FIGURES IN WOOD
IT was the custom in the ancient days to place small statuettes made of
wood, stone, porcelain or composition in the tombs. These were supposed
to do the work of the dead in the Underworld, and are called ushebti,
funerary figures, or answerers, because they were expected to answer the
call made on the name of the dead, and to stand in their place.
[Illustration: Model of a funerary chamber; view of interior]
Nos. 1, 2 and 5 of Plate III are very cleverly carved, then dipped in
liquid plaster of Paris, allowed to dry, and coloured to represent the
ancient models. All these figures are made by a man who lives at Gurna.
I expressed to him the desire to have a figure in a boat. Three days
after he returned, bringing with him the object in the centre (No. 3),
which he called a dahabeyah, that he had made in the interval.
This man could never understand how it was that I was able to detect his
forgeries, and time after time he asked me to tell him. He would look up
with a sort of admiration and say, “Nothing is hid from his Excellency.
He knows everything, even the mind of his servant.” Later on, when I
told him that the smell of the wood of which the figures were made was
new, and not old, he looked me straight in the face without changing
countenance and exclaimed, “Allah kerim! [God is merciful.] I said well
that nothing was hid from his Excellency. If he does not see that which
is false with his eyes, he smells it with his nose.” Then he clasped his
hands together, as if there was nothing more to be said or done, and
shortly after took his leave.
[Illustration: Model of funerary chamber; complete object.]
About a week later, my servant told me that “the man belonging to the
antiquities” was waiting to see me. It was my friend again, and he said,
“This time I have an antiquity of the highest value.” We proceeded to a
room to examine it, and there he produced a bundle of paper which he
began to unroll; and as he neared the end, a most appalling stink arose,
a curious, penetrating, abominable odour. I drew back while he finished
the unwrapping, and presently he held up the wooden figure of Anubis
(Plate III, No. 4). It was extremely light, and evidently made of
mummy-case wood, which is occasionally used for these wooden figures.
But the smell was so awful that I quickly pushed it as far as possible
away from me. All the time the man watched my face without the flicker
of a smile on his own.
“It is indeed an antīca,” he assured me.
“I have my doubts on that point,” I replied.
“Then will not the gentleman apply his test and smell it?” asked my
friend, with the ghost of a smile on his face.
No, the gentleman would not smell it. The odour pervaded the whole room
as it was, and I verily believe the old scoundrel had boiled down a
piece of mummy and painted the statue with the liquid, either to hide
the smell of the new wood, or to play off a joke upon me. Finally I
bought the thing for three shillings, although he had asked £14 for it;
but I had to cover it all over with varnish to seal up the smell before
I could keep it in my room. For that reason it appears rather more shiny
than the other figures.
[Illustration: Horus Hawk]
Plate III, No. 6 represents a Nubian of an early dynasty. There is a
cartouche and an inscription on the base. It stood in the window of a
shop in Luxor in company with several other wooden figures. The dealer
told me a long story about his brother having died, and how he had taken
over the antiquities belonging to him, and was selling them at a very
cheap rate. The man assured me that the statue was a genuine antiquity,
but I had my doubts about it. Our bargaining was not a long process, and
I bought it for a small sum. As I went out of the shop, the man said “I
hope you will have good luck with the antīca,” which at once told me
what I had already suspected, that it was indeed a fraud. And yet it is
cleverly made. The nose has been rubbed down to flatten it after the
manner of the ancient statues. The back is beautifully moulded, and the
splitting of the wood very cleverly done, but the sculptor had not taken
the pains with his work that the ancient Egyptians were accustomed to
do. The ears are badly shaped and the hair should have stood up a little
further from the forehead. The legs are too short, the ancient Egyptian
Statues being remarkable for small heads, broad shoulders, fineness
about the hips, and long powerful limbs. The feet are badly moulded, and
not up to the standard of ancient work. The cartouche on the base is
poorly cut, and in the inscription on the side one of the letters is
placed upside down.
The removal of a small piece of wood with a knife showed it to be deeply
stained, but underneath the staining the wood was white. The most
important test, however, for wooden reproductions is the smell of the
wood. The hawk here represented is about one foot in height, carved out
of wood and painted. The wings are a dull green and the breast and back
a light brown, with a decoration upon the back. As a rule these figures
have a crown above the head, but in this specimen it had been broken
off. These figures are frequently to be met with in the Mousky.
[Illustration: PLATE IV. FUNERARY FIGURES IN WOOD AND PLASTER.]
Plate IV contains some other funerary figures. No. 1 is a composition
figure, part of which is old and part new. The white foot of the statue
is new, while the remainder is old.
[Illustration: Bes Made of soft white composition and painted black]
The head and chest have been repainted.
No. 5 represents a small mummy figure, and is composed of old rags
covered with plaster of Paris, and painted. The red paint used on the
figure is correct, but the artist has made the mistake of using Prussian
blue. The use of this colour was not known until the eighteenth century,
therefore it could not have been in use in ancient times. The red is
derived from the oxide of iron found in the desert. On the front and
also on the back of the figure there is a passage from the Book of the
Dead. The modelling is good, but the use of the Prussian blue gives it
entirely away. Nos. 2, 3, 4, and 6 represent also the funerary figures
which used to be placed in the tombs to do the work of the deceased in
the Underworld. The specimens shown are made from pieces of old mummy
cases so as to give them the appearance of age.
[Illustration: Figure of a Nubian, made of slate]
The plough in No. 2, Plate V, is a very clever imitation. The shaft is
long and exactly proportioned, and the end takes the form of the head of
a snake. There is a ridge a quarter of the way down the shaft, to which
was evidently attached the collar of the oxen. The model was made, then
dipped in liquid plaster and faintly coloured a reddish-brown. The
artist made the mistake of tying the pieces together with modern string
instead of using raw hide thongs as the ancient Egyptians did. On the
end is a figure representing Min, the god of the harvest.
All the wooden figures in the illustrations are made by the man at
Gurna, who told me with many a chuckle that he had sold one plough for
£4 to an eminent Egyptologist, and that he had obtained £2 for another
model from the representative of a foreign museum.
Plate V, No. 1 represents a paint-box of the early dynasties; it is made
of new wood, covered with plaster, and coloured. On the top of this has
been applied some size, and then some rough dirt has been thrown over it
while still wet. There is a long slit for rush brushes, and three holes
for the colouring material, one of which contains some colour. Its
companion, No. 4, is light, and made of old wood dipped in plaster, then
covered with size and cleverly coloured reddish-brown in places with
bars of deep green round it. Two knobs, one for opening the lid, and the
other for holding the case, are to be noted. It contains four wooden
sticks for writing. There are four holes, each containing a small amount
of colouring material.
As already mentioned, there is a way of detecting these forgeries. In
addition to the smell of the new wood there is the sour odour of the
size with which the artist covers them before sprinkling them
artistically with various dusts. In the case of the boxes, they are too
short and the sticks are wrong; they should have been rushes or very
thin reeds teased out at one end and made into a brush. It was owing to
the use of these rush or reed brushes that the letters of the ancient
writings were usually made in the same way.
No. 3 of the same plate shows a reproduction of a dove, in wood, the
colouring copied from an original.
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