb 81 (Wilkinson, M. and C, I, p. 2o4)-
2 The head replaced by me. For the lean dog compare Davies, Five Theban Tombs, PL XII.
The general
disposition of
the hunting
scene
Its details
kn