er. The feast has begun. The jars of wine and beer, placed in rows
upon wooden stands, are already unsealed. Two young slaves rub the hands
and necks of the living guests with perfumes taken from an alabaster vase.
Two women dressed in robes of ceremony present offerings to the group of
dead, consisting of vases filled with flowers, perfumes, and grain. These
they place in turn upon a square table. Three others dance, sing, and play
upon the lute, by way of accompaniment to those acts of homage. In the
picture, as in fact, the tomb is the place of entertainment. There is no
other background to the scene than the wall covered with hieroglyphs, along
which the guests were seated during the ceremony. Elsewhere, the scene of
action, if in the open country, is distinctly indicated by trees and tufts
of grass; by red sand, if in the desert; and by a maze of reeds and lotus
plants, if in the marshes. A lady of quality comes in from a walk (fig.
168). One of her daughters, being athirst, takes a long draught from a
"gullah"; two little naked children with shaven heads, a boy and a girl,
who ran to meet their mother at the gate, are made happy with toys
brought home and handed to them by a servant. A trellised enclosure covered
with vines, and trees laden with fruit, are shown above; yonder, therefore,
is the garden, but the lady and her daughters have passed through it
without stopping, and are now indoors. The front of the house is half put
in and half left out, so that we may observe what is going on inside. We
accordingly see three attendants hastening to serve their mistresses with
refreshments. The picture is not badly composed, and it would need but
little alteration if transferred to a modern canvas. The same old
awkwardness, or rather the same old obstinate custom, which compelled the
Egyptian artist to put a profile head upon a full-face bust, has, however,
prevented him from placing his middle distance and background behind his
foreground. He has, therefore, been reduced to adopt certain more or less
ingenious contrivances, in order to make up for an almost complete absence
of perspective.

[Illustration: Fig. 169.--From wall-scene in tomb of Horemheb.]

[Illustration: Fig. 170.--From wall-scene, Ramesseum.]

[Illustration: Fig. 171.--Archers, as represented on walls of Medinet
Habu.]

Again, when a number of persons engaged in the simultaneous performance of
any given act were represented on the same level, they w