Title: Manual of Egyptian Archaeology and Guide to the Study of Antiquities in Egypt
Author: Maspero, G. (Gaston), 1846-1916
Language: English
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MANUAL OF EGYPTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY

AND

Guide to the Study of Antiquities in Egypt.

_FOR THE USE OF STUDENTS AND TRAVELLERS_.

BY
G. MASPERO, D.C.L. OXON.
MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE; PROFESSOR AT THE COLLÈGE DE FRANCE;
EX-DIRECTOR GENERAL OF EGYPTIAN MUSEUMS.

_TRANSLATED BY_

AMELIA B. EDWARDS.

_NEW EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED BY THE AUTHOR_.

With Three Hundred and Nine Illustrations.


1895.



PREFACE TO THE FOURTH AND REVISED EDITION.

Notwithstanding the fact that Egyptology is now recognised as a science, an
exact and communicable knowledge of whose existence and scope it behoves
all modern culture to take cognisance, this work of M. Maspero still
remains the Handbook of Egyptian Archaeology. But Egyptology is as yet in
its infancy; whatever their age, Egyptologists will long die young. Every
year, almost every month, fresh material for the study is found, fresh
light is thrown upon it by the progress of excavation, exploration, and
research. Hence it follows that, in the course of a few years, the standard
text-books require considerable addition and modification if they are to be
of the greatest value to students, who must always start from the foremost
vantage-ground.

The increasing demand for the _Egyptian Archaeology_ by English and
American tourists, as well as students, decided the English publishers to
issue a new edition in as light and portable a form as possible. This
edition is carefully corrected, and contains the enlarged letterpress and
many fresh illustrations necessary for incorporating within the book
adequate accounts of the main archaeological results of recent Egyptian
excavations. M. Maspero has himself revised the work, indicated all the
numerous additions, and qualified the expression of any views which he has
seen reason to modify in the course of his researches during the past eight
years. By the headings of the pages, the descriptive titles of the
illustrations, and a minute revision of the index, much has been done to
facilitate the use of the volume as a book of reference. In that capacity
it will be needed by the student long after he first makes acquaintance
with its instructive and abundant illustrations and its luminous
condensation of the archaeological facts and conclusions which have been
elucidated by Egyptology through the devotion of many an arduous lifetime
during the present century, and, not least, by the unremitting labours of
M. Maspero.

_April, 1895_.



PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

To put this book into English, and thus to hand it on to thousands who
might not otherwise have enjoyed it, has been to me a very congenial and
interesting task. It would be difficult, I imagine, to point to any work of
its scope and character which is better calculated to give lasting delight
to all classes of readers. For the skilled archaeologist, its pages contain
not only new facts, but new views and new interpretations; while to those
who know little, or perhaps nothing, of the subjects under discussion, it
will open a fresh and fascinating field of study. It is not enough to say
that a handbook of Egyptian Archaeology was much needed, and that Professor
Maspero has given us exactly what we required. He has done much more than
this. He has given us a picturesque, vivacious, and highly original volume,
as delightful as if it were not learned, and as instructive as if it were
dull.

As regards the practical side of Archaeology, it ought to be unnecessary to
point out that its usefulness is strictly parallel with the usefulness of
public museums. To collect and exhibit objects of ancient art and industry
is worse than idle if we do not also endeavour to disseminate some
knowledge of the history of those arts and industries, and of the processes
employed by the artists and craftsmen of the past. Archaeology, no less
than love, "adds a precious seeing to the eye"; and without that gain of
mental sight, the treasures of our public collections are regarded by the
general visitor as mere "curiosities"--flat and stale for the most part,
and wholly unprofitable.

I am much indebted to Mr. W.M. Flinders Petrie, author of _The Pyramids and
Temples of Gizeh_, for kindly translating the section on "Pyramids," which
is entirely from his pen. I have also to thank him for many valuable notes
on subjects dealt with in the first three chapters. To avoid confusion, I
have numbered these notes, and placed them at the end of the volume.

My acknowledgments are likewise due to Professor Maspero for the care with
which he has read the proof-sheets of this version of his work. In
departing from his system of orthography (and that of Mr. Petrie) I have
been solely guided by the necessities of English readers. I foresee that
_Egyptian Archaeology_ will henceforth be the inseparable companion of all
English-speaking travellers who visit the Valley of the Nile; hence I have
for the most part adopted the spelling of Egyptian proper names as given by
the author of "Murray's Handbook for Egypt."

Touching my own share in the present volume, I will only say that I have
tried to present Professor Maspero's inimitable French in the form of
readable English, rather than in a strictly word-for-word translation; and
that with the hope of still further extending the usefulness of the book, I
have added some foot-note references.

AMELIA B. EDWARDS.

WESTBURY-ON-TRYM,

_August_, 1887.



CONTENTS.


CHAPTER I.

ARCHITECTURE--CIVIL AND MILITARY.

    § 1. HOUSES:--Bricks and Brickmaking--Foundations--Materials--Towns--
    Plans--Decoration

    § 2. FORTRESSES:--Walls--Plans--Migdols, etc.

    § 3. PUBLIC WORKS:--Roads--Bridges--Storehouses--Canals--Lake Moeris--
    Dams--Reservoirs--Quarries


CHAPTER II.

RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE.

    § 1. MATERIALS; PRINCIPLES OF CONSTRUCTION:--Materials of Temples--
    Foundations of Temples--Sizes of Blocks--Mortars--Mode of hoisting
    Blocks--Defective Masonry--Walls--Pavements--Vaultings--Supports--
    Pillars and Columns--Capitals--Campaniform Capitals--Lotus-bud
    Capitals--Hathor-headed Capitals

    § 2. TEMPLES:--Temples of the Sphinx--Temples of Elephantine--Temple
    at El Kab--Temple of Khonsû--Arrangement of Temples--Levels--Crypts--
    Temple of Karnak--Temple of Luxor--Philae--The Speos, or Rock-cut
    Temple--Speos of Horemheb--Rock-cut Temples of Abû Simbel--Temple of
    Deir el Baharî--Temple of Abydos--Sphinxes--Crio-sphinxes

    § 3. DECORATION:--Principles of Decoration--The Temple a Symbolic
    Representation of the World--Decoration of Parts nearest the Ground--
    Dadoes--Bases of Columns--Decoration of Ceilings--Decoration of
    Architraves--Decoration of Wall-surfaces--Magic Virtues of Decoration
    --Decoration of Pylons--Statues--Obelisks--Libation-tables--Altars--
    Shrines--Sacred Boats--Moving Statues of Deities

CHAPTER III.

TOMBS.

    § 1. MASTABAS:--Construction of the Mastaba--The Door of the Living,
    and the Door of the Dead--The Chapel--Wall Decorations--The Double and
    his Needs--The _Serdab_--Ka Statues--The Sepulchral Chamber

    § 2. PYRAMIDS:--Plan of the Pyramid comprises three leading features
    of the Mastaba--Materials of Pyramids--Orientation--Pyramid of Khûfû--
    Pyramids of Khafra and Menkara--Step Pyramid of Sakkarah--Pyramid of
    Ûnas--Decoration of Pyramid of Ûnas--Group of Dashûr--Pyramid of Medum

    § 3. TOMBS OF THE THEBAN EMPIRE; THE ROCK-CUT TOMBS:--Pyramid-mastabas
    of Abydos--Pyramid-mastabas of Drah Abû'l Neggah--Rock-cut Tombs of
    Beni Hasan and Syene--Rock-cut Tombs of Siût--Wall-decoration of
    Theban Catacombs--Tombs of the Kings of the Eighteenth Dynasty at
    Thebes--Valley of the Tombs of the Kings--Royal Catacombs--Tomb of
    Seti I.--Wall-decorations of Royal Catacombs--Funerary Furniture of
    Catacombs--Ûshabtiû--Amulets--Common Graves of the Poor

CHAPTER IV.

PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.

