The Lady Kawit Takes a Drink     This picture is a carved panel from the tomb of Queen Kawit, consort of 11th Dynasty King Mentuhotep II. In this picture, a servant offers her a cup of something to start her day as she undergoes her morning toilette. The inscription alongside the servant reads for1 your3 ka2, Lady, drink (that which) I2 give1 to you. Place your mouse over the glyphs for their transliterations; subscript numbers show the order of the Egyptian words, when it differs from the English.    1. The phrase 'for your ka' is roughly equivalent to 'for your health'.    2. The glyph .T represents the suffix form of the pronoun 'you' used to address a woman, which attaches to the previous word (kA 'ka, soul') or preposition (n 'to, for').    3. The prononciation of the word for 'drink' changed over time, from swr to swi; the scribe has chosen to combine both spellings here.    4. The glyph .i represents the suffix form of the pronoun 'I', which attaches to the previous word, di '(that which) X gives', to mark who is doing the giving.      The text doesn't specify what she is drinking, but it was probably milk, a guess supported by the image of a cow being milked which is found in the same tomb. Although we don't usually associate milk-drinking with the Ancient Egyptians, it is clear that they knew and enjoyed milk products. The residue of cheese has been found in ancient kitchens, and a few images exist of women pulling white lumps of what can only be a type of cheese from storage jars. Given the climate of Egypt, fresh milk must have been relatively rare, and drunk soon after milking. It would have made an appropriate breakfast drink in the cool of the early hours of the day, fresh from the cow at its morning milking.

© 2001, Terrence Donnelly