From the numberless examples of similar conformation, I select another of a priest from the bas-relief at Thebes, which is remarkable for delicacy of outline and pleasing serenity of expression.[[31]] (No. 2.)
So invariably are these characters allotted to the sacerdotal caste, that we readily detect them in the two priests who, by some unexplained contingency, become kings in the twentieth dynasty. Their names read Amensi-Hrai-Pehor and Phisham on the monuments; and the accompanying outline is a fac-simile of Rosellini’s portrait of the latter personage, who lived about eleven hundred years before the Christian era.[[32]] In this head the Egyptian and Pelasgic characters appear to be blended, but the former preponderate. (No. 3.)
The last outline, (No. 4,) represents a modification of the same type, that of the Harper in Bruce’s tomb at Thebes. The beautiful form of the head and the intellectual character of the face, may be compared with similar efforts of Grecian art. It dates with Rameses the IV.[[33]]
1. 2. 3. 4.
As I believe this to be a most important ethnographic indication, and one which points to the vast body of the Egyptian people, I subjoin four additional heads of priests from a tomb at Thebes, of the eighteenth dynasty. We are forcibly impressed with the delicate features and oblique eye of the left hand personage, and with the ruder but characteristic outline of the other figures, in which the prominent face, though strongly drawn, is essentially Egyptian.[[34]]
The annexed outlines, which present more pleasing examples of the same ethnographic character, are copied from the tomb of Titi, at Thebes, and date with the remote era of Thotmes IV.[[35]] They represent five fowlers in the act of drawing their net over a flock of birds. The long, flowing hair is in keeping with the facial traits, which latter are also well characterized in the subjoined drawings, derived from monuments of different epochs and localities.