    § 1. DRAWING AND COMPOSITION:--Supposed Canon of Proportion--Drawing
    Materials--Sketches--Illustrations to the _Book of the Dead_--
    Conventional Treatment of Animal and Human Figures--Naturalistic
    Treatment--Composition--Grouping--Wall-paintings of Tombs--A Funerary
    Feast--A Domestic Scene--Military Subjects--Perspective--Parallel
    between a Wall-painting in a Tomb at Sakkarah and the Mosaic of
    Palestrina

    § 2. TECHNICAL PROCESSES:--The Preparation of Surfaces--Outline--
    Sculptors' Tools--Iron and Bronze Tools--Impurity of Iron--Methods of
    Instruction in Sculpture--Models--Methods of cutting Various Stones--
    Polish--Painted Sculptures--Pigments--Conventional Scale of Colour--
    Relation of Painting to Sculpture in Ancient Egypt

    § 3. SCULPTURE:--The Great Sphinx--Art of the Memphite School--Wood-
    panels of Hesi--Funerary Statues--The Portrait-statue and the Double
    --_Chefs d'oeuvre_ of the Memphite School--The Cross-legged
    Scribe--Diorite Statue of Khafra--Rahotep and Nefert--The Sheikh el
    Beled--The Kneeling Scribe--The Dwarf Nemhotep--Royal Statues of the
    Twelfth Dynasty--Hyksos Sphinxes of Tanis--Theban School of the
    Eighteenth Dynasty--Colossi of Amenhotep III.--New School of Tel el
    Amarna--Its Superior Grace and Truth--Works of Horemheb--School of the
    Nineteenth Dynasty--Colossi of Rameses II.--Decadence of Art begins
    with Merenptah--Ethiopian Renaissance--Saïte Renaissance--The
    Attitudes of Statues--Saïte Innovations--Greek Influence upon Egyptian
    Art--The Ptolemaic and Roman Periods--The School of Meroë--Extinction
    of Egyptian Art

CHAPTER V.

THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.

    § 1. STONE, CLAY, AND GLASS:--Precious Stones--Lapidary Art--Beads and
    Amulets--Scarabaei--Statuettes--Libation Tables--Perfume Vases--Kohl-
    pots--Pottery--Clay--Glazes--Red and Painted Wares--Ûshabtiû--Funerary
    Cones--Painted Vases--"Canopic" Vases--Clay Sarcophagi--Glass--Its
    Chemical Constituents--Clear Glass--Coloured Glass--Imitations of
    Precious Stones in Glass--Glass Mosaics--Miniature Objects in Coloured
    Glass--Glass Amulets--Coloured Glass Vases--Enamels--The Theban Blue--
    The Enamels of Tell el Amarna--Enamelled Ûshabtiû of Amen Ptahmes--
    Enamelled Tiles of the Step Pyramid at Sakkarah--Enamelled Tiles of
    Tell el Yahûdeh

    § 2. WOOD, IVORY, LEATHER; TEXTILE FABRICS:--Bone and Ivory--Elephant
    Tusks--Dyed Ivory--Egyptian Woods--Wooden Statuettes--Statuette of
    Hori--Statuette of Naï--Wooden Toilet Ornaments--Perfume and Unguent
    Spoons--Furniture--Chests and Coffers--Mummy-cases--Wooden Effigies on
    Mummy Cases--Huge Outer Cases of Ahmesnefertari and Aahhotep--Funerary
    Furniture--Beds--Canopies--Sledges--Chairs--Stools--Thrones--
    Textiles--Methods of Weaving--Leather--Breast-bands of Mummies--
    Patchwork Canopy in Coloured Leather of Princess Isiemkheb--
    Embroideries--Muslins--Celebrated Textiles of Alexandria

    § 3. METALS:--Iron--Lead--Bronze--Constituents of Egyptian Bronze--
    Domestic Utensils in Bronze--Mirrors--Scissors--Bronze Statuettes--
    The Stroganoff Bronze--The Posno Bronzes--The Lion of Apries--Gilding
    --Gold-plating--Gold-leaf--Statues and Statuettes of Precious Metals
    --The Silver and Golden Cups of General Tahûti--The Silver Vases of
    Thmûis--Silver Plate--Goldsmith's Work--Richness of Patterns--
    Jewellery--Funerary Jewellery--Rings--Seal-rings--Chains--The Jewels
    of Queen Aahhotep--The Ring of Rameses II.--The Ear-rings of Rameses
    IX.--The Bracelet of Prince Psar--Conclusion

