EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES. 605 



bread, others putting it into the oven, reapers, fruit merchants, armies 

 of slaves with fans to drive away the flies, and also the special servant 

 of the deceased bearing his effects. 



This fortunate discovery revives for us, in the form of statuettes, all 

 the scenes we are accustomed to see figured in bas-reliefs on the walls 

 of the mastabas of the ancient empire. 



Siout (August, 1894). — Since my departure from Egypt, having stopped 

 the diggings of Dahchour in order that I might renew them myself the 

 coming winter, the efforts of the Service of Antiquities were turned 

 toward the necropolis of Siout, and a remarkable discovery was made 

 there. All the tombs of that necropolis thus far known have been 

 violated by searchers after treasures; only one, which had just been 

 brought to light, had escaped their hands, and it gives us most inter- 

 esting information about a period of Egyptian history concerning which 

 very little is known. The body had been placed in a double rectangular 

 case of acacia wood, similar to those of the necropolis of Dahchour; 

 the inscriptions traced with ink on both sarcophagi give us, besides the 

 usual religious formulae, the name and title of the deceased; "the 

 feudal prince, chief of the prophets of Ouap oua'itou, lord of Siout, 

 royal chancellor, Emsah." The mummy, reduced to a skeleton, was 

 enveloped in raw linen, and had on its head and breast a wooden mask; 

 various objects reposed on the deceased or at his side; a silver collar, 

 a mirror, a pillow, sandals, a basin of bronze, canes, bows, a scepter, 

 ouas. But the most interesting objects are those which had been 

 deposited at the side of the sarcophagus, and first of all a funeral bark, 

 1.20 meters in length, giving us the exact model of a dahabieh of the 

 epoch, with its mast in the bow and in the stern the double cabin with 

 its walls and its roof, built of light timber, where the deceased and his 

 family stay, while the crew stand on the bridge in poses full of grace 

 and naturalness. On either side of the coffiu are soldiers of the deceased 

 to the number of eighty, in two groups, well ordered, and showing us 

 an army highly organized. First of all are the Egyptians, dressed in 

 short aprons and armed with large, light shields and lances with great 

 bronze points, while the negroes on the other side, clad still more 

 lightly, each carry a large bow and half a dozen arrows with blunt 

 points. All these persons in wood, so carefully made, about 40 centi- 

 meters high, show us the forces which the princes of Siout had at the 

 disposal of the Heracleopolitan kings in those long civil wars which 

 desolated Egypt during the ninth and the tenth dynasty, contests of 

 which the tombs of the other princes of the Lycopolite nome speak, 

 among others Khiti, who has given us on one of the walls of his tomb 

 the representation of these same soldiers. 



Gaou (1893). — These excavations have brought out mummies of the 

 Greek epoch of moderate interest, some small monuments, such as 

 funeral statuettes, winged scarabs, etc., of fairly good workmanship, 

 and a cover of a compact limestone sarcophagus, similar to those dis- 

 covered at Saqqarah. It is very well made. The inscriptions are 



