Wilkinson, John Gardner: Topographie of Thebes, and general view of Egypt: being a short account of the principal objects worthy of notice in the valley of the Nile, to the second cataracte and Wadi Samneh, with the Fyoom, Oases and eastern desert, from Sooez to Bertenice (London, 1835)

110 BIBAN EL MOLOOK. [Chap. 11.

the furniture and arms, and consequently on the
manners and customs of the Egyptians.

In the first to the left (entering) is the kitchen,
where the principal groups, though much defaced,
may yet be recognised. Some are engaged in
slaughtering oxen, and cutting up the joints, which
are put into caldrons on a tripod placed over a wood
fire, and in the lower line a man is employed in
cutting a leather strap he holds with his feet, a
practice common throughout the East. Another
pounds something for the kitchen in a large mor-
tar, another apparently minces the meat, and a
pallet suspended by ropes, running in rings which
are fastened to the roof, is raised from the ground,
to guard against the intrusion of rats and other
destructive depredators. On the opposite side,
in the upper line, two men knead a substance*
with their feet, others cook meat, pastry, and
broth, probably of lentils, which fill some baskets
beside them; and of the frescos of the lower
line sufficient remains to show that others are
engaged in drawing off, by means of syphons, a
liquid from vases before them. On the end wall is
the process of making bread, but the dough is
kneaded by the hand, and not, as Herodotus and
Strabo mention, by the feet;! and small black
seeds being sprinkled on the surface of the cakes
(probably the habbehsodaj still used in Egypt)

* Probably the paste for the kitchen. Herod, ii. 36.
f No doubt they used both, as we see in this tomb.
| Or the nigella sativa. Properly written habh sodh.