CHAPTER IV
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.
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.
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.