DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4860#0072
THE TOMB OF APY
that the bucket can be the better directed to the points of filling and The pond
discharge. The counterpoise was formed, then as now, of an irregular
piece of limestone or of a lump of mud. The buckets consist of pots of
very practical shape.1
The figures of the fellahin in Legrain's copy probably conform The
servants
pretty closely to the original. They are most unconventional, and their
squat forms seem put in deliberate contrast to the slim and long legged
aristocracy above (Plate XXVII), as the stubble on their neglected
heads and chins is pitted against the long and tended locks of their
betters. They are clothed in a skin cast round their loins and passed
between the legs, to suit the wet and severe labor of the shaduf. The dog
in attendance on each of the men on the right is a touch of nature which
shows the mood of the artist, for it adds nothing to the scene but the
truth and humor of life. The fellah who today pleads lack of bread will
still be possessor of a riding ass and of one dog at least, not dreaming of
dispensing with either. Readers of Pere Scheil's account of the scene
will have been tantalized to hear of a possible case of infanticide, which
the draughtsman had the malice, or the foresight, to omit. Fate has
continued in a tricky humor, for I seem to have secured the fragment
in question, yet with such curtailment as to leave the mark of interro-
gation unremoved. I have had the hardihood to transform the affec-
tionate, or callous, mother (with a red arm) into a servant filling his
waterskin (red).2
The garden is planted with trees and flowers. Among the former The garden
are the pomegranate, pollarded willow (?), persea (?), and fig; among
the latter, the corn-flower, the ranunculus, and the poppy (P).3 These
trees are totally unlike those earlier conventions which remind one of
an old-fashioned Noah's ark. Their branches grow irregularly and sway
with the wind, their boles are gnarled and lopped, and probably they
1 The modern contrivance is fitted with a pouch of soft leather, which can easily be emptied by a push
from below, but this is being replaced by the horrible kerosene tin. Shadufs are also shown in Tombs 4o and i38.
2 No one seems to have taken the trouble to preserve Legrain's original drawings.
3 The poppy is such a constant companion of the corn-flower and reeds that I have altered the red flower
to this shape, but ought rather to have chosen the alternate variety given by Petrie in Tell el Amarna, PL III,
No. 1, in face of the form shown in PI. XXV.
53
that the bucket can be the better directed to the points of filling and The pond
discharge. The counterpoise was formed, then as now, of an irregular
piece of limestone or of a lump of mud. The buckets consist of pots of
very practical shape.1
The figures of the fellahin in Legrain's copy probably conform The
servants
pretty closely to the original. They are most unconventional, and their
squat forms seem put in deliberate contrast to the slim and long legged
aristocracy above (Plate XXVII), as the stubble on their neglected
heads and chins is pitted against the long and tended locks of their
betters. They are clothed in a skin cast round their loins and passed
between the legs, to suit the wet and severe labor of the shaduf. The dog
in attendance on each of the men on the right is a touch of nature which
shows the mood of the artist, for it adds nothing to the scene but the
truth and humor of life. The fellah who today pleads lack of bread will
still be possessor of a riding ass and of one dog at least, not dreaming of
dispensing with either. Readers of Pere Scheil's account of the scene
will have been tantalized to hear of a possible case of infanticide, which
the draughtsman had the malice, or the foresight, to omit. Fate has
continued in a tricky humor, for I seem to have secured the fragment
in question, yet with such curtailment as to leave the mark of interro-
gation unremoved. I have had the hardihood to transform the affec-
tionate, or callous, mother (with a red arm) into a servant filling his
waterskin (red).2
The garden is planted with trees and flowers. Among the former The garden
are the pomegranate, pollarded willow (?), persea (?), and fig; among
the latter, the corn-flower, the ranunculus, and the poppy (P).3 These
trees are totally unlike those earlier conventions which remind one of
an old-fashioned Noah's ark. Their branches grow irregularly and sway
with the wind, their boles are gnarled and lopped, and probably they
1 The modern contrivance is fitted with a pouch of soft leather, which can easily be emptied by a push
from below, but this is being replaced by the horrible kerosene tin. Shadufs are also shown in Tombs 4o and i38.
2 No one seems to have taken the trouble to preserve Legrain's original drawings.
3 The poppy is such a constant companion of the corn-flower and reeds that I have altered the red flower
to this shape, but ought rather to have chosen the alternate variety given by Petrie in Tell el Amarna, PL III,
No. 1, in face of the form shown in PI. XXV.
53