NOTES

INDEX



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

FIGURE

1. Brickmaking, tomb of Rekhmara, Eighteenth Dynasty

2. House with vaulted floors, Medinet Habû

3. Plan of the town of Kahûn, Twelfth Dynasty

4. Plan of house, Medinet Habû, Twentieth Dynasty

5. Plan of house, Medinet Habû, Twentieth Dynasty

6. Façade of house of Second Theban Period

7. Plan of house of Second Theban Period

8. Restoration of hall in Twelfth Dynasty house, Kahûn

9. Box representing a house

10. Wall-painting in Twelfth Dynasty house, Kahûn

11. View of mansion, tomb of Anna, Eighteenth Dynasty

12. Porch of mansion of Second Theban Period

13. Porch of mansion of Second Theban Period

14. Plan of Theban house and grounds, Eighteenth Dynasty

15. A perspective view of same

16. Part of palace of Aï, El Amarna tomb, Eighteenth Dynasty

17. Perspective view of part of palace of Aï

18. Frontage of house, Second Theban Period

19. Frontage of house, Second Theban Period

20. Central pavilion of house, Second Theban Period

21. Ceiling decoration from house at Medinet Habû, Twentieth Dynasty

22. Ceiling decoration, Twelfth Dynasty style

23. Ceiling decoration, tomb of Aimadûa, Twentieth Dynasty

24. Door of house, Sixth Dynasty tomb

25. Façade of Fourth Dynasty house, sarcophagus of Khûfû Poskhû

26. Plan of second fortress at Abydos, Eleventh or Twelfth Dynasty

27. Walls of same fortress, restored

28. Façade of fort, tomb at Beni Hasan, Twelfth Dynasty

29. Plan of main gate, second fortress of Abydos

30. Plan of S.E. gate of same

31. Plan of gate, fortress of Kom el Ahmar

32. Plan of walled city at El Kab

33. Plan of walled city at Kom Ombo

34. Plan of fortress of Kûmmeh

35. Plan of fortress of Semneh

36. Section of platform of same

37. Syrian fort, elevation

38. Town walls of Dapûr

39. City of Kaclesh, Ramesseum

40. Plan of pavilion of Medinet Habû, Twentieth Dynasty

41. Elevation of same

42. Canal and bridge of Zarû, Karnak, Nineteenth Dynasty

43. Cellar with amphorae

44. Granary

45. Plan of Store City of Pithom, Nineteenth Dynasty

46. Store-chambers of the Ramesseum

47. Dike at Wady Gerraweh

48. Section of same dike

49. Quarries of Silsilis

50. Draught of Hathor capital, quarry of Gebel Abûfeydeh

51. Transport of blocks, stela of Ahmes, Tûrrah, Eighteenth Dynasty

52. Masonry in temple of Seti I., Abydos

53. Temple wall with cornice

54. Niche and doorway in temple of Seti I., Abydos

55. Pavement in same temple

56. "Corbelled" vault in same temple

57. Hathor pillar in temple of Abû Simbel, Nineteenth Dynasty

58. Pillar of Amenhotep III., Karnak

59. Sixteen-sided pillars, Karnak

60. Fluted pillar, Kalabsheh

61. Polygonal Hathor-headed pillar, El Kab

62. Column with square die, Contra Esneh

63. Column with campaniform capital, Ramesseum

64. Inverted campaniform capital, Karnak

65. Palm capital, Bubastis

66. Compound capital

67. Ornate capitals, Ptolemaic

68. Lotus-bud column, Beni Hasan, Twelfth Dynasty

69. Lotus-bud column, processional hall of Thothmes HI., Karnak

70. Column in aisle of Hypostyle Hall, Karnak

71. Hathor-head capital, Ptolemaic

72. Campaniform and Hathor-headed capital, Philae

73. Section of Hypostyle Hall, Karnak

74. Plan of the temple of the Sphinx

75. South temple of Elephantine

76. Plan of temple of Amenhotep III., El Kab

77. Plan of temple of Hathor, Deir el Medineh

78. Plan of temple of Khonsû, Karnak

79. Pylon with masts, wall-scene, temple of Khonsû, Karnak

80. Ramesseum, restored

81. Plan of sanctuary at Denderah

82. Pronaos, temple of Edfû

83. Plan of same temple

84. Plan of temple of Karnak in reign of Amenhotep III

85. Plan of Hypostyle Hall, Karnak

86. Plan of great temple, Luxor

87. Plan of buildings on island of Philae

88. Plan of Speos, Kalaat Addah

89. Plan of Speos, Gebel Silsileh

90. Plan of Great Speos, Abû Simbel

91. Plan of Speos of Hathor, Abû Simbel

92. Plan of upper portion of temple of Deir el Baharî

93. Plan of temple of Seti I., Abydos

94. Crio-sphinx from temple of Wady Es Sabûah

95. Couchant ram, from Avenue of Sphinxes, Karnak

96-101. Decorative designs from Denderah

102. Decorative group of Nile gods

103. Dado decoration, hall of Thothmes III., Karnak

104. Ceiling decoration, tomb of Bakenrenf, Twenty-sixth Dynasty

105. Zodiacal circle of Denderah

106. Frieze of uraei and cartouches

107. Wall-scene from temple of Denderah

108. Obelisk of Heliopolis, Twelfth Dynasty

109. Obelisk of Begig, Twelfth Dynasty

110. "Table of offerings" from Karnak

111. Limestone altar from Menshîyeh

112. Wooden naos, in Turin Museum

113. A mastaba

114. False door in mastaba

115. Plan of forecourt, mastaba of Kaäpir

116. Plan of forecourt, mastaba of Neferhotep

117. Door in mastaba façade

118. Portico and door of mastaba

119. Plan of chapel, mastaba of Khabiûsokari

120. Plan of chapel, mastaba of Ti

121. Plan of chapel, mastaba of Shepsesptah

122. Plan of chapel, mastaba of Affi

123. Plan of chapel, mastaba of Thenti

124. Plan of chapel, mastaba of Red Scribe

125. Plan of chapel, mastaba of Ptahhotep

126. Stela in mastaba of Merrûka

127. Wall-scene from mastaba of Ptahhotep

128. Wall-scene from mastaba of Ûrkhûû

129. Wall-scene from mastaba of Ptahhotep

130. Plan of serdab in mastaba at Gizeh

131. Plan of serdab and chapel in mastaba of Rahotep

132. Plan of serdab and chapel in mastaba of Thenti

133. Section of mastaba showing shaft and vault, at Gizeh

134. Section of mastaba, at Sakkarah

135. Wall-scene from mastaba of Nenka

136. Section of Great Pyramid

137. The Step Pyramid of Sakkarah

138. Plan and section of pyramid of Ûnas

139. Portcullis and passage, pyramid of Ûnas

140. Section of pyramid of Ûnas

141. Mastabat el Faraûn

142. Pyramid of Medûm

143. Section of passage and vault in pyramid of Medûm

144. Section of "vaulted" brick pyramid, Abydos, Eleventh Dynasty

145. Section of "vaulted" tomb, Abydos

146. Plan of tomb, Abydos

147. Theban tomb with pyramidion, wall-scene, tomb at Sheikh Abd el Gûrneh

148. Similar tomb

149. Section of Apis tomb, Eighteenth Dynasty

150. Tombs in cliff opposite Asûan

151. Façade of rock-cut tomb of Khnûmhotep, Beni Hasan, Twelfth Dynasty

152. Façade of rock-cut tomb, Asûan

153. Plan of tomb of Khnûmhotep, Beni Hasan, Twelfth Dynasty

154. Plan of unfinished tomb, Beni Hasan, Twelfth Dynasty

155. Wall-scene, tomb of Manna, Nineteenth Dynasty

156. Plan of tomb of Rameses IV.

157. Plan of tomb of Rameses IV., from Turin papyrus

158. Plan of tomb of Seti I.

159. Fields of Aalû, wall-scene, tomb of Rameses III.

160. Pestle and mortar for grinding colours

161. Comic sketch on ostrakon

162. Vignette from _Book of the Dead_, Saïte period

163. Vignette from _Book of the Dead_, papyrus of Hûnefer

164-5. Wall-scenes, tomb of Khnûmhotep, Beni Hasan

166. Wall-scene, tomb, Eighteenth Dynasty

167. Wall-scene, tomb of Horemheb

168. Wall-scene, Theban tomb, Ramesside period

169. Wall-scene, tomb of Horemheb

170. Wall-scene, Ramesseum

171. Wall-scene, Medinet Habû

172. Wall-scene, Ramesseum

173. Wall-scene, Ramesseum

174. Wall-scene, tomb of Rekhmara

175. Wall-scene, tomb of Rekhmara

176. Wall-scene, mastaba of Ptahhotep

177. Palestrina mosaic

178. Sculptor's sketch, Ancient Empire tomb

179. Sculptor's sketch, Ancient Empire tomb

180. Sculptor's correction, Medinet Habû, Twentieth Dynasty

181. Bow drill

182. Sculptor's trial-piece, Eighteenth Dynasty

183. The Great Sphinx of Gizeh

184. Wooden panel, mastaba of Hesî

185. Cross-legged scribe, in the Louvre, Ancient Empire

186. Cross-legged scribe, at Gizeh, Ancient Empire

187. King Khafra

188. The "Sheikh el Beled" (Raemka), Ancient Empire

189. Rahotep, Ancient Empire

190. Nefert, wife of Rahotep, Ancient Empire

191. Head of the "Sheikh el Beled," Ancient Empire

192. Wife of the "Sheikh el Beled," Ancient Empire

193. The kneeling scribe, at Gizeh. Ancient Empire

194. A bread-maker, Ancient Empire

195. The dwarf Nemhotep, Ancient Empire

196. One of the Tanis sphinxes, Hyksos period

197. Bas-relief head of Seti I.

198. Amen and Horemheb

199. Head of a queen, Eighteenth Dynasty

200. Head of Horemheb

201. Colossal statue of Rameses 11.

202. Queen Ameniritis.

203. Thûeris, Saïte period

204. Hathor cow, Saïte period

205. Pedishashi, Saïte period

206. Head of a scribe, Saïte period

207. Colossus of Alexander II.

208. Hor, Graeco-Egyptian

209. Group from Naga, Ethiopian School

210. _Ta_ amulet

211. Frog amulet

212. _Ûat_ amulet

213. _Ûta_ amulet

214. A scarab

215-7. Perfume vases, alabaster

218. Perfume vase, alabaster

219. Vase for antimony powder

220. Turin vases, pottery

221-3. Decorated vases, pottery

224. Glass-blowers, wall-scene, Twelfth Dynasty

225-6. Parti-cloured glass vases

227. Parti-coloured glass vase

228. Glass goblets of Nesikhonsû

229. Hippopotamus in blue glaze

230-1. Theban glazed ware

232. Cup, glazed ware

233. Interior decoration of bowl, Eighteenth Dynasty

234. Lenticular vase, glazed ware, Saïte period

235. Tiled chamber in Step Pyramid of Sakkarah

236. Tile from same

237. Tile, Tell el Yahûdeh, Twentieth Dynasty

238. Tile, Tell el Yahûdeh, Twentieth Dynasty

239. Inlaid tiles, Tell el Yahûdeh, Twentieth Dynasty

240-1. Relief tiles, Tell el Yahûdeh, Twentieth Dynasty

242. Spoon

243. Wooden statuette of officer, Eighteenth Dynasty

244. Wooden statuette of priest, Eighteenth Dynasty

245. Wooden statuette of Naï

246-54. Wooden perfume and unguent spoons

255. Fire-sticks, bow, and unfinished drill-stock, Twelfth Dynasty

256. Dolls, Twelfth Dynasty

257. Tops, tip-cat, and toy boat, Twelfth Dynasty

258-60. Chests

261. Construction of a mummy-case, wall-scene, Eighteenth Dynasty

262. Mask of Twenty-first Dynasty coffin of Rameses II

263. Mummy-case of Queen Ahmesnefertari

264. Panel portrait from the Fayûm, Graeco-Roman

265. Carved and painted mummy-canopy

266. Canopied mummy-couch, Graeco-Roman

267. Mummy-sledge and canopy

268. Inlaid chair, Eleventh Dynasty

269. Inlaid stool, Eleventh Dynasty

270. Throne-chair, wall-scene, Twentieth Dynasty

271. Women weaving, wall-scene, Twelfth Dynasty

272. Man weaving carpet or hangings, wall-scene, Twelfth Dynasty

273. Cut leather work, Twenty-first Dynasty

274-5. Barks with cut leather-work sails, Twentieth Dynasty

276-7. Bronze jug

278. Unguent vase, or spoon (lamp for suspension?)

279. Bronze statuette of Takûshet

280. Bronze statuette of Horus

281. Bronze statuette of Mosû

282. Bronze lion from Horbeit, Saïte period

283. Gold-worker, wall-scene

284. Golden cup of General Tahûti, Eighteenth Dynasty

285. Silver vase of Thmûis

286. Silver vase of Thmûis

287. Piece of plate, wall-scene, Twentieth Dynasty

288-95. Plate, wall-scenes, Eighteenth Dynasty

296. Signet-ring, with bezel

297. Gold _cloisonné_ pectoral, Dahshur, Twelfth Dynasty

298. Mirror of Queen Aahhotep, Eighteenth Dynasty

299-300. Bracelets of same

301. Diadem of same

302. Gold _Ûsekh_ of same

303. Gold pectoral of same

304-5. Poignards found with mummy of Queen Aahhotep

306. Battle-axe found with same

307. Model funerary bark found with same

308. Ring of Rameses II

309. Bracelet of Prince Psar



EGYPTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY.



