DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4862#0073
Features of
the scene
The hippo-
potamus hunt
PLEASANT HOURS AT HOME AND ABROAD
being driven before him for registration. Two, at least, of the three
figures which follow are personal attendants.1
Puyemre is now ready to further personally the labors of the
peasants with that free option which changes toil into sport. The main
scene before us comprises three episodes—harpooning the hippopotamus,
spearing fish, and knocking down birds with the boomerang. As oppor-
tunities for the first-named chase can have been only occasionally found
at Thebes, it is not very often represented in the tombs there.2 The
pictures, too, though not valueless to the cautious antiquarian, display
the artist's choice of effective pose and movement rather than any ac-
curacy of narration. For the hunt could not really have followed this
heroic model, where a single combatant, poised precariously on a reed
float, or a boat little better than that, and impeded by a clinging woman,3
engages in a combat which even modern weapons do not deprive of
danger. There must have been several helpers and more than one boat
to enable the hunter to avoid the reprisals of the infuriated beast. It is
only by the exhaustion of the animal after repeated wounds that success
can be secured, and what we see is the close of the combat when the
animal is about to be struck for at least the third time. In these flat-
tering pictures it is always the note of victorious calm and ease that is
struck; never that of danger and strain. The angry monster shows a
terrible armament of teeth; but his back is always to the foe, and he
only desires to shake him off or take refuge in deep water. That is to
say, we see the preparation and the victory, but not the struggle; for
1 The red bowl really consists of a saucer, with a rim red and black in segments, covered by an in-
verted saucer of the same sort, and is often shown at this period. In Newberry, Rekhmara, Pis. XIII, XIV,
it is said to contain cakes of nuts and grain and is given as a determinative to the word "honey." See also
Schaefer, Priestergrdber, p. 79. For the restored gauntlet and sandals see PI. XXVIII.
2 There are relics of the scene in Tombs 53, 82, 85, 125, i55, i64, and it probably had a place also
in Tomb 81. The scene cannot have been a sportsman's dream or an archaic survival merely; for if the
chase was in general confined to the Delta, where broader wastes may have afforded the animal a refuge,
it must have passed down the river to that habitat and could be hunted on the passage. Its occurrence
in the Delta till close on the Christian era is vouched for by Diodorus Siculus. For this and other informa-
tion see Oric Bates, Ancient Egyptian Fishing, p. 239, etc.
3 The inscription "his wife, Senseneb" may not belong here. The chase is a little more reasonably repre-
sented in Steindorff, Grab des Ti, PI. CXIII, where Ti only looks on. So also in Daressy, Maslaba de Mery,
p. 526.
5o
the scene
The hippo-
potamus hunt
PLEASANT HOURS AT HOME AND ABROAD
being driven before him for registration. Two, at least, of the three
figures which follow are personal attendants.1
Puyemre is now ready to further personally the labors of the
peasants with that free option which changes toil into sport. The main
scene before us comprises three episodes—harpooning the hippopotamus,
spearing fish, and knocking down birds with the boomerang. As oppor-
tunities for the first-named chase can have been only occasionally found
at Thebes, it is not very often represented in the tombs there.2 The
pictures, too, though not valueless to the cautious antiquarian, display
the artist's choice of effective pose and movement rather than any ac-
curacy of narration. For the hunt could not really have followed this
heroic model, where a single combatant, poised precariously on a reed
float, or a boat little better than that, and impeded by a clinging woman,3
engages in a combat which even modern weapons do not deprive of
danger. There must have been several helpers and more than one boat
to enable the hunter to avoid the reprisals of the infuriated beast. It is
only by the exhaustion of the animal after repeated wounds that success
can be secured, and what we see is the close of the combat when the
animal is about to be struck for at least the third time. In these flat-
tering pictures it is always the note of victorious calm and ease that is
struck; never that of danger and strain. The angry monster shows a
terrible armament of teeth; but his back is always to the foe, and he
only desires to shake him off or take refuge in deep water. That is to
say, we see the preparation and the victory, but not the struggle; for
1 The red bowl really consists of a saucer, with a rim red and black in segments, covered by an in-
verted saucer of the same sort, and is often shown at this period. In Newberry, Rekhmara, Pis. XIII, XIV,
it is said to contain cakes of nuts and grain and is given as a determinative to the word "honey." See also
Schaefer, Priestergrdber, p. 79. For the restored gauntlet and sandals see PI. XXVIII.
2 There are relics of the scene in Tombs 53, 82, 85, 125, i55, i64, and it probably had a place also
in Tomb 81. The scene cannot have been a sportsman's dream or an archaic survival merely; for if the
chase was in general confined to the Delta, where broader wastes may have afforded the animal a refuge,
it must have passed down the river to that habitat and could be hunted on the passage. Its occurrence
in the Delta till close on the Christian era is vouched for by Diodorus Siculus. For this and other informa-
tion see Oric Bates, Ancient Egyptian Fishing, p. 239, etc.
3 The inscription "his wife, Senseneb" may not belong here. The chase is a little more reasonably repre-
sented in Steindorff, Grab des Ti, PI. CXIII, where Ti only looks on. So also in Daressy, Maslaba de Mery,
p. 526.
5o