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Bow J*riT5ce Senbi Wont Bnntiiip LIom and Deer, Showing Arrows Flying, Deer Running, Dogs Jumping, a Lion Attacking a Bull and. Other Morin? Facts of Natural History
Prince S<
The Full Story on Buried A jUirgVfn g f
'•N _ K H 1x3k §M Kg ?Mk Eg
Temple Walls of the Gay t \ S \U fMl* 1
Life, Banquets, Sporjts, Theatrical and Domestic
Affairs of an Ancient Egyptian Spendthrift
P AINTED on the rock tombs of ancient Cusae. 1b
upper Egypt, archaeology bae discovered the
whole life Kory of Prince Senbl. who muat have
been the moat distinguished “high roller" of 4,000
gears ago.
The tombs have Just been excavated by Professor
Aylward M. Blackman, of Worcester College, Oxford,
who Is associated with the Egypt Exploration Fund
The pictures show with remarkable realism how
Prince Senbl bunted, how he feasted on fat bulls,
ducks and all the choicest produce of the Nile; how
be was entertained by hundreds of singers, dancers,
wrestlers, conjurers, magicians and other entertainers
—show, in fact, that life was one long round of amuse-
ment and "Joy riding" for His Highness.
The records show that Senbl lived at a rate of ex
penditure not approached by any of our modern
spendthrifts of Europe or America. The singers and
dancers who amused him every evening exceeded In
number the whole troupe of New York's Metropolitan
Opera House.
Reckoning the cost of entertainers at something
like modern rates, he spent $200,000 a day on this
purpose alone.
While he feasted himself upon the choicest produce
ef the earth, he also entertained In the moat sumptu
ous manner every day live thousand persons, men and
women. All of them fed on choice beef, fat ducks,
geese and plovers and fine fish. It la estimated that
he spent $50,000 a day on food for his friends and
•ervantB.
Whenever a dancer pleased him for an Instant he
threw her a ruby-studded golden diadem, worth 9200.-
000 or more, or some trifle like that. Senbl, by the
way, ruled on the confines of upper Egypt, not far
from the country where most of the gold and precious
stones of ancient times came from. He was within
five days’ Journey of the country of the Queen of
Sheba, and his ships brought gold from the fabled
land of Goloonda.
It Is curious that these particular pictures should
be In tomb chapels, but It is evident that the serlous-
tnlnded Egyptians frequently gathered here to reflect
en the fate of those who had passed to the other
Wor’d.
Melr, on the west hank of the Nile, is a modern
Tillage that stands near the site of ancient Cusae,
which was a considerable city during the twelfth
dynasty of the Pharaohs, about 4,000 years ago.
Cusae was the capital of a "nomarchy" or principality
The most Interesting pictures from the tombs, which
• re reproduced here, deal with the life of one of the
oomarchs, Senbi, the son of Ukh-Hotep.
One of the most Interesting scenes reproduced on
this stage shows Prince Senbl out spearing flsh and
catching birds on the Nile, In company with Meres, his
wife. The artist makes Meres remarkably small com
pared to her august husband, although she must have
been held In very high esteem for a lady of that time,
as the hieroglyphs repeatedly say.
"On the left side of the scene Senbl, accompanied
By his wife Meres, stands In a skiff constructed of
reeds, spearing fish,” writes Professor Blackman ex
plaining this scene. "This subject Is depicted over
and over again In tomb-chapels, both of the preceding
and contemporary periods, but here It Is Imbued with
a new life. How realistic are the monstrous hippo
potami who bellow and display their gleaming white
tusks at the daring sportsman as he comes skimming
over the surface of the water In his trail canoe' Above
their haunts In the papyrus-thicket, which occupies the
middle of the picture, hovers a cloud of birds who beat
the air with their flapping wings, while nearer the
water flit dragon files and butterflies The papyrus-
reads are beautifully rendered, swaying gently tu the
arrows and careering beasts, nibbles at a tuft of grass
and suckles her doe. The rocky pebble-strewn sur
face of the high desert where the hunt Is taking place
Is simply but effectively Indicated, A pale plak-to-
buff Is the coloring of the rocks snd background, whlls
the pebbles are suggested by dark-red spots.”
There are some interesting details In the clothes
and equipment of Senbl. In ife* right hand, with
which he is also drawing the string of his bow.
Senbl holds three spare arrows. He Is tightly girt in
with a cloth or leather band, twisted several ttmes
round his waist and then knotted. He Is clad In a
scanty kilt that, leaves his legs free and unhampered,
and wears an appendage, apparently made of the hide
of some animals, In shape not unlike a Highlander's
sporran.
Another very Instructive series of pictures shows va
rious stages in the killing of bulls for a banquet, for
Benbl.