CHAPTER I.


_ARCHITECTURE--CIVIL AND MILITARY_.

Archaeologists, when visiting Egypt, have so concentrated their attention
upon temples and tombs, that not one has devoted himself to a careful
examination of the existing remains of private dwellings and military
buildings. Few countries, nevertheless, have preserved so many relics of
their ancient civil architecture. Setting aside towns of Roman or Byzantine
date, such as are found almost intact at Koft (Coptos), at Kom Ombo, and at
El Agandiyeh, one-half at least of ancient Thebes still exists on the east
and south of Karnak. The site of Memphis is covered with mounds, some of
which are from fifty to sixty feet in height, each containing a core of
houses in good preservation. At Kahûn, the ruins and remains of a whole
provincial Twelfth Dynasty town have been laid bare; at Tell el Mask-hûtah,
the granaries of Pithom are yet standing; at Sãn (Tanis) and Tell Basta
(Bubastis), the Ptolemaic and Saïtic cities contain quarters of which plans
might be made (Note 1), and in many localities which escape the traveller's
notice, there may be seen ruins of private dwellings which date back to the
age of the Ramessides, or to a still earlier period. As regards
fortresses, there are two in the town of Abydos alone, one of which is at
least contemporary with the Sixth Dynasty; while the ramparts of El Kab, of
Kom el Ahmar, of El Hibeh, and of Dakkeh, as well as part of the
fortifications of Thebes, are still standing, and await the architect who
shall deign to make them an object of serious study.

       *       *       *       *       *



1.--PRIVATE DWELLINGS.


The soil of Egypt, periodically washed by the inundation, is a black,
compact, homogeneous clay, which becomes of stony hardness when dry. From
immemorial time, the fellahin have used it for the construction of their
houses. The hut of the poorest peasant is a mere rudely-shaped mass of this
clay. A rectangular space, some eight or ten feet in width, by perhaps
sixteen or eighteen feet in length, is enclosed in a wickerwork of palm-
branches, coated on both sides with a layer of mud. As this coating cracks
in the drying the fissures are filled in, and more coats of mud are daubed
on until the walls attain a thickness of from four inches to a foot.
Finally, the whole is roofed over with palm-branches and straw, the top
being covered in with a thin layer of beaten earth. The height varies. In
most huts, the ceiling is so low that to rise suddenly is dangerous both to
one's head and to the structure, while in others the roof is six or seven
feet from the floor. Windows, of course, there are none. Sometimes a hole
is left in the middle of the roof to let the smoke out; but this is a
refinement undreamed of by many.

[Illustration: Fig. 1.--Brickmaking, from Eighteenth Dynasty tomb-painting,
Tomb of Rekhmara.]

At the first glance, it is not always easy to distinguish between these
huts of wattle and daub and those built with crude bricks. The ordinary
Egyptian brick is a mere oblong block of mud mixed with chopped straw and a
little sand, and dried in the sun. At a spot where they are about to build,
one man is told off to break up the ground; others carry the clods, and
pile them in a heap, while others again mix them with water, knead the clay
with their feet, and reduce it to a homogeneous paste. This paste, when
sufficiently worked (Note 2), is pressed by the head workman in moulds made
of hard wood, while an assistant carries away the bricks as fast as they
are shaped, and lays them out in rows at a little distance apart, to dry in
the sun (fig. I). A careful brickmaker will leave them thus for half a day,
or even for a whole day, after which the bricks are piled in stacks in such
wise that the air can circulate freely among them; and so they remain for a
week or two before they are used. More frequently, however, they are
exposed for only a few hours to the heat of the sun, and the building is
begun while they are yet damp. The mud, however, is so tenacious that,
notwithstanding this carelessness, they are not readily put out of shape.
The outer faces of the bricks become disintegrated by the action of the
weather, but those in the inner part of the wall remain intact, and are
still separable. A good modern workman will easily mould a thousand bricks
a day, and after a week's practice he may turn out 1,200, 1,500, or even
1,800. The ancient workmen, whose appliances in no wise differed from those
of the present day, produced equally satisfactory results. The dimensions
they generally adopted were 8.7 x 4.3 x 5.5 inches for ordinary bricks, or
15.0 x 7.1 x 5.5 for a larger size (Note 3), though both larger and smaller
are often met with in the ruins. Bricks issued from the royal workshops
were sometimes stamped with the cartouches of the reigning monarch; while
those made in private factories bore on the side a trade mark in red ochre,
a squeeze of the moulder's fingers, or the stamp of the maker. By far the
greater number have, however, no distinctive mark. Burnt bricks were not
often used before the Roman period (Note 4), nor tiles, either flat or
curved. Glazed bricks appear to have been the fashion in the Delta. The
finest specimen that I have seen, namely, one in the Gizeh Museum, is
inscribed in black ink with the cartouches of Rameses III. The glaze of
this brick is green, but other fragments are coloured blue, red, yellow, or
white.

The nature of the soil does not allow of deep foundations. It consists of a
thin bed of made earth, which, except in large towns, never reaches any
degree of thickness; below this comes a very dense humus, permeated by
slender veins of sand; and below this again--at the level of infiltration--
comes a bed of mud, more or less soft, according to the season. The native
builders of the present day are content to remove only the made earth, and
lay their foundations on the primeval soil; or, if that lies too deep, they
stop at a yard or so below the surface. The old Egyptians did likewise; and
I have never seen any ancient house of which the foundations were more than
four feet deep. Even this is exceptional, the depth in most cases being not
more than two feet. They very often did not trouble themselves to cut
trenches at all; they merely levelled the space intended to be covered,
and, having probably watered it to settle the soil, they at once laid the
bricks upon the surface. When the house was finished, the scraps of mortar,
the broken bricks, and all the accumulated refuse of the work, made a bed
of eight inches or a foot in depth, and the base of the wall thus buried
served instead of a foundation. When the new house rose on the ruins of an
older one decayed by time or ruined by accident, the builders did not even
take the trouble to raze the old walls to the ground. Levelling the surface
of the ruins, they-built upon them at a level a few feet higher than
before: thus each town stands upon one or several artificial mounds, the
tops of which may occasionally rise to a height of from sixty to eighty
feet above the surrounding country. The Greek historians attributed these
artificial mounds to the wisdom of the kings, and especially to Sesostris,
who, as they supposed, wished to raise the towns above the inundation. Some
modern writers have even described the process, which they explain thus:--A
cellular framework of brick walls, like a huge chess-board, formed the
substructure, the cells being next filled in with earth, and the houses
built upon this immense platform (Note 5).

[Illustration: Fig. 2.--Ancient house with vaulted floors, against the
northern wall of the great temple of Medinet Habù]

[Illustration: Fig. 3.--Plan of three-quarters of the town of Hat-Hotep-
Ûsertesen (Kahûn), built for the accommodation of the officials and workmen
employed in connection with the pyramid of Ûsertesen II. at Illahûn. The
workmen's quarters are principally on the west, and separated from the
eastern part of the town by a thick wall. At the south-west corner, outside
the town, stood the pyramid temple, and in front of it the porter's lodge.
Reproduced from Plate XIV. of _Illahûn, Kahun, and Gurob_, W.M.F. Petrie.]

But where I have excavated, especially at Thebes, I have never found
anything answering to this conception. The intersecting walls which one
finds beneath the later houses are nothing but the ruins of older
dwellings, which in turn rest on others still older. The slightness of the
foundations did not prevent the builders from boldly running up quite lofty
structures. In the ruins of Memphis, I have observed walls still standing
from thirty to forty feet in height. The builders took no precaution beyond
enlarging the base of the wall, and vaulting the floors (fig. 2).[1] The
thickness of an ordinary wall was about sixteen inches for a low house; but
for one of several storeys, it was increased to three or four feet. Large
beams, embedded here and there in the brickwork or masonry, bound the whole
together, and strengthened the structure. The ground floor was also
frequently built with dressed stones, while the upper parts were of brick.
The limestone of the neighbouring hills was the stone commonly used for
such purposes. The fragments of sandstone, granite, and alabaster, which
are often found mixed in with it, are generally from some ruined temple;
the ancient Egyptians having pulled their neglected monuments to pieces
quite as unscrupulously as do their modern successors. The houses of an
ancient Egyptian town were clustered round its temple, and the temple stood
in a rectangular enclosure to which access was obtained through monumental
gateways in the surrounding brick wall. The gods dwelt in fortified
mansions, or at any rate in redoubts to which the people of the place might
fly for safety in the event of any sudden attack upon their town. Such
towns as were built all at once by prince or king were fairly regular in
plan, having wide paved streets at right angles to each other, and the
buildings in line. The older cities, whose growth had been determined by
the chances and changes of centuries, were characterised by no such
regularity. Their houses stood in a maze of blind alleys, and narrow, dark,
and straggling streets, with here and there the branch of a canal, almost
dried up during the greater part of the year, and a muddy pond where the
cattle drank and women came for water. Somewhere in each town was an open
space shaded by sycamores or acacias, and hither on market days came the
peas-ants of the district two or three times in the month. There were also
waste places where rubbish and refuse was thrown, to be quarrelled over by
vultures, hawks, and dogs.

