Plate LXXXVIII

It is well known that the kings of the Eighteenth Dynasty and onwards possessed mortuary temples fringing the cultivation where it joins the desert on the west side of Thebes. As 'High­ priest of the spirit (ka) of the king Tuthmosis I', Userhet was periodically called upon to appear in ceremonial robes before the shrine of that deified monarch, and to make offerings to him. It is precisely one of these occasions which is depicted upon the wall whence the present figure is taken. To the left Tuthmosis I is displayed under a canopy, his queen rAhhotpe behind him. Be­ tween Userhet and the object of his worship is a piled-up table of offerings, of which a fragment appears to the left of the Plate. The high-priest wears over his white pleated robe a magnificent leopard-skin. The markings are so conventional that we may ask whether the skin was a real one or merely an imitation in cloth. The circles with five-pointed stars interspersed amidst the minor markings would certainly be a very imaginative interpretation of a real skin, and the cartouches of Sethos I near the right elbow raise the same question. From Userhet' s waist depends a strip of yellow material, or perhaps of gold, upon which epithets and names of the reigning king Sethos are inscribed at length. Around the shoulders is a collar of flower-petals and of beads large enough to form a cape, and down his back hang long red and yellow ribbons. Both hands are uplifted in the attitude of praise, and in one of them is a small altar bearing a duck. Under the frieze at the top are written the name and office of Userhet. The inscription behind his head belongs to his mother, the representation of whom forms the subject of Plate LXXXIX