of Ptahhotep. SAKKARA. 9..Route. 139
officials seated on the ground (next two row) ; harpers and flute-
players, and a singer beating time with his hands (lowest row).
To the left of the door are servants with gifts; slaughter of the
sacrificial oxen. — W. Wall: In the right and left angles are door-
shaped steles; that on the right, very elaborate, perhaps representing
the facade of a palace. On the left stele (at the foot) the deceased
is represented seated in a chapel (right) and borne in a litter (left);
in front is the sacrificial table. The wall-reliefs represent Ptahhotep
seated at a richly furnished banquet (left); before him are priests
making offerings (upper row) and servants bearing various gifts
(three lower rows); above is the list of dishes. — On the S. Wall
is a similar representation of the deceased at table; before him are
peasant women with gifts (top row; injured); in the second row,
the sacrificial animals are being cut up; in the lowest two rows are
servants with all kinds of offerings. — The representations on the
E. Wall are the finest and most interesting. On the right Ptahhotep
inspects the 'gifts and tribute that are brought by the estates ofthe
N. and S.'; in the upper row are boys wrestling and seven boys
running (the first having his arms tied). In the next two rows are
shown the spoils of the chase: four men drag two cages containing
lions, a man carries a frame loaded with young gazelles, bound
together in groups, another has cages with hares and hedgehogs.
In the fourth row are herdmen and cattle in the fields, the calves
being tethered to pegs; in the two following rows, cattle are
brought for inspection (note the lame herdsman leading a bull with
a neck-ornament); in the lowest row, poultry. On the left Ptahhotep
is shown 'contemplating all the pleasant diversions that take place
in the whole country'; in the top row a herd of cattle is being
driven through a marsh, and men are engaged in plucking papyrus-
plants, tying them in bundles, and carrying them away; in the
second row are boys playing; the vintage is represented in the
third, with vines upon trellises, watered by a servant, while others
gather the grapes and tread them in the wine-press or crush them
in sacks; the third and fourth rows are devoted to animal life and
hunting in the desert; in the sixth are men labouring in the marsh,
fishing, weaving nets, or making papyrus boats; in the seventh row
are fowlers with nets and other men placing the captured birds in
boxes and bearing them away; in the lowest row are peasants in
boats upon the Nile, with appropriate plants and fishes; some of
the peasants are fighting. In the boat to the left in this row appears
Ptah-nai-onkh, sculptor-in-chief, receiving a draught from a boy;
this is doubtless the artist who designed the reliefs and has here
immortalized himself.
The **Mastaba of Ti, to the N.E. of Mariette's House, also dates
from the epoch of the 5th Dynasty. The deceased Ti held the
positions of royal architect and manager of the pyramids of Kings
Nefer-er-ke-re and Ra-en-woser. The building originally stood above
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