[Illustration: Fig. 4.--Plan of house, Medinet Habû]

[Illustration: Fig. 5.--Plan of house, Medinet Habû.]

[Illustration: Fig. 6.--Façade of a house toward the street, second Theban
period.]

[Illustration: Fig. 7.--Plan of central court of house, second Theban
period.]

[Illustration: Fig. 8.--Restoration of the hall in a Twelfth Dynasty house.
In the middle of the floor is a tank surrounded by a covered colonnade.
Reproduced from Plate XVI. of _Illahûn, Kahun, and Gurob_, W.M.F.
Petrie.]

[Illustration: Fig. 9.--Box representing a house (British Museum).]

The lower classes lived in mere huts which, though built of bricks, were no
better than those of the present fellahin. At Karnak, in the Pharaonic
town; at Kom Ombo, in the Roman town; and at Medinet Habû, in the Coptic
town, the houses in the poorer quarters have seldom more than twelve or
sixteen feet of frontage. They consist of a ground floor, with sometimes
one or two living-rooms above. The middle-class folk, as shopkeepers, sub-
officials, and foremen, were better housed. Their houses were brick-built
and rather small, yet contained some half-dozen rooms communicating by
means of doorways, which were usually arched over, and having vaulted
roofs in some cases, and in others flat ones. Some few of the houses were
two or three storeys high, and many were separated from the street by a
narrow court, beyond which the rooms were ranged on either side of a long
passage (fig. 4). More frequently, the court was surrounded on three sides
by chambers (fig. 5); and yet oftener the house fronted close upon the
street. In the latter case the façade consisted of a high wall, whitewashed
or painted, and surmounted by a cornice. Even in better houses the only
ornamentation of their outer walls consisted in angular grooving, the
grooves being surmounted by representations of two lotus flowers, each pair
with the upper parts of the stalks in contact (see figs. 24, 25). The door
was the only opening, save perhaps a few small windows pierced at irregular
intervals (fig. 6). Even in unpretentious houses, the door was often made
of stone. The doorposts projected slightly beyond the surface of the wall,
and the lintel supported a painted or sculptured cornice. Having crossed
the threshold, one passed successively through two dimly-lighted entrance
chambers, the second of which opened into the central court (fig. 7). The
best rooms in the houses of wealthier citizens were sometimes lighted
through a square opening in the centre of a ceiling supported on wooden
columns. In the Twelfth Dynasty town of Kahûn the shafts of these columns
rested upon round stone bases; they were octagonal, and about ten inches in
diameter (fig. 8). Notwithstanding the prevalence of enteric disease and
ophthalmia, the family crowded together into one or two rooms during the
winter, and slept out on the roof under the shelter of mosquito nets in
summer. On the roof also the women gossiped and cooked. The ground floor
included both store-rooms, barns, and stables. Private granaries were
generally in pairs (see fig. 11), brick-built in the same long conical
shape as the state granaries, and carefully plastered with mud inside and
out. Neither did the people of a house forget to find or to make hiding
places in the walls or floors of their home, where they could secrete their
household treasures--such as nuggets of gold and silver, precious stones,
and jewellery for men and women--from thieves and tax-collectors alike.
Wherever the upper floors still remain standing, they reproduce the ground-
floor plan with scarcely any differences. These upper rooms were reached by
an outside staircase, steep and narrow, and divided at short intervals by
small square landings. The rooms were oblong, and were lighted only from
the doorway; when it was decided to open windows on the street, they were
mere air-holes near the ceiling, pierced without regularity or symmetry,
fitted with a lattice of wooden cross bars, and secured by wooden shutters.
The floors were bricked or paved, or consisted still more frequently of
merely a layer of rammed earth. The rooms were not left undecorated; the
mud-plaster of the walls, generally in its native grey, although
whitewashed in some cases, was painted with red or yellow, and ornamented
with drawings of interior and exterior views of a house, and of household
vessels and eatables (fig. 10). The roof was flat, and made probably, as at
the present day, of closely laid rows of palm-branches covered with a
coating of mud thick enough to withstand the effects of rain. Sometimes it
was surmounted by only one or two of the usual Egyptian ventilators; but
generally there was a small washhouse on the roof (fig. 9), and a little
chamber for the slaves or guards to sleep in. The household fire was made
in a hollow of the earthen floor, usually to one side of the room, and the
smoke escaped through a hole in the ceiling; branches of trees, charcoal,
and dried cakes of ass or cow dung were used for fuel.

[Illustration: Fig. 10.--Wall-painting in a Twelfth Dynasty house. Below is
a view of the outside, and above a view of the inside of a dwelling.
Reproduced from Plate XVI. of _Illahûn, Kahun, and Gurob_, W.M.F. Petrie.]

[Illustration: Fig. 11.--View of mansion from the tomb of Anna, Eighteenth
Dynasty.]

The mansions of the rich and great covered a large space of ground. They
most frequently stood in the midst of a garden, or of an enclosed court
planted with trees; and, like the commoner houses, they turned a blank
front to the street, consisting of bare walls, battlemented like those of a
fortress (fig. 11). Thus, home-life was strictly secluded, and the pleasure
of seeing was sacrificed for the advantages of not being seen. The door was
approached by a flight of two or three steps, or by a porch supported on
columns (fig. 12) and adorned with statues (fig. 13), which gave it a
monumental appearance, and indicated the social importance of the family.

[Illustration: WALL-PAINTINGS, EL AMARNA.
Fig. 12.--Porch of mansion, second Theban period,
Fig. 13.--Porch of mansion, second Theban period.]

Sometimes this was preceded by a pylon-gateway, such as usually heralded
the approach to a temple. Inside the enclosure it was like a small town,
divided into quarters by irregular walls. The dwelling-house stood at the
farther end; the granaries, stabling, and open spaces being distributed in
different parts of the grounds, according to some system to which we as yet
possess no clue. These arrangements, however, were infinitely varied. If I
would convey some idea of the residence of an Egyptian noble,--a residence
half palace, half villa,--I cannot do better than reproduce two out of the
many pictorial plans which have come down to us among the tomb-paintings
of the Eighteenth Dynasty. The first (figs. 14, 15) represent a Theban
house. The enclosure is square, and surrounded by an embattled wall. The
main gate opens upon a road bordered with trees, which runs beside a canal,
or perhaps an arm of the Nile. Low stone walls divide the garden into
symmetrical compartments, like those which are seen to this day in the
great gardens of Ekhmîm or Girgeh.

[Illustration: Fig. 14.--Plan of a Theban house with garden, from
Eighteenth Dynasty tomb-painting.]

In the centre is a large trellis supported on four rows of slender pillars.
Four small ponds, two to the right and two to the left, are stocked with
ducks and geese. Two nurseries, two summer-houses, and various avenues of
sycamores, date-palms, and dôm-palms fill up the intermediate space; while
at the end, facing the entrance, stands a small three-storied house
surmounted by a painted cornice.

[Illustration: Fig. 15.--Perspective view of the Theban house, from
Eighteenth Dynasty tomb-painting.]

[Illustration: Fig. 16.--Part of the palace of Aï, from tomb-painting,
Eighteenth Dynasty, El Amarna.]

The second plan is copied from one of the rock-cut tombs of Tell el Amarna
(figs. 16, 17). Here we see a house situate at the end of the gardens of
the great lord Aï, son-in-law of the Pharaoh Khûenaten, and himself
afterwards king of Egypt. An oblong stone tank with sloping sides, and two
descending flights of steps, faces the entrance. The building is
rectangular, the width being somewhat greater than the depth. A large
doorway opens in the middle of the front, and gives access to a court
planted with trees and flanked by store-houses fully stocked with
provisions. Two small courts, placed symmetrically in the two farthest
corners, contain the staircases which lead up to the roof terrace. This
first building, however, is but the frame which surrounds the owner's
dwelling. The two frontages are each adorned with a pillared portico and a
pylon. Passing the outer door, we enter a sort of long central passage,
divided by two walls pierced with doorways, so as to form three successive
courts. The inside court is bordered by chambers; the two others open to
right and left upon two smaller courts, whence flights of steps lead up to
the terraced roof. This central building is called the _Akhonûti_, or
private dwelling of kings or nobles, to which only the family and intimate
friends had access. The number of storeys and the arrangement of the façade
varied according to the taste of the owner. The frontage was generally a
straight wall. Sometimes it was divided into three parts, with the middle
division projecting, in which case the two wings were ornamented with a
colonnade to each storey (fig. 18), or surmounted by an open gallery (fig.
19). The central pavilion sometimes presents the appearance of a tower,
which dominates the rest of the building (fig. 20). The façade is often
decorated with slender colonnettes of painted wood, which bear no weight,
and merely serve to lighten the somewhat severe aspect of the exterior. Of
the internal arrangements, we know but little. As in the middle-class
houses, the sleeping rooms were probably small and dark; but, on the other
hand, the reception rooms must have been nearly as large as those still in
use in the Arab houses of modern Egypt.

