A KING AND HIS DOG

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 89, 1 May 1937, Page 11

A KING AND HIS DOG

An "Honoured Spirit"

JN ihe Bulletin of the Musetim of Fine • Arts of Boston appears a toonograph by Dr. George Reisner, the wellknown archaeologist, which tells the ttory of the-dog whose service was rewarded by the King of his day. IA the great cemetery, We&t of the Pyramid of Cheops at Giza, f our groups "of large mastaba-tombs were laid out in regular streets and qross itreets, and used for princes and processes of the royal family and for ofjjriahi and servants of the Court. Among the mastabas, near the northnrest corner of the Pyramid of Cheops, la a small mastaba, inserted probably late in Dynasty VI. (B.C. 2600-2450), and one of the liningi slabs of a burial cbamber built inthe tilling^f the inastiba is an inscribed stone taken from an old chapel and here re-used. The' Hook, of white limestone bore 10 vertical Irnes of ihcised inscription separated'and bounded on fight and left by indsed vertical lines. Diagonally acrossjthe top right-hand corner ran a bar in relief which may have been p&rt of * staff Held in a eloping position or part of a leash attached to the colJar of a "dog/ The inscriptioh "translated runs ''as follows: — • " The; god which was the guard of his Majesty, Abuwtiyuw is his name- H'3 3£ajesty,ordered that he. be buried ceremonially, that he be given a coffin from the royal treasury, fine linen in great quaritity, and incense. His Majesty gave perfume ointment, and ordered that a toinb be built for him by, gangs of masons- His Majesty did this in order that the dog piight be honoured before the great god Anubis. Dr. Reisner interprets the facts and, vords as follows : — ' ■ . /The insciiptioh was a wall-scene in * chapel of an unknown man at Giza, a scene in which the eliief figure was the owner accompanied- by the • dog Abuwtiyuw. ^ 'The dogj belonged to this owner, *oi to the King. The owner must have been attached to the person of the

King in some capacity," gardener, huntsman, or bodyguard. On service he was accompanied by his dog, who attracted the attention of the King and became a favourite of His Majesty. "Probably, after the habit of Egyptian dogs Abuwtiyuw threatened, barking or snapping, every stranger person .who approached the king and was called half in jest "the bodyguard of His Majesty.' As*in the ease of . other Egyptian nobles, the dog was in constant attendance, a daily . fact in the life of the King, and, • when he died, the King ordered that he be buried ceremonially in a fomb of ,his own, in order that, like human beings buried in this way, his 'KA' might enter. the afterlife as an honoured -spirit before the Great God "Thus, in the other world after death his future existence might be. assured to continue his attendance >;on His Majesty together with his mas'ter. When the unknown owner decorated his chapel he had himself depicted with" the dog, which had brought him the favour of the King, and over the ^dogthe had inscribed the remarkable honour conferred. on the dog by His Majesty.". , The .dog, and particularly the huntiug dog or greyhound, to which breed Abuwtiyuw belonged, played an^ intimate part "in. the daily life, of the kings and nobles of > all- periods - in 1 Ancient Egypt. It is, thereforo, not surprising to find that animal frequently depicted in the reliefs carved on the chapel walls of these men.. " *•• The new inscription now found .reeords tor the iirst time a dog-so favoured by the Khig of the land that His Majesty ordere'd a ceremonial interment like that of a human heing. Ail this was .don© in order that the dog nnght become an honouring soul before . the Great . God of the living death. It must be vmphasised that -he was ndt to become^p, man, but his "KA,'» as a dog' was to be treated with the flavour and affection which he had receired on earth from the King and his owner.