CHAP. VIII. SHEPHERDS APPOINTED TO THEIR POST.

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military classes, who were called "superintendents of the cattle being held by persons of rank belonging to the priestly and the class of shepherds: it was a high and distinguished post, herds;" but this was very different from the duty of any one in

Fig. 1. Herdsman giving an account to the scribe, 3.

2. Another doing obeisance to the master of the estate, or to the scribe.

4. Other herdsmen.

5. The driver of the cattle, carrying a rope in his hand.

British Museum-from Thebes.

6. Bowing and giving his report to the scribe, 7, over whom is the usual sachel, and two boxes.

VOL. II.

N

of the king," or "of some god ;" and one of the former, named Honofr, whose wife was one of the sacred women of Amun, is mentioned in a very beautiful papyrus in the British Museum.

The cattle were brought into a court attached to the steward's house, or into the farmyard, and counted by the superintendent in the presence of the scribes; and the bastinado was freely administered if any fraud was detected, or if any shepherd had neglected the flocks committed to his care.

In the accompanying woodcut the numbers written over the animals correspond to the report made to the steward, who, in the presence of the master of the estate, receives it from the overseer, or the head shepherd. First come the oxen, over which is the number 834, then cows 220, goats 3234, asses 760, rams 974; followed by a man carrying the young lambs in baskets slung upon a pole. The steward leaning on his staff, and accompanied by what was then a fashionable dog, "with a curly tail," stands on the left of the picture; and in another place the scribes are making out the statements presented to them by the different persons employed on the farm. The tomb where this subject occurs is at the Pyramids, dating upwards of 4000 years ago, when the Egyptians had already the same customs as at a much later period. How long before this they had reached this state of civilization; had laid aside their arms; had decimal as well as duodecimal calculation, and the reckoning by units, tens, hundreds, and thousands, it is impossible to determine; but these, as well as the use of squared stone, even granite, and many other arts, were known to them before the Pyramids were built.

Many birds which frequented the interior and skirts of the desert, and were highly prized for the table, were caught by the fowlers, as the partridge, gutta (pterocles, or sand-grouse), bustard, and quail; and waterfowl of different descriptions, which abounded in the Valley of the Nile, afforded endless diversion to the sportsman, and profit to those who gained a livelihood by their sale.

Fowling was a favourite amusement of all classes; and the

joms

fowlers and fishermen were subdivisions of one of the classes into which the Egyptians were divided. They either caught the birds in large clap-nets, or in traps; and they sometimes shot them with arrows, or felled them with a throw-stick, as they flew in the thickets. (See vol. i. p. 234 to 236.)

The trap was generally made of network, strained over a frame. It consisted of two semicircular sides or flaps, of equal sizes, one or both moving on the common bar, or axis, upon which they rested. When the trap was set, the two flaps were kept open by means of strings, probably of catgut, which, the moment the bait that stood in the centre of the bar was touched, slipped aside, and allowed the two flaps to collapse, and thus secured the bird.

Another kind, which was square, appears to have closed in the same manner; but its construction was different, the framework

Fig. 1. Trap closed, and the bird caught in it; the net-work of it has been effaced, as also in fig. 3. The other traps are open.

Fishing and fowling scenes.

n

Thebes.

Part 1. a. The boat with the fish hanging up to dry in the sun and wind; on the top of the mast sits a kite. The manner in which it shrieks, while waiting
for the entrails of the fish, as they are thrown out, is very characteristically shown in the original painting. The boat is supposed to be close to the shelving
bank to which they are dragging the net. The water is represented by zigzag lines at b, which, to prevent confusion, I have not continued over the net.
Part 2. Figs. 8, 9, 10, pull the rope that the net may collapse; 11 makes a sign with his hand to keep silence and pull; at p the rope is fixed; at f, g, e,
are geese and baskets of their young and eggs; h, are pelicans; i and n, papyrus plants.

d 8 9 10 e e

h

420.