* The Cailliaud ostracon, which contains a receipt given to
some fishermen, was found near Sheikh Abd el-Qurneh, and
consequently belonged to the fishermen of the necropolis.
There is a question as to the water-carriers of the Khirû in
the hieratic registers of Turin, also as to the washers of
clothes, wood-cutters, gardeners and workers in the
vineyard.
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Lanzone.
Without reckoning the constant libations needed for the gods and the deceased, the workshops required a large quantity of drinking water for the men engaged in them. In every gang of workmen, even in the present day, two or three men are set apart to provide drinking-water for the rest; in some arid places, indeed, at a distance from the river, such as the Valley of the Kings, as many water-carriers are required as there are workmen. To the trades just mentioned must be added the low-caste crowd depending oh the burials of the rich, the acrobats, female mourners, dancers and musicians. The majority of the female corporations were distinguished by the infamous character of their manners, and prostitution among them had come to be associated with the service of the god.*
* The heroine of the erotic papyrus of Turin bears the title
of “Singing-woman of Amon,” and the illustrations indicate
her profession so clearly and so expressively, that no
details of her sayings and doings are wanting.
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin,
from a photograph by
Lanzone.
There was no education for all this mass of people, and their religion was of a meagre character. They worshipped the official deities, Amon, Mût, Isis, and Hâthor, and such deceased Pharaohs as Amenôthes I. and Nofrîtari, but they had also their own Pantheon, in which animals predominated—such as the goose of Amon, and his ram Pa-rahaninofir, the good player on the horn, the hippopotamus, the cat, the chicken, the swallow, and especially reptiles. Death was personified by a great viper, the queen of the West, known by the name Marîtsakro, the friend of silence. Three heads, or the single head of a woman, attached to the one body, were assigned to it. It was supposed to dwell in the mountain opposite Karnak, which fact gave to it, as well as to the necropolis itself, the two epithets of Khafîtnîbûs and Ta-tahnît, that is, The Summit.*