DISCOVERY 



37 



vigorous as the Cusite sculptor's representation of the 

 lion's tussle with the bull. The lion has caught the 

 bull by the muzzle, and they both pull one against the 

 other for all they are worth ! It is a fine piece of real- 

 ism, for a lion, when he attacks a bull, always does 

 make for this part of hini, so a big-game hunter tells 

 me, it being the poor beast's most sensitive spot, and, 

 when once he is grabbed there he is practically power- 

 less. How full of life, too, are the fleeing hartebeests, 

 antelopes, and gazelles, and the hounds who grapple 

 with them and bring them down ! And surely it was 

 the artist's deliberate intention to emphasise the 

 difference between the slow gait of the hedgehog and 

 the rapid flight of the hare when he placed them in such 

 close proximity. 



But the outstanding feature of the relief is the figure 

 of the noble hunter himself. Every muscle is tense. 



he IS being affected by the music and the no doubt 

 highly emotional songs ! 



Other admirable e.xamples of the naturalism of the 

 Cusite artists occur in the tomb-chapel of Senbi,' 

 for instance, the spirited representation of a bull being 

 lassoed, a Bishari herdsman with his oxen (cf. the very 

 similar figure discussed below), and a fat old fisherman, 

 who has just hoisted his heavily laden net out of the 

 water. 



Certain sculptures in the tomb-chapel of Senbi's son 

 Ukhhotpe are, so it is said by competent critics, to be 

 reckoned among the greatest works of art that have 

 survived to us from the ancient world. Take, for 

 example, the old fellow leaning on a stick and con- 

 versing with a boatwright (Fig. 2). Pot-bellied, some- 

 what decrepit, and very garrulous, he is the type of 

 old peasant that you may see any day in a modern 



Fig. 3.— two p.\pvrus-h.\rvestek^ 



and every nerve alert as he raises himself on the toes 

 of his right foot and leans fonvard to discharge an 

 arrow from his bow at the flying deer — the keen 

 sportsman even,^ inch of him. In no other an- 

 cient Eg3T3tian hunting scene preserved to us is 

 there to be found so lifelike or so vigorously posed a 

 bowman. 



The artist's break with tradition is all the more 

 remarkable in that it is the figure of the owner of the 

 tomb-chapel himself which has been treated in this 

 way, a very unusual occurrence even at Meir. The 

 only other instance in these tomb-chapels of such an 

 unconventional rendering of the figure of an important 

 personage is to be found in a relief in the adjacent tomb- 

 chapel of Senbi's son Ukhhotpe. That noble and his 

 wife are there depicted being entertained by a party of 

 musicians. He sits on a chair while she, squatting on 

 the floor and lovingly clasping his leg, turns her face 

 round and looks up with a smile into his face to see how 



OLD JIAN CONV'ERSING WITH 



Eg\-ptian village. In the figures of the boatwrights, who 

 continue their task quite regardless of the old man's 

 idle chatter, the sculptor has produced a very lively bit 

 of work. They really do seem to be tugging hard as 

 they rope together the papyrus reeds out of which they 

 are constructing a skiff. 



Almost as great an achievement as the fat old gossip 

 are the two fellahln who are binding a great buiidle of 

 papyrus reeds, which have just been harvested (Fig. 3). 

 Particularly fine is the right-hand figure, whose hard 

 muscles rippling beneath his soft skin are splendidly 

 indicated, and who, it will be noted, is depicted in 

 proper profile. He is the typical hulking Upper ^ 

 Egyptian yokel, the standing joke of the " urbane " 

 town-bred clerk who haunts the coft'ee-house. Rather 

 coarse-featured though he be, he is a good-natured 



I Reproductions of these will be found in Rock Tombs of 

 Metr. vol. i, pis. iii, x, xi, xxi, xxv, x.xviii and xxx. Vide 

 Bibliography at end of article. 