Above the first two pairs of oxen Is the following
light breexe or bending beneath the birds wto perch
upon them
“In the north end of the thicket a fox, who hss
clambered up over the yielding nlahes and snatched
at the bead of a fledgling which protruded above Its
nest, is taking his departure with his prey dangling
from his mouth. The other tiny occupant of the nest
flaps Us wings In terror while the parent-bird, hover
Ing above, utters loud lamentations from outstretched
throat over her Inability to protect her home and
callow brood from this sly and rapacious foe.
"In the continuation of the scene Benbi Is engaged
In fowling with a throw-stick, which he Is Just about
to discharge at the swarm of birds In front of him.
In his left hand are three unfledged nestlings which
are probably meant to act as decoys. A duck Is repre
sented In the act of falling, having been struck on the
neck by the well-aimed boomerang, while a previous
catch has been picked up by his wife, who also holds
a bunch of lotus-flowers which she had plucked ere
the sport began. The lovely little
clumps of water plants below the
two canoes particularly deserve 1 (y t ,, TTT
notlce. The artist has represented <r' k p
them as waving to and fro In the ffiL, Ap If
current. |
"The Inscription above Senbl i flj| ,
Ashing Is as follows: 'Spearing | ji SSEJ (i
Offering 9 Fine Bird
to His Highness.
Fragment of a Long Series, Showing Wrestlers, Dancing Girls and Others Amnsing Benbi
text: "Offering the produce of the choicest of the
stalls to the Ka of him who Is honored by Osiris, the
Nomarch Senbl, Possessor of honor.” Next In order
come several cows and a calf driven by a herdsman,
who wears a kilt of woven straw.
Then we see a bull being lassoed. The fiery antma!
Is full of life, and he snorts and tosses his head in his
rage. But struggle though he may, It Is all to no
purpose. The lasso, skilfully thrown, has him well In
Its tolls, his left leg Is securely caught up. and pres
ently down he will fall.
In the next picture the man who grasps the horns of
a bull and presses down Its he&d with one foot, while
his companion ties Its legs, exclaims: "Como, that
you may do what Is good!” The butcher, who Is
operating upon the hind leg of the black-and-white vic
tim, remarks to the fellow who holds the limb Ip
question: "That’s fine, the way you've stretched it
out!" A butcher who has Just cut the throat of an
ox calls out to his assistant who ts tightening the
rbpes that bind the animal's legs and keep him from
struggling: “Let your arm be strong, so that we may
offer Joints of meat to the Ka of the Honored One,
the Nomarch Senbi the Justified!”
Hard by a fellow, who is holding down the bead of
another tted-up ox so that when the butcher comes he
may the more easily slit its throat, calls out to hlroi
"I have laid him on his side for you.” The slaughter
ing of the cattle is being done under the eye of the
"Superintendent of the inner apartment, Netruhotp.”
These pictures are of a funerary character, that 1s,
they are in honor of the "Ka." or soul, of the departed
Senbi, but they also Illustrate the actual events of
his life. Funeral ceremonies were a leading fnature
scribed as: ‘His wife, his Favor
ite. Meres, Possessor of Honor.’ ”
Another clever picture on this . _
Prince Senbl hunted lions, doer and other large wild
animals. This time he la without his wife.
“The hunting scene," says Professor Blackman, "well
Illustrates the naturalism of the artists of Cusae snd
their ability to express life and motion. In these re
spects their work far excels most of the surviving
productions of their contemporaries. How formal and
lifeless by comparison seems a similar scene In the
famous tomb-chapel of Khnem-hotp II. at Beni Hasan!
There the animals look as If they are waiting to be
shot at, and as for the lion, he pays not the slightest
heed to the arrows that go whistling past him. He Is
Indeed the tamest of wild beasts! The pose of Khnem-
hotp, too, drawing his bow Is devoid of animation
"But in this Cusite relief It Is all different, Senbl
Is the keen sportsman, every inch of him. All his
muscles are tense and every nerve aJert, as he raises
himself on the toes of hts right foot and bends slightly
forward to take aim. The fleeing animals, the hounds
racing after them or fixing upon them and pulling them
down, are splendidly portrayed. The artist seems to
have aimed at emphasising the difference between the
slow gait of the hedgehog and the rapid flight of the
bare, who stretches himself to run and kicks up his
hind legs, by placing them In close proximity to each
other The lion, who has caught the bull by the
tnuxzle, la a thoroughly ferocious creature, quite un
like the mild Beni Hasan specimen.
"It Is a line piece of realism, for a Hon, when be
attacks an ox. always does make for hla muszle, that
being his most sensitive spot. Thus the poor beast
becomes almost paralyzed with pain and fear. A de
lightful touch Is the mothepgazelle, who, amid the flying
Showing the Method of Win
sowing Grain Among the
Ancient Egyptian*.
Showing Meres, the
Photograph from the Tomb Chapel of Cusai
Bird He Has Shot. The I
itire Scene Is Given