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7.
What suspicions does Ranofer have
about Gebu’s wineskins?
What does Hequet have that Ranofer
wants?
Describe Gebu’s split personality.
Who does Ranofer meet at the river?
Who is Ibni and what role does he
play in the mystery?
With what does Gebu threaten
Ranofer if he fails to bring the
wineskin?
What plans do Ranofer and Hequet
make about the wineskin?
1. How many days does Heqet wait before telling
Rekh about Ibni’s wineskin?
2. What advice does the Ancient give Ranofer
regarding the execution?
3. Why is the morning after the execution an
especially good one for Ranofer?
4. What devastating news does Gebu give Ranofer on
page 84?
5. Who is Nebre?
6. What are Ranofer’s workdays like? How is his life
at home?
7. What does Ranofer realize one night as he hears the
leather hinge on Gebu’s door squeak? Predict.
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7.
8.
What happens to the Nile River every spring?
Do Heqet and Ranofer trust the Ancient?
How does the Ancient shed a new light on stonecutting?
Does Ranofer change his mind about it?
How does Ranofer’s daydream contrast with what really
happens at Zau’s?
Will Ranofer find a way to reshape his life? Predict.
How is Ranofer feeling the morning after the meeting
with Zau?
What does Ranofer think about Gebu’s remark, “…him
and his paltry wineskins! There are far bigger birds in
the air than Rekh the goldsmith”?
What do the three friends plan to do when Ranofer tells
them his suspicions about Gebu?
9. How does the spying game become less dull on
the night Gebu goes to Wenamon’s house?
10. Why does Ranofer finally decide to follow
Gebu at night?
11. How does Ranofer’s hunger-caused by Gebulead Ranofer to make a very important
discovery?
12. What will happen when Gebu see the broken
seal on the door? Predict.
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6.
Ranofer is doing some things he would not
have done a few months ago. What are they,
and what does his behavior indicate?
How does Gebu’s behavior work against him
and for Ranofer?
Why is the discovery of the goblet “the most
important thing that ever happened”?
Why didn’t Ranofer take the goblet to Zau as
he had planned?
Why does Ranofer keep the discovery of the
goblet a secret from Heqet and the Ancient?
To what day do the three friends look
forward?
7. Why does Heqet tell Ranofer he seems more
like he was when the two first met?
8. What information about Gebu does Heqet tell
Ranofer?
9. What information does the Ancient give
Ranofer to help him decide to follow Gebu and
Wenamon to the Valley of the Tombs of the
Kings?
10.What does Ranofer realize in “a flash of
understanding” (p. 204)?
11.What clues do the Ancient and Heqet put
together?
12. What is the ushtabi? What has happened to it?
13. How does the tomb itself surprise Ranofer and
how does he react to it?
14. Who are the two people buried in this tomb?
15. How do you suppose Ranofer felt as he saw his
friend Heqet running toward him across the sand?
16. Why is Ranofer so worried about where to go for
help? What else worries him as he hurries back to
town?
17. Ranofer “himself felt a different person from the
boy who had started out this morning”. In what
way is he different?
18. What is it that gives Ranofer the nerve to go to the
palace?
19. How do the people who catch Ranofer inside the
palace perceive him?
20. Who takes pity on Ranofer and decides to listen to
his story? How is his name ironic?
21. How does the queen “test” Ranofer to make sure
he is not lying?
22. Where is the golden goblet found and who finds
it?
23. Queen Tiy gives Ranofer a reward he could not
buy anywhere. What is that?
24. How are Heqet and the Ancient rewarded?