DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1035#0179
Chap. III.] AN EPITOME OF HUMAN LIFE. 143
Nor could the figures of the king, who sometimes
receives presents borne by Ethiopians and blacks,
at others by men of a white nation, or a deputation
of Egyptians, relate any further to the person of
the tomb than as it showed the era in which he
lived. This, as well as the above-mentioned sub-
jects, must necessarily allude to the manners and
customs of the Egyptians as a people, and in short
be an epitome of human life ; an idea perfectly in
harmony with their constant introduction into all
the large tombs, at least of the earliest times, and
of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties, and at
once accounting for the name of the individual,
and the scenes immediately relating to him, being
alone altered when re-occupied by another person.
In Number 11 is an interesting agricultural
scene, containing the different operations of reap-
ing, carrying, gleaning, trituration by oxen, win-
nowing, and housing.
Number 14 is much ruined, but remarkable as
being the only * one in which a drove of pigs f is
* We have not yet met with the camel in the sculptures, but it
does not follow that it was unknown in Egypt. Were the single
instances of swine and of the plaustrum wanting, should we con-
clude they were also unknown ? But we find mention of the camel
in Genesis, xi. 16. The buffalo is not seen in the sculptures; it
is said to have been brought from Persia, but this is very doubtful,
as it is indigenous and wild in Abyssinia. The modern Abyssi-
nians are more surprised than Europeans to see Egyptian children
riding an animal from pasture whose ferocity they dread so much
in their own country.
f We find them singly in sacred sculptures.
Nor could the figures of the king, who sometimes
receives presents borne by Ethiopians and blacks,
at others by men of a white nation, or a deputation
of Egyptians, relate any further to the person of
the tomb than as it showed the era in which he
lived. This, as well as the above-mentioned sub-
jects, must necessarily allude to the manners and
customs of the Egyptians as a people, and in short
be an epitome of human life ; an idea perfectly in
harmony with their constant introduction into all
the large tombs, at least of the earliest times, and
of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties, and at
once accounting for the name of the individual,
and the scenes immediately relating to him, being
alone altered when re-occupied by another person.
In Number 11 is an interesting agricultural
scene, containing the different operations of reap-
ing, carrying, gleaning, trituration by oxen, win-
nowing, and housing.
Number 14 is much ruined, but remarkable as
being the only * one in which a drove of pigs f is
* We have not yet met with the camel in the sculptures, but it
does not follow that it was unknown in Egypt. Were the single
instances of swine and of the plaustrum wanting, should we con-
clude they were also unknown ? But we find mention of the camel
in Genesis, xi. 16. The buffalo is not seen in the sculptures; it
is said to have been brought from Persia, but this is very doubtful,
as it is indigenous and wild in Abyssinia. The modern Abyssi-
nians are more surprised than Europeans to see Egyptian children
riding an animal from pasture whose ferocity they dread so much
in their own country.
f We find them singly in sacred sculptures.