DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4860#0077
Shipmen
on shore-
leave
The ships
The
grain-store
TWO RAMESSIDE TOMBS
angle.1 The artist seems to be aware of the proverbial gullibility of
sailors, who exchange a whole sack of corn for two miserable cakes, a
small fish or two, or a few cucumbers, and think themselves shrewd in
inducing the woman to double hesitatingly her first shameless offer.2
The river craft, like the fishing boats in the lowest register, have a
hull built up of short planks. The masts have been unshipped while in
port, and the sail and tackle have been wrapped round the masts and
yards and stowed away on top of the deckhouse. The mast is provided
with a frame at the head which serves the office of a pulley, and with
four disks which may have been attached to the yards and slid up and
down the mast, but seem, from the holes shown, to be contrivances for
keeping the running tackle apart. Besides the latticed enclosures for
freight, the deck holds a neat cabin with a decorated window; but it is
so small that the bed projects beyond the door.
When the ships arrive at their destination, the sacks are carried down
gangplanks to the shuneh (grain yard). As each leaves the ship, a call
boy in the bow yells out the number of the delivery to the responsible
person in the granary. This building is, as today, simply a high-walled
court in which the different kinds of grain are piled. In Egypt the
weather need not be consulted, but the roofless storehouse leaves the
contents at the mercy of the birds. One of the boys set to scare them
away does, if the copy is to be trusted, raise his voice and missile against
these daring invaders, but his fellow sides with them and helps to con-
sume the grain. The artist believes in their efficiency so little that he
depicts the birds confidently nesting in the piles; but he strains our
credulity when he suggests that even wild ducks venture within the walls.
Sloth and piety went hand in hand, then as now. Place is reserved in
the enclosure for the harvest goddess, before whom are laid suitable
offerings of a cup of grain, a sheaf of wheat, and toasted bread whose
odor penetrates subtly to the indwelling deity. Whoever offers, the
'For the drinking-reed see Steindorff, Bliilezeit (1926), p. 56; Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, II,
p. 3i4; Griffith, J. E. A., 1926, p. 22; Erman, A. Z., 36, pp. 126-129; Tomb i3.
2 The women sit on little stools, of which the artist or copyist has sometimes deprived them. Probably
three similar figures of female vendors were shown on the right hand of the boats.
58
on shore-
leave
The ships
The
grain-store
TWO RAMESSIDE TOMBS
angle.1 The artist seems to be aware of the proverbial gullibility of
sailors, who exchange a whole sack of corn for two miserable cakes, a
small fish or two, or a few cucumbers, and think themselves shrewd in
inducing the woman to double hesitatingly her first shameless offer.2
The river craft, like the fishing boats in the lowest register, have a
hull built up of short planks. The masts have been unshipped while in
port, and the sail and tackle have been wrapped round the masts and
yards and stowed away on top of the deckhouse. The mast is provided
with a frame at the head which serves the office of a pulley, and with
four disks which may have been attached to the yards and slid up and
down the mast, but seem, from the holes shown, to be contrivances for
keeping the running tackle apart. Besides the latticed enclosures for
freight, the deck holds a neat cabin with a decorated window; but it is
so small that the bed projects beyond the door.
When the ships arrive at their destination, the sacks are carried down
gangplanks to the shuneh (grain yard). As each leaves the ship, a call
boy in the bow yells out the number of the delivery to the responsible
person in the granary. This building is, as today, simply a high-walled
court in which the different kinds of grain are piled. In Egypt the
weather need not be consulted, but the roofless storehouse leaves the
contents at the mercy of the birds. One of the boys set to scare them
away does, if the copy is to be trusted, raise his voice and missile against
these daring invaders, but his fellow sides with them and helps to con-
sume the grain. The artist believes in their efficiency so little that he
depicts the birds confidently nesting in the piles; but he strains our
credulity when he suggests that even wild ducks venture within the walls.
Sloth and piety went hand in hand, then as now. Place is reserved in
the enclosure for the harvest goddess, before whom are laid suitable
offerings of a cup of grain, a sheaf of wheat, and toasted bread whose
odor penetrates subtly to the indwelling deity. Whoever offers, the
'For the drinking-reed see Steindorff, Bliilezeit (1926), p. 56; Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, II,
p. 3i4; Griffith, J. E. A., 1926, p. 22; Erman, A. Z., 36, pp. 126-129; Tomb i3.
2 The women sit on little stools, of which the artist or copyist has sometimes deprived them. Probably
three similar figures of female vendors were shown on the right hand of the boats.
58