[Illustration: Fig. 17.--Perspective view of the Palace of AT, Eighteenth
Dynasty, El Amarna.]

[Illustration: Fig. 18.--Frontage of house, second Theban period.]

[Illustration: Fig. 19.--Frontage of house, second Theban period.]

[Illustration: Fig. 20.--Central pavilion of house, in form of tower,
second Theban period.]

The decoration of walls and ceilings in no wise resembled such scenes or
designs as we find in the tombs. The panels were whitewashed or colour-
washed, and bordered with a polychrome band. The ceilings were usually left
white; sometimes, however they were decorated with geometrical patterns,
which repeated the leading motives employed in the sepulchral wall-
paintings. Thus we find examples of meanders interspersed with rosettes
(fig. 21), parti-coloured squares (fig. 22), ox-heads seen frontwise,
scrolls, and flights of geese (fig. 23).

[Illustration: Fig. 21.--Ceiling pattern from behind, Medinet Habû,
Twentieth Dynasty.]

[Illustration: Fig. 22.--Ceiling pattern similar to one at El Bersheh,
Twelfth Dynasty.]

I have touched chiefly upon houses of the second Theban period,[2] this
being in fact the time of which we have most examples. The house-shaped
lamps which are found in such large numbers in the Fayûm date only from
Roman times; but the Egyptians of that period continued to build according
to the rules which were in force under the Pharaohs of the Twelfth,
Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties. As regards the domestic
architecture of the ancient kingdom, the evidences are few and obscure.
Nevertheless, the stelae, tombs, and coffins of that period often furnish
designs which show us the style of the doorways (fig. 24), and one Fourth
Dynasty sarcophagus, that of Khûfû Poskhû, is carved in the likeness of a
house (fig. 25).


[1] Many of the rooms at Kahun had vaulted ceilings.

[2] Seventeenth to Twentieth Dynasties.



2.--FORTRESSES.

Most of the towns, and even most of the larger villages, of ancient Egypt
were walled. This was an almost necessary consequence of the geographical
characteristics and the political constitution of the country. The mouths
of the defiles which led into the desert needed to be closed against the
Bedawîn; while the great feudal nobles fortified their houses, their towns,
and the villages upon their domains which commanded either the mountain
passes or the narrow parts of the river, against their king or their
neighbours.

[Illustration: Fig. 23.--Ceiling pattern from tomb of Aimadûa, Twentieth
Dynasty.]

[Illustration: Fig. 24.--Door of a house of the Ancient Empire, from the
wall of a tomb of the Sixth Dynasty.]

[Illustration: Fig. 25.--Façade of a Fourth Dynasty house, from the
sarcophagus of Khûfû Poskhû.]

The oldest fortresses are those of Abydos, El Kab, and Semneh. Abydos
contained a sanctuary dedicated to Osiris, and was situate at the entrance
to one of the roads leading to the Oasis. As the renown of the temple
attracted pilgrims, so the position of the city caused it to be frequented
by merchants; hence the prosperity which it derived from the influx of both
classes of strangers exposed the city to incursions of the Libyan tribes.
At Abydos there yet remain two almost perfect strongholds. The older forms,
as it were, the core of that tumulus called by the Arabs "Kom es Sultan,"
or "the Mound of the King." The interior of this building has been
excavated to a point some ten or twelve feet above the ground level, but
the walls outside have not yet been cleared from the surrounding sand and
rubbish. In its present condition, it forms a parallelogram of crude
brickwork measuring 410 feet from north to south, and 223 feet from east to
west. The main axis of the structure extends, therefore, from north to
south. The principal gateway opens in the western wall, not far from the
northwest corner: but there would appear to have been two smaller gates,
one in the south front, and one in the east. The walls, which now stand
from twenty-four to thirty-six feet high, have lost somewhat of their
original height. They are about six feet thick at the top. They were not
built all together in uniform layers, but in huge vertical panels, easily
distinguished by the arrangement of the brickwork. In one division the
bedding of the bricks is strictly horizontal; in the next it is slightly
concave, and forms a very flat reversed arch, of which the extrados rests
upon the ground. The alternation of these two methods is regularly
repeated. The object of this arrangement is obscure; but it is said that
buildings thus constructed are especially fitted to resist earthquake
shocks. However this may be, the fortress is extremely ancient, for in the
Fifth Dynasty, the nobles of Abydos took possession of the interior, and,
ultimately, so piled it up with their graves as to deprive it of all
strategic value. A second stronghold, erected a few hundred yards further
to the south-east, replaced that of Kom es Sultan about the time of the
Twelfth Dynasty, and narrowly escaped the fate of the first, under the rule
of the Ramessides. Nothing, in fact, but the sudden decline of the city,
saved the second from being similarly choked and buried.

[Illustration: Fig. 26.--Plan of second fortress at Abydos, Eleventh or
Twelfth Dynasty.]

[Illustration: Fig. 27.--Walls of second fort at Abydos, restored.]

[Illustration: Fig. 28.--Façade of fort, from wall-scene, Beni Hasan,
Twelfth Dynasty.]

[Illustration: Fig. 29.--Plan of main gate, second fortress of Abydos.]

[Illustration: Fig. 30.--Plan of south-east gate, second fortress of
Abydos.]

[Illustration: Fig. 31.--Plan of gate, fortress of Kom el Ahmar.]

The early Egyptians possessed no engines calculated to make an impression
on very massive walls. They knew of but three ways of forcing a stronghold;
namely, scaling the walls, sapping them, or bursting open the gates. The
plan adopted by their engineers in building the second fort is admirably
well calculated to resist each of these modes of attack (fig. 26). The
outer walls are long and straight, without towers or projections of any
kind; they measure 430 feet in length from north to south, by 255 feet in
width. The foundations rest on the sand, and do not go down more than a
foot. The wall (fig. 27) is of crude brick, in horizontal courses. It has a
slight batter; is solid, without slits or loopholes; and is decorated
outside with long vertical grooves or panels, like those depicted on the
stelae of the ancient empire. In its present state, it rises to a height of
some thirty-six feet above the plain; when perfect, it would scarcely have
exceeded forty feet, which height would amply suffice to protect the
garrison from all danger of scaling by portable ladders. The thickness of
the wall is about twenty feet at the base, and sixteen feet above. The top
is destroyed, but the bas-reliefs and mural paintings (fig. 28) show that
it must have been crowned with a continuous cornice, boldly projecting,
furnished with a slight low parapet, and surmounted by battlements, which
were generally rounded, but sometimes, though rarely, squared. The walk
round the top of the ramparts, though diminished by the parapet, was still
twelve or fifteen feet wide. It ran uninterruptedly along the four sides,
and was reached by narrow staircases formed in the thickness of the walls,
but now destroyed. There was no ditch, but in order to protect the base of
the main wall from sappers, they erected, about ten feet in advance of it,
a battlemented covering wall, some sixteen feet in height. These
precautions sufficed against sap and scaling; but the gates remained as
open gaps in the circuit. It was upon these weak points that besiegers and
besieged alike concentrated their efforts. The fortress of Abydos had two
gates, the main one being situate at the east end of the north front (fig.
29). A narrow cutting (A), closed by a massive wooden door, marked the
place in the covering wall. Behind it was a small _place d'armes_ (B), cut
partly in the thickness of the wall, and leading to a second gate (C) as
narrow as the first. When, notwithstanding the showers of missiles poured
upon them from the top of the walls, not only in front, but also from both
sides, the attacking party had succeeded in carrying this second door, they
were not yet in the heart of the place. They would still have to traverse
an oblong court (D), closely hemmed in between the outer walls and the
cross walls, which last stood at right angles to the first. Finally, they
must force a last postern (E), which was purposely placed in the most
awkward corner. The leading principle in the construction of fortress-gates
was always the same, but the details varied according to the taste of the
engineer. At the south-east gate of the fort of Abydos (fig. 30) the _place
d'armes_ between the two walls is abolished, and the court is constructed
entirely in the thickness of the main wall; while at Kom el Ahmar, opposite
El Kab (fig. 31), the block of brickwork in the midst of which the gate is
cut projects boldly in front. The posterns opening at various points
facilitated the movements of the garrison, and enabled them to multiply
their sorties.

