DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55201#0040
SEASON OF I9I9-I92O
27
attention on the more important and showy rooms, so the ancient
model-maker has devoted all his pains to those parts of the house
and garden which would most delight the heart of his patron. There
is the high wall which shuts out the outside world. Within, a little
oblong pool—of copper so that it will hold real water—is surrounded
by fruit trees, and facing it is a cool, deep porch with gaily painted
columns. At the back of the porch a great double state-doorway with
a fanlight above, a smaller door for everyday use, and a tall latticed
window give a semblance of the facade of the house itself. The trees,
made of wood, have each little leaf carved and pegged in place. The
fruit is not growing from the twigs, but from the main stems and
branches, so that there shall be no doubt but that the sycamore fig is
intended.
A great man like Meket-Ref would be required to journey up and
down the river to administer his scattered estates and to fulfil his
duties in the king’s administration. Travel, as always in Egypt, was
by boat, and a man of high rank would have owned his own vessels
for travel and others for pleasure. Half the models we found, there-
fore, are ships and boats to fulfil the needs of Meket-Ref in a future
state which was to be but a repetition of his mortal life. He lived a
generation or two before the new cult came into Upper Egypt which
required a man to prepare a mystic barge to accompany the Sun on
its journeys, and it is doubtful whether he even intended any of these
boats to represent his funeral float. They are, in fact, models of the
every-day ships which plied up and down the river four thousand
years ago.
There are four traveling boats—thirty- or forty-footers supposedly,
but in the models about four feet long—with crews of from twelve to
eighteen besides helmsmen, bowsmen, and captains. Going up river
with the prevailing northerly wind, they set a great square sail, and
we see the little sailors making fast the back-stays and hauling on the
halyards (pl. 28). Coming down the river with the current against
the wind, the mast was lowered in a rest, the sail stowed on deck, and
the crew got out the sweeps. They start their stroke with one foot
on the thwart in front, and then all together heaving on their oars,
they end it sitting on the thwarts behind them. Meket-Ref sits in his
chair at his ease smelling a lotus bud (pl. 30), with his son beside him
on one side and a singer on the other, patting his mouth with his hand
to give his voice a quavering, warbling sound. In one case the singer
is accompanied by a blind harper whose harp sits in a little wooden
stand between his knees. A sort of humorous fidelity inspired the
27
attention on the more important and showy rooms, so the ancient
model-maker has devoted all his pains to those parts of the house
and garden which would most delight the heart of his patron. There
is the high wall which shuts out the outside world. Within, a little
oblong pool—of copper so that it will hold real water—is surrounded
by fruit trees, and facing it is a cool, deep porch with gaily painted
columns. At the back of the porch a great double state-doorway with
a fanlight above, a smaller door for everyday use, and a tall latticed
window give a semblance of the facade of the house itself. The trees,
made of wood, have each little leaf carved and pegged in place. The
fruit is not growing from the twigs, but from the main stems and
branches, so that there shall be no doubt but that the sycamore fig is
intended.
A great man like Meket-Ref would be required to journey up and
down the river to administer his scattered estates and to fulfil his
duties in the king’s administration. Travel, as always in Egypt, was
by boat, and a man of high rank would have owned his own vessels
for travel and others for pleasure. Half the models we found, there-
fore, are ships and boats to fulfil the needs of Meket-Ref in a future
state which was to be but a repetition of his mortal life. He lived a
generation or two before the new cult came into Upper Egypt which
required a man to prepare a mystic barge to accompany the Sun on
its journeys, and it is doubtful whether he even intended any of these
boats to represent his funeral float. They are, in fact, models of the
every-day ships which plied up and down the river four thousand
years ago.
There are four traveling boats—thirty- or forty-footers supposedly,
but in the models about four feet long—with crews of from twelve to
eighteen besides helmsmen, bowsmen, and captains. Going up river
with the prevailing northerly wind, they set a great square sail, and
we see the little sailors making fast the back-stays and hauling on the
halyards (pl. 28). Coming down the river with the current against
the wind, the mast was lowered in a rest, the sail stowed on deck, and
the crew got out the sweeps. They start their stroke with one foot
on the thwart in front, and then all together heaving on their oars,
they end it sitting on the thwarts behind them. Meket-Ref sits in his
chair at his ease smelling a lotus bud (pl. 30), with his son beside him
on one side and a singer on the other, patting his mouth with his hand
to give his voice a quavering, warbling sound. In one case the singer
is accompanied by a blind harper whose harp sits in a little wooden
stand between his knees. A sort of humorous fidelity inspired the