The cattle were brought into a court attached herds, and "make them rulers over his cattle."* as were skilful in the management of the flocks or No.440. Herdsmen giving an account of the cattle. Fig. 1. Herdsmen giving an account to the scribe, 3. 2. Another doing obeisance to the master of the estate, or to the scribe. 4. Other herdsmen. 5. The driver of the cattle, carrying a rope in his hand. British Museum-from Thebes. 6. bowing and giving his report to the scribe, 7., over whom is the usual sachel, and two boxes. counted by the superintendent in the presence of to the steward's house, or into the farmyard, and Joins In the original, the two upper lines join the two lower ones at A and B. B the scribes. Every care was taken to prevent or In a Tomb near the Pyramids. 760 asses. Fig. 5. 974 sheep. detect frauds, and the bastinado was freely* administered, whenever the peasant or the shepherd neglected the animals entrusted to their care. The accompanying woodcuts fully illustrate the mode of bringing the cattle; and the last is particularly interesting, from the numbers being written over the animals, answering, no doubt, to the report made to the steward, who, in the presence of the master of the estate, receives it from the head shepherd. First come the oxen, over which is the number 834, cows 220, goats 3234, asses 760, and sheep 974; behind which follows a man carrying the young lambs in baskets slung upon a pole. The steward, leaning on his staff, and accompanied by his dog, stands on the left of the picture; and in another part of the tomb, the scribes are represented making out the statements presented to them by the different persons employed on the estate. The tomb where this subject occurs, is hewn in the rock near the Pyramids of Geezeh, and possesses additional interest from its great antiquity, having the namet of a king who lived about the era of the founders of those monuments, as well as from the subjects it contains, which show the Egyptians to have had the same customs at that early time, and to have arrived at the same state of civilisation as in the subsequent ages of the 18th and later dynasties,—a fact which cannot but suggest most interesting thoughts to an *Vide Vol. II. p. 41., where the keepers of oxen are bastinadoed for neglecting the animals. + Given in Vol. III. p. 278. Woodcut, No. 380. fig. 4. inquiring mind, respecting the state of the world at that remote period. him, that the number of eggs was even ascertained so scrupulous were they in the returns made to also brought to the steward at the same time; and An account of the geese and other fowl was British Museum-from Thebes. 3. One of the feeders of geese. Fig. 1. A scribe. 2. Men bringing eggs in baskets. the offspring of the flocks. and reported, with the same care as the calves, or Every thing in Egypt was done by writing. Scribes were employed on all occasions, whether to settle public or private questions, and no bargain of any consequence was made without being sanctioned by the vouchure of a written document. The art of curing disease in animals of every kind, both quadrupeds and birds, was carried to great perfection by the Egyptians; and the authority of ancient writers and of the sculptures is curiously confirmed by a discovery of the learned Cuvier, who, finding the left humerus of a mummied ibis fractured, and reunited in a particular manner, proved the intervention of human art. The skill they possessed, says Diodorus *, in rearing animals, was the result of knowledge inherited from their parents, and subsequently improved by their own observation, their whole lives being occupied in this pursuit; and the information handed down to them respecting the best mode of treating cattle when ill, and their proper food at all times, was increased not only by the improvements arising from continued experience, but by the emulation common to all men. "What most excites our wonder," adds the historian, "and deserves the greatest praise, is the industry shown by the rearers of fowls and geese, who, not contented with the course of natural procreation known in other countries, hatch an infinite number of birds by an artificial process. Dispensing with the incubation of the hens, they * Diodor. i. 74. |