THE TAME PUCK 193 



soon aware, hence each strives to be foremost ; one un- 

 fortunate must of course be the last, and undergo its 

 punishment. 



Among the ancient Egyptians, ducks were in great 

 request, and Herodotus informs us that they were 

 eaten salted, without any other preparation. 



" G-oose and duck painting, seems to have been a 

 favorite subject among the Egyptians. In Rosellini's 

 plates, (No. iv. M. C.,) there is a picture from a tomb 

 at Thebes, which represents a continuous subject ; it 

 lies in one compartment, and is read from right to left. 

 On the extreme right, four men are pulling a long rope 

 attached to a net, in which a num ber of birds, appa- 

 rently ducks, are caught upon a lake or some water; 

 a fifth man, a little in advance of the four, has also 

 hold of the rope, and seems to be giving a signal to the 

 rest, while a man hid among some plants, (papyri ?) 

 appears to be giving a signal and recommending care 

 and silence. Further on the left, are two men carry- 

 ing the ducks on their shoulders, and a little further, 

 a man putting them into earthern vessels, formed like 

 Roman amphorce, after the feathers have been plucked 

 and the legs cut off, the heads of the ducks were kept 

 on, and in this state they seemed to have been put 

 into the amphorce, probably containing salt or pickle. 

 In the extreme left of the picture, two men are seated, 

 one of whom seems as if he were rubbing something 

 into a duck ; one hand is closed as it would be if it 

 were full of salt, and with the other he is raising one 

 of the wings, apparently for the purpose of rubbing in 

 the salt. The other figure appears to us to be pluck- 

 ing the feathers off the neck of a duck ; but Rosellini 

 describes him as sprinkling a handful of salt upon it. 

 These two seated figures are placed near a frame work, 

 formed by two upright poles and a third placed across. 

 From this cross poll, the geese, which are plucked and 

 ready for the amphorse, are suspended by the neck. 

 This painting, according to Rosellini, is on the tomb 

 of a royal scribe called Titi, who exorcised his art in 

 9 



