Page:H. D. Traill - From Cairo to the Soudan Frontier.djvu/242

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FROM CAIRO TO THE SOUDAN

of his servants holding sandals, staff, boomerang, &c, and lower down is another servant bringing the game to his master. The inscriptions above it read: "Rejoiceth, seeth happiness in making the chase and in the work of the Goddess Sekhet" (the country goddess, the Ceres of the ancient Egyptians); "the temple-servant Nekht triumphant. His sister the singing priestess of Ammon, the lady of the house, Tani, saith, 'Rejoice thou in the work of Sekhet and the birds which he (Nekht) sets apart for her selection.'" Such was the sort of diary of his simple pursuits and pleasures this Theban gentleman of the Middle Empire kept upon the walls of his tomb-chamber for perpetual remembrance. It is like a page of Pepys in stone.