United States or Cabo Verde ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Shall we give place to them on our own mastaba, in our own court-yard hand to them the keys of our harems? I would have raised the Jehad if they vexed me with their envoys and their armies." He paused, panting. "It would not have availed," was David's quiet answer. "This land may not be as Tibet a prison for its own people. If the door opens outward, then must it open inward also.
There was not a merchant from the bazaars but had had reason to appreciate his presence, either by friendly gossip over a cup of coffee, or by biting remarks in Arabic, when they lied to him, or by the sweep of his stick over the mastaba and through the chattels of some vile-mouthed pedlar who insulted English ladies whom he was escorting through the bazaar.
Nowadays, on the mastaba before his grandson's door, Abdul Huseyn, over ninety "by the grace of Allah," still tells of the backsheesh he secured from the Two Strange People for his help on a certain day.
Some of the wealthy class had their tombs cut out of the mountain-side; but the great majority preferred an isolated tomb, a "mastaba," comprised of a chapel above ground, a shaft, and some subterranean vaults.
He replied, 'If I had all the Effendina's wealth, I would sleep till I died. To a blind beggar, shaking the copper in his cup in the highways, pleading dumbly to those who passed, I made similar inquisition, and he replied 'If the wealth of the exalted one were mine, I would sit on the mastaba by the bake-house, and eat three times a day, save at Ramadan, when I would bless Allah the compassionate and merciful, and breakfast at sunset with the flesh of a kid and a dish of dates. To a woman at the door of a tomb hung with relics of hundreds of poor souls in misery, who besought the buried saint to intercede for her with Allah, I made the same catechism, and she answered, 'Oh, effendi, if his wealth were mine, I would give my son what he has lost. 'What has he lost, woman? said I; and she answered: 'A little house with a garden, and a flock of ten goats, a cow and a dovecote, his inheritance of which he has been despoiled by one who carried a false debt 'gainst his dead father. And I said to her: 'But if thy wealth were as that of the ruler of the city, thy son would have no need of the little house and garden and the flock of goats, and a cow and a dovecote. Whereupon she turned upon me in bitterness, and said: 'Were they not his own as the seed of his father?
The man's real name, if he was the owner of the mastaba from whose serdab he was taken, was Ra-em-ka. The figure is less than life-sized, being a little over three and one half feet in height. It is of wood, a common material for sculpture in Egypt. The feet, which had decayed, have been restored. Originally the figure was covered with a coating of linen, and this with stucco, painted.
Shall we give place to them on our own mastaba, in our own court-yard hand to them the keys of our harems? I would have raised the Jehad if they vexed me with their envoys and their armies." He paused, panting. "It would not have availed," was David's quiet answer. "This land may not be as Tibet a prison for its own people. If the door opens outward, then must it open inward also.
It should be noticed that all these large temples have the mastaba form, i.e. the outer walls are not perpendicular on the outside, but slope inwards as they rise, thus giving the buildings an air of great solidity. The Mammisi exhibit quite a different form of temple from those previously described, and are generally found in close proximity to the large temples.
It also originated in a mastaba, enlarged, and with another mastaba-like erection on the top of it; but it was given a continuous sloping casing of fine limestone from bottom to top, and so is a true pyramid. A discussion of recent theories as to the building of the later pyramids of the IVth Dynasty will be found in the next chapter.
The false door of the olden time became a niche cut in the end wall, almost always facing the entrance. Statues of the deceased and his wife, carved in the solid rock, were there enthroned. The walls were decorated with scenes of offerings, and the entire decoration of the tomb converged towards the niche, as that of the mastaba converged towards the stela.
Word Of The Day