* The Cailliaud ostracon, which contains a receipt given to some fishermen, was found near Sheikh Abd el-Qurneh, and consequently belonged to the fishermen of the necropolis.  There is a question as to the water-carriers of the Khiru in the hieratic registers of Turin, also as to the washers of clothes, wood-cutters, gardeners and workers in the vineyard.

[Illustration:  048.jpg THE SWALLOW-GODDESS FROM THE THEBAN NECROPOLIS]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Lanzone.

Without reckoning the constant libations needed for the gods and the deceased, the workshops required a large quantity of drinking water for the men engaged in them.  In every gang of workmen, even in the present day, two or three men are set apart to provide drinking-water for the rest; in some arid places, indeed, at a distance from the river, such as the Valley of the Kings, as many water-carriers are required as there are workmen.  To the trades just mentioned must be added the low-caste crowd depending oh the burials of the rich, the acrobats, female mourners, dancers and musicians.  The majority of the female corporations were distinguished by the infamous character of their manners, and prostitution among them had come to be associated with the service of the god.*

* The heroine of the erotic papyrus of Turin bears the title of “Singing-woman of Amon,” and the illustrations indicate her profession so clearly and so expressively, that no details of her sayings and doings are wanting.

[Illustration:  049.jpg THE GODDESS MABITSAKBO]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Lanzone.

There was no education for all this mass of people, and their religion was of a meagre character.  They worshipped the official deities, Amon, Mut, Isis, and Hathor, and such deceased Pharaohs as Amenothes I. and Nofritari, but they had also their own Pantheon, in which animals predominated—­such as the goose of Amon, and his ram Pa-rahaninofir, the good player on the horn, the hippopotamus, the cat, the chicken, the swallow, and especially reptiles.  Death was personified by a great viper, the queen of the West, known by the name Maritsakro, the friend of silence.  Three heads, or the single head of a woman, attached to the one body, were assigned to it.  It was supposed to dwell in the mountain opposite Karnak, which fact gave to it, as well as to the necropolis itself, the two epithets of Khafitnibus and Ta-tahnit, that is, The Summit.*

* The abundance of the monuments of Maritsakro found at Sheikh Abd el-Gurneh, inclines me to believe that her sanctuary was situated in the neighbourhood of the temple of Uazmosu, but there was also on the top of the hill another sanctuary which would equally satisfy the name Ta-tahnit.

Its chapel was situated at the foot of the hill of Sheikh Abd el-Qurneh, but its sacred serpents crawled and wriggled through the necropolis, working miracles