[Illustration:  358.jpg Wall-Painting from a Tomb]

The first two paintings are representative of a very common style of fresco-pictures in these tombs.  The care with which the animals are depicted is remarkable.  Possibly one of the finest Egyptian representations of an animal is the fresco of a goat in the tomb of Gen-Amen, discovered by Mr. Mond.  There is even an attempt here at chiaroscuro, which is unknown to Egyptian art generally, except at Tell el-Amarna.  Evidently the Egyptian painters reached the apogee of their art towards the end of the XVIIIth Dynasty.  The third, the representation of tribute-bearers, is of a type also well known at this period.  In all the chief tombs we have processions of Egyptians, Westerners, Northerners, Easterners, and Southerners, bringing tribute to the Pharaoh.  The North is represented by the Semites, the East by the Punites (when they occur), the South by negroes, the West by the Keftiu or people of Crete and Cyprus.  The representations of the last-named people have become of the very highest interest during the last few years, on account of the discoveries in Crete, which have revealed to us the state and civilization of these very Keftiu.  Messrs. Evans and Halbherr have discovered at Knossos and Phaistos the cities and palace-temples of the king who sent forth their ambassadors to far-away Egypt with gifts for the mighty Pharaoh; these ambassadors were painted in the tombs of their hosts as representative of the quarter of the world from which they came.

The two chief Egyptian representations of these people, who since they lived in Greece may be called Greeks, though their more proper title would be “Pe-lasgians,” are to be found in the tombs of Rekhmara and Senmut, the former a vizier under Thothmes III, the latter the architect of Hatshepsu’s temple at Der el-Bahari.  Senmut’s tomb is a new rediscovery.  It was known, as Rekhmara’s was, in the early days of Egyptological science, and Prisse d’Avennes copied its paintings.  It was afterwards lost sight of until rediscovered by Mr. Newberry and Prof.  Steindorff.

[Illustration:  360.jpg FRESCO IN THE TOMB OF SENMUT AT THEBES.] About 1500 B.C.

The tomb of Rekhmara (No. 35) is well known to every visitor to Thebes, but it is difficult to get at that of Senmut (No. 110); it lies at the top of the hill round to the left and overlooking Der el-Bahari, an appropriate place for it, by the way.  In some ways Senmut’s representations are more interesting than Rekhmara’s.  They are more easily seen, since they are now in the open air, the fore hall of the tomb having been ruined; and they are better preserved, since they have not been subjected to a century of inspection with naked candles and pawing with greasy hands, as have Rekhmara’s frescoes.  Further, there is no possibility of mistaking what they represent.  From right to left, walking in procession, we see the Minoan gift-bearers from Crete, carrying in their