Naville, Edouard; Tylor, J. J. [Hrsg.]; Griffith, Francis Ll. [Hrsg.]: Ahnas el Medineh: (Heracleopolis Magna) ; with chapters on Mendes, the nome of Thoth, and Leontopolis; [beigefügtes Werk]: The tomb of Paheri : at el Kab / by J. J. Tylor and F. L. Griffith (London, 1894)

II. EXPLANATION OF THE SCENES AND

INSCEIPTIONS.

Peehaps the most instructive programme for
the tour of the tomb would be, on entering it,
first to visit the shrine with its statues,1 and
there make acquaintance with some of the
family and ancestors of the nomarch;2 next
to inspect the festive gathering of his kin,
upon the East wall;3 then, having offered a
sacrifice,4 to "go out upon the earth" with
the princely scribe as he is pictured at the
entrance,5 and be spectators of the occu-
pations of an official and landowner as they
are depicted upon the West wall;6 after
which we should follow Paheri's corpse in its
funerary procession, and wonder at the strange
ceremonies.7 On the back wall we mi^ht
read his lengthy and impressive epitaph;8 and
before leaving the tomb of the great man we
should endeavour to repeat the prayers for his
soul, while admiring the ceiling upon which
they are written.

Some such arrangement may have been in
the mind of the artist who designed the tomb,
and that artist may have been Paheri himself.
But our duty in this book is clear—it is to
explain the plates, and to this end we had
better take them as they come.

1. FACADE, &c. Pl. I.

On the Eastern wall of the entrance-platform
or outer court Paheri is represented in a very
simple dress, kneeling, with his arms raised
towards the south. The inscription over his
head is somewhat injured, but can be re-

1

PI.

ix.

2

PI.

X.

3

PI.

vi.

and

vii.

4

PI.

viii.

5

PI.

ii.

c

PI.

iii

and

iv.

stored with certainty as an address to the
local goddess Nekhebt, the mistress of the
south :—

1. Rtet [dau en Nekhebt, sen ta en netert] 2. aat (?),

an [ha] mer henu neter en Nekhe]bt [.........an]

Paheri, mah kheru: 3. \_zet\-ef \_dnez her-et], nebt

Re-dnti, nebt pet, henut neteru, hem nefer 4.......

hem-ef, uz'at reyt em pet em ta, sba nefer 5.......

en (J.) tekek-tu se............sep nefer: iu-nd kheret

6................ re-d er metet 7. retui-d er shemt,

merti(?)-d er ma.........-et em khert hern, khent-d

8. em bu nefer en tetet-nd, t-et uba(?)-d Ament
nefert em khert heru ent ra neb'

" Giving [praise to Nekhebt, obeisance to] the
great [goddess], by [the prince], superintendent

of the priests of Nekhebt,......... the scribe,

Paheri, deceased.

"He says: ' [Homage to thee], lady of Re-anti
(the mouth of the two valleys), lady of heaven,
mistress of the gods, goodly helm [to him that
hath no] rudder (?): balancing-power (?) in

heaven and in earth, goodly star [of.........]

that none sees [but in (?)] time of good ! I

have come to thee...............grant me my

mouth to speak, my feet to walk, my eyes to
see thy [brightness] every day, that I may
enjoy the good things that are given me;
grant thou me to pass through tbe goodly
Ament (West) day by day.' " -

The phrases applied to the goddess are
mythologically important, but are only half in-
telligible, owing to the lacunae.

is evidently a variant of

■A

I

^ w c

j)

Pl. v.

8 Pl.

X.

which is preserved in some MSS. of Burton as
a title of Nekhebt in one of the temples of
El Kab.9

9 Cf. also Brugsch, Dictionnaire Oeographique, p. 47.