There were pictures of royal banquets with wine and flowers in profusion, minstrels playing, men and women dancing, and buffoons and clowns adding their part to the merriment. One dancer was bearing the body of another on his head as he whirled about. Everything in these pictures indicated abandonment to the material pleasures of life.
But there were more stately scenes, troops of soldiers marching through the streets crowded with spectators on both sides, solemn religious ceremonies in the temples with the priests in full regalia. Other pictures represented hunting scenes, fights with lions, chariot races, wrestling, and various athletic sports.
Still others, more in keeping with a mortuary chamber, showed the progress of the soul after it had left the body and embarked on its stormy voyage amid the perils of the underworld and beset by demons that sought to check its progress before it could reach the presence of Osiris and the realms of bliss.
“Look at these cartoons!” exclaimed Teddy, as he came to lighter specimens of the painter’s art. “I’ve seen worse in some of the evening papers.”
He pointed to a hippopotamus seated among the leaves of a tree at a table while a crow was climbing a ladder to wait on him. A cat, walking on its hind legs, drove a flock of geese, while a wolf, carrying a staff and knapsack, led a herd of goats. A battle between mice and cats was shown, with the king of the mice, in a chariot drawn by two dogs, attacking the fortress of the cats.
“The fellow that drew those was throwing himself away,” declared Teddy. “He could have got a good salary in New York.”
But while these novel things served a good purpose for a time in diverting the boys’ minds from their troubles, the latter soon returned with redoubled force, especially when the lads saw that the light was waning. They dreaded the coming of the dark in those surroundings.
“It’s a good thing in one way, though,” said Don, in answer to Teddy’s comment on the growing shadows. “It shows that it’s natural light. It must come in from somewhere; and that somewhere must lead to the outside world. We’ll see if we can’t find out where that is when morning comes.”
They sat down touching each other, for the comfort of companionship, and took stock of their store of provisions. The result was anything but satisfactory.
Don had a few crackers in his pocket and a couple of cakes of chocolate. Besides these, his canteen was two-thirds full of water. The sum total of Teddy’s possessions was comprised in a sandwich and a couple of seed cakes that Ismillah had given him. And his canteen was less than half full.