Petrie, William M. Flinders: Deshasheh: 1897 (London, 1898)

10

DESHASHEIT.

Teta" ; this being compounded with a king's
name is probably also a son of the noble. The
other boys are therefore presumably also of the
family ; and this points to the capture of the
sacrifice by the sons being a necessary part of
the ritual of ancestral worship. The man who
is helping at the back shows by his size the
youth of the sons. A very small bull behind
seems as if it belonged to a different breed of
diminutive cattle ; it is evidently full grown, by
its proportions in comparison with those of the
calves in the line above. A still greater dif-
ference of size in breeds may be seen in Indian
cattle, as shown in Kipling's " Man and Beast
in India."

(15.) PL XIX. The north side of the
recess (marked here in error S. wall of recess) is
nearly all destroyed ; but a small piece in relief
shows the name of Shedu, with the best example
of the determinative, a water-skin; the long
neck to the left, the belt for slinging it over the
shoulder, and the sag of the skin slung from the
belt, are just like the modern water-skin carried
about Cairo at present. Below that comes
the name of his mother, Mertefs, which also
occurs on pi. xvi., and has been elsewhere
carved.

The pilaster inscriptions show the same titles
that are seen elsewhere, and a bit of the group
seen on the statues of Nenkheftka (pi. xxxiii. 27).
The back of the recess had a false door
sculptured on it, flanked by figures of jars of
offerings. It has been greatly broken away,
and what remains is disfigured by thick in-
crustation of salt.

PI. XX. On the south wall of the recess was
a figure of Shedu seated, with a table of offerings
before him. The west wall of the tomb, to the
south of the recess, is nearly all destroyed, only
fragments of some small figures remaining at
the top.

(16.) PL XXI. Here Shedu and his
daughter are beholding the workmen of the
estate. The carpenters are polishing a couch,

beneath which are the boxes for clothing, &c,
and two head-rests, placed on footstools.
Another carpenter is sawing a plank. The
wood is lashed on to an upright post which is
planted in the ground, and is further stayed by
ropes fore and aft tying it down to attachments
in the ground. The lashing which attaches the
board to the fixed post is tightened by twisting
it up with a stick, and the ball of surplus cord
hangs down. In the middle line is a carpenter
trimming a great door. Next is a machine
made of a forked piece standing on the ground
and a long curved leg fastened to it, forming a
tripod; on this is fastened a long lever arm, so
as to form a press or vice. This is worked by
one man putting his weight on the lever, while
another places bars of wood to be acted on in
the press. A row of such bars lies in the back-
ground. The inscription was never completed,
the name of the object or action was some
unusual sign which the sculptor did not know,
and he has left a blank for it. The use of this
press is not clear ; it may have been to compress
and harden the points of the stakes, or to trim
them into shape with a cutter; but if the latter,
we should expect to have the form of the end
shown. Lastly comes the cutting of wood;
the word nezer, or nejer, " to prepare wood or
carpenter," is still used, the neggdr being the
modern Arabic for a carpenter. At the bottom
is the preparation of leather, and sandal-making ;
leather cases for mirrors, &c, stand in the back-
ground.

(17.) PL XXII. On the other half of the
south wall is the very usual fishing scene, where
Shedu is accompanied by his daughter and one
son who is spearing fish. The son's name
remains—" Nena, whose surname is Erdunef-
hotep " (see pi. xxv.) ; and he held the office
of governor of the palace and companion like his
father. Another son whose name is lost—unless
it was Shedu as his father's—stands behind,
holding a bird which he has knocked over with
a throw-stick. The genett cats (?) hunting for

18.)

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