[Illustration: Fig. 32.--Plan of the walled city at El Kab.]

The same system of fortification which was in use for isolated fortresses
was also employed for the protection of towns. At Heliopollis, at Sãn, at
Sais, at Thebes, everywhere in short, we find long straight walls forming
plain squares or parallelograms, without towers or bastions, ditches or
outworks. The thickness of the walls, which varied from thirty to eighty
feet, made such precautions needless. The gates, or at all events the
principal ones, had jambs and lintels of stone, decorated with scenes and
inscriptions; as, for instance, that of Ombos, which Champollion beheld yet
_in situ_, and which dated from the reign of Thothmes III. The oldest and
best preserved walled city in Egypt, namely, El Kab, belongs probably to
the ancient empire (fig. 32). The Nile washed part of it away some years
ago; but at the beginning of the present century it formed an irregular
quadrilateral enclosure, measuring some 2,100 feet in length, by about a
quarter less in breadth. The south front is constructed on the same
principles as the wall at Kom es Sultan, the bricks being bedded in
alternate horizontal and concave sections. Along the north and west fronts
they are laid in undulating layers from end to end. The thickness is
thirty-eight feet, and the average height thirty feet; and spacious ramps
lead up to the walk upon the walls. The gates are placed irregularly, one
in each side to north, east, and west, but none in the south face; they
are, however, in too ruinous a state to admit of any plan being taken of
them. The enclosure contained a considerable population, whose dwellings
were unequally distributed, the greater part being concentrated towards the
north and west, where excavations have disclosed the remains of a large
number of houses. The temples were grouped together in a square enclosure,
concentric with the outer wall; and this second enclosure served for a
keep, where the garrison could hold out long after the rest of the town had
fallen into the hands of the enemy.

[Illustration: Fig. 33.--Plan of walled city at Kom Ombo.]

[Illustration: Fig. 34.--Plan of fortress of Kùmmeh.]

[Illustration: Fig. 35.--Plan of fortress of Semneh.]

[Illustration: Fig. 36.--Section of the platform at A B, of the preceding
plan.]

The rectangular plan, though excellent in a plain, was not always
available in a hilly country. When the spot to be fortified was situate
upon a height, the Egyptian engineers knew perfectly well how to adapt
their lines of defence to the nature of the site. At Kom Ombo (fig. 33) the
walls exactly followed the outline of the isolated mound on which the town
was perched, and presented towards the east a front bristling with
irregular projections, the style of which roughly resembles our modern
bastions. At Kûmmeh and Semneh, in Nubia, where the Nile rushes over the
rocks of the second cataract, the engineering arrangements are very
ingenious, and display much real skill. Ûsertesen III. had fixed on this
pass as the frontier of Egypt, and the fortresses which he there
constructed were intended to bar the water-way against the vessels of the
neighbouring negro tribes. At Kûmmeh, on the right bank, the position was
naturally strong (fig. 34). Upon a rocky height surrounded by precipices
was planned an irregular square measuring about 200 feet each way. Two
elongated bastions, one on the north-east and the other on the south-east,
guarded respectively the path leading to the gate, and the course of the
river. The covering wall stood thirteen feet high, and closely followed the
line of the main wall, except at the north and south corners, where it
formed two bastion-like projections. At Semneh, on the opposite bank, the
site was less favourable. The east side was protected by a belt of cliffs
going sheer down to the water's edge; but the three other sides were well-
nigh open (fig. 35). A straight wall, about fifty feet in height, carried
along the cliffs on the side next the river; but the walls looking towards
the plain rose to eighty feet, and bristled with bastion-like projections
(A.B.) jutting out for a distance of fifty feet from the curtain wall,
measuring thirty feet thick at the base and thirteen feet at the top, and
irregularly spaced, according to the requirements of the defence. These
spurs, which are not battlemented, served in place of towers. They added to
the strength of the walls, protected the walk round the top, and enabled
the besieged to direct a flank attack against the enemy if any attempt were
made upon the wall of circuit. The intervals between these spurs are
accurately calculated as to distance, in order that the archers should be
able to sweep the intervening ground with their arrows. Curtains and
salients are alike built of crude brick, with beams bedded horizontally in
the mass. The outer face is in two parts, the lower division being nearly
vertical, and the upper one inclined at an angle of about seventy degrees,
which made scaling very difficult, if not impossible. The whole of the
ground enclosed by the wall of circuit was filled in to nearly the level of
the ramparts (fig. 36). Externally, the covering wall of stone was
separated from the body of the fortress by a dry ditch, some 100 to 130
feet in width. This wall closely followed the main outline, and rose to a
height which varied according to the situation from six to ten feet above
the level of the plain. On the northward side it was cut by the winding
road, which led down into the plain. These arrangements, skilful as they
were, did not prevent the fall of the place. A large breach in the
southward face, between the two salients nearest to the river, marks the
point of attack selected by the enemy.

[Illustration: Fig. 37.--Syrian fort.]

[Illustration: Fig. 38.--The town-walls of Dapür.]

[Illustration: Fig. 39.--City of Kadesh, Ramesseum.]

[Illustration: Fig. 40.--Plan of the pavilion of Medinet Habu.]

[Illustration: Fig. 41.--Elevation of pavilion, Medinet Habû.]

New methods of fortification were revealed to the Egyptians in the course
of the great Asiatic wars undertaken by the Pharaohs of the Eighteenth
Dynasty. The nomadic tribes of Syria erected small forts in which they took
refuge when threatened with invasion (fig. 37). The Canaanite and Hittite
cities, as Ascalon, Dapur, and Merom, were surrounded by strong walls,
generally built of stone and flanked with towers (fig. 38). Those which
stood in the open country, as, for instance, Qodshû (Kadesh), were enclosed
by a double moat (fig. 39). Having proved the efficacy of these new types
of defensive architecture in the course of their campaigns, the Pharaohs
reproduced them in the valley of the Nile. From the beginning of the
Nineteenth Dynasty, the eastern frontier of the Delta (always the weakest)
was protected by a line of forts constructed after the Canaanite model. The
Egyptians, moreover, not content with appropriating the thing, appropriated
also the name, and called these frontier towers by the Semitic name of
_Magdilû_ or Migdols. For these purposes, or at all events for cities which
were exposed to the incursions of the Asiatic tribes, brick was not deemed
to be sufficiently strong; hence the walls of Heliopolis, and even those of
Memphis, were faced with stone. Of these new fortresses no ruins remain;
and but for a royal caprice which happens to have left us a model Migdol in
that most unlikely place, the necropolis of Thebes, we should now be
constrained to attempt a restoration of their probable appearance from the
representations in certain mural tableaux. When, however, Rameses III.
erected his memorial temple[3] (figs. 40 and 41), he desired, in
remembrance of his Syrian victories, to give it an outwardly military
aspect. Along the eastward front of the enclosure there accordingly runs a
battlemented covering wall of stone, averaging some thirteen feet in
height. The gate, protected by a large quadrangular bastion, opened in the
middle of this wall. It was three feet four inches in width, and was
flanked by two small oblong guard-houses, the flat roofs of which stood
about three feet higher than the ramparts. Passing this gate, we stand face
to face with a real Migdol. Two blocks of building enclose a succession of
court-yards, which narrow as they recede, and are connected at the lower
end by a kind of gate-house, consisting of one massive gateway surmounted
by two storeys of chambers. The eastward faces of the towers rise above an
inclined basement, which slopes to a height of from fifteen to sixteen feet
from the ground. This answered two purposes. It increased the strength of
the wall at the part exposed to sappers; it also caused the rebound of
projectiles thrown from above, and so helped to keep assailants at a
distance. The whole height is about seventy-two feet, and the width of each
tower is thirty-two feet. The buildings situate at the back, to right and
left of the gate, were destroyed in ancient times. The details of the
decoration are partly religious, partly triumphal, as befits the character
of the structure. It is unlikely, however, that actual fortresses were
adorned with brackets and bas-relief sculptures, such as we here see on
either side of the fore-court. Such as it is, the so-called "pavilion" of
Medinet Habu offers an unique example of the high degree of perfection to
which the victorious Pharaohs of this period had carried their military
architecture.

Material evidence fails us almost entirely, after the reign of Rameses III.
Towards the close of the eleventh century B.C., the high-priests of Amen
repaired the walls of Thebes, of Gebeleyn, and of El Hibeh opposite Feshn.
The territorial subdivision of the country, which took place under the
successors of Sheshonk, compelled the provincial princes to multiply their
strongholds. The campaign of Piankhi on the banks of the Nile is a series
of successful sieges. Nothing, however, leads us to suppose that the art of
fortification had at that time made any distinct progress; and when the
Greek rulers succeeded the native Pharaohs, they most probably found it at
much the same stage as it was left by the engineers of the Nineteenth and
Twentieth Dynasties.


[3] At Medinet Habû.



3.--PUBLIC WORKS.


A permanent network of roads would be useless in a country like Egypt. The
Nile here is the natural highway for purposes of commerce, and the pathways
which intersect the fields suffice for foot-passengers, for cattle, and for
the transport of goods from village to village. Ferry-boats for crossing
the river, fords wherever the canals were shallow enough, and embanked dams
thrown up here and there where the water was too deep for fordings,
completed the system of internal communication. Bridges were rare. Up to
the present time, we know of but one in the whole territory of ancient
Egypt; and whether that one was long or short, built of stone or of wood,
supported on arches or boldly flung across the stream from bank to bank, we
cannot even conjecture. This bridge, close under the very walls of Zarû,[4]
crossed the canal which separated the eastern frontier of Egypt from the
desert regions of Arabia Petraea. A fortified enclosure protected this
canal on the Asiatic side, as shown in the accompanying illustration (fig.
42). The maintenance of public highways, which figures as so costly an item
in the expenses of modern nations, played, therefore, but a very small part
in the annual disbursements of the Pharaohs, who had only to provide for
the due execution of three great branches of government works,--namely,
storage, irrigation, mining and quarrying.

[Illustration: Fig. 42.--Canal and bridge, Zarû, Karnak.]

[Illustration: Fig. 43.--Cellar, with amphorae.]

[Illustration: Fig. 44.--Granary.]

The taxation of ancient Egypt was levied in kind, and government servants
were paid after the same system. To workmen, there were monthly
distributions of corn, oil, and wine, wherewith to support their families;
while from end to end of the social scale, each functionary, in exchange
for his labour, received cattle, stuffs, manufactured goods, and certain
quantities of copper or precious metals. Thus it became necessary that the
treasury officials should have the command of vast storehouses for the safe
keeping of the various goods collected under the head of taxation. These
were classified and stored in separate quarters, each storehouse being
surrounded by walls and guarded by vigilant keepers. There was enormous
stabling for cattle; there were cellars where the amphorae were piled in
regular layers (fig. 43), or hung in rows upon the walls, each with the
date written on the side of the jar; there were oven-shaped granaries where
the corn was poured in through a trap at the top (fig. 44), and taken out
through a trap at the bottom. At Thûkû, identified with Pithom by M.
Naville,[5] the store-chambers (A) are rectangular and of different
dimensions (fig. 45), originally divided by floors, and having no
communication with each other. Here the corn had to be not only put in but
taken out through the aperture at the top. At the Ramesseum, Thebes,
thousands of ostraka and jar-stoppers found upon the spot prove that the
brick-built remains at the back of the temple were the cellars of the local
deity. The ruins consist of a series of vaulted chambers, originally
surmounted by a platform or terrace (fig. 46). At Philae, Ombos,
Daphnae,[6] and most of the frontier towns of the Delta, there were
magazines of this description, and many more will doubtless be discovered
when made the object of serious exploration.

[Illustration: Fig. 45.--Plan of Pithom.]

[Illustration: Fig. 46.--Store-chambers of the Ramesseum.]

[Illustration: Fig. 47.--Dike at Wady Gerraweh.]

The irrigation system of Egypt is but little changed since the olden time.
Some new canals have been cut, and yet more have been silted up through the
negligence of those in power; but the general scheme, and the methods
employed, continue much the same, and demand but little engineering skill.
Wherever I have investigated the remains of ancient canals, I have been
unable to detect any traces of masonry at the weak points, or at the
mouths, of these cuttings. They are mere excavated ditches, from twenty to
sixty or seventy feet in width. The earth flung out during the work was
thrown to right and left, forming irregular embankments from seven to
fourteen feet in height. The course of the ancient canals was generally
straight: but that rule was not strictly observed, and enormous curves
were often described in order to avoid even slight irregularities of
surface. Dikes thrown up from the foot of the cliffs to the banks of the
Nile divided the plain at intervals into a series of artificial basins,
where the overflow formed back-waters at the time of inundation. These
dikes are generally earth-works, though they are sometimes constructed of
baked brick, as in the province of Girgeh. Very rarely are they built of
hewn stone, like that great dike of Kosheish which was constructed by Mena
in primaeval times, in order to divert the course of the Nile from the spot
on which he founded Memphis.[7] The network of canals began near Silsilis
and extended to the sea-board, without ever losing touch of the river, save
at one spot near Beni Sûef, where it throws out a branch in the direction
of the Fayûm. Here, through a narrow and sinuous gorge, deepened probably
by the hand of man, it passes the rocky barrier which divides that low-
lying province from the valley of the Nile, and thence expands into a
fanlike ramification of innumerable channels. Having thus irrigated the
district, the waters flow out again; those nearest the Nile returning by
the same way that they flowed in, while the rest form a series of lakes,
the largest of which is known as the Birket el Kûrûn. If we are to believe
Herodotus, the work was not so simply done. A king, named Moeris, desired
to create a reservoir in the Fayûm which should neutralise the evil effects
of insufficient or superabundant inundations. This reservoir was named,
after him, Lake Moeris. If the supply fell below the average, then the
stored waters were let loose, and Lower Egypt and the Western Delta were
flooded to the needful height. If next year the inundation came down in too
great force, Lake Moeris received and stored the surplus till such time as
the waters began to subside. Two pyramids, each surmounted by a sitting
colossus, one representing the king and the other his queen, were erected
in the midst of the lake. Such is the tale told by Herodotus, and it is a
tale which has considerably embarrassed our modern engineers and
topographers. How, in fact, was it possible to find in the Fayûm a site
which could have contained a basin measuring at least ninety miles in
circumference? Linant supposed "Lake Moeris" to have extended over the
whole of the low-lying land which skirts the Libyan cliffs between Illahûn
and Medinet el Fayûm; but recent explorations have proved that the dikes by
which this pretended reservoir was bounded are modern works, erected
probably within the last two hundred years. Major Brown has lately shown
that the nucleus of "Lake Moeris" was the Birket el Kûrûn.[8] This was
known to the Egyptians as _Miri, Mi-ûri,_ the Great Lake, whence the Greeks
derived their _Moiris_ a name extended also to the inundation of the Fayûm.
If Herodotus did actually visit this province, it was probably in summer,
at the time of the high Nile, when the whole district presents the
appearance of an inland sea. What he took for the shores of this lake were
the embankments which divided it into basins and acted as highways between
the various towns. His narrative, repeated by the classic authors, has
been accepted by the moderns; and Egypt, neither accepting nor rejecting
it, was gratified long after date with the reputation of a gigantic work
which would in truth have been the glory of her civil engineers, if it had
ever existed. I do not believe that "Lake Moeris" ever did exist. The only
works of the kind which the Egyptians undertook were much less pretentious.
These consist of stone-built dams erected at the mouths of many of those
lateral ravines, or wadys, which lead down from the mountain ranges into
the valley of the Nile. One of the most important among them was pointed
out, in 1885, by Dr. Schweinfurth, at a distance of about six miles and a
half from the Baths of Helwan, at the mouth of the Wady Gerraweh (fig. 47).
It answered two purposes, firstly, as a means of storing the water of the
inundation for the use of the workmen in the neighbouring quarries; and,
secondly, as a barrier to break the force of the torrents which rush down
from the desert after the heavy rains of springtime and winter. The ravine
measures about 240 feet in width, the sides being on an average from 40 to
50 feet in height. The dam, which is 143 feet in thickness, consists of
three layers of material; at the bottom, a bed of clay and rubble; next, a
piled mass of limestone blocks (A); lastly, a wall of cut stone built in
retreating stages, like an enormous flight of steps (B). Thirty-two of the
original thirty-five stages are yet _in situ_, and about one-fourth part of
the dam remains piled up against the sides of the ravine to right and left;
but the middle part has been swept away by the force of the torrent (fig.
48). A similar dike transformed the end of Wady Genneh into a little lake
which supplied the Sinaitic miners with water.

Most of the localities from which the Egyptians derived their metals and
choicest materials in hard stone, were difficult of access, and would have
been useless had roads not been made, and works of this kind carried out,
so as to make life somewhat less insupportable there.

[Illustration: Fig. 48.--Section of dike at Wady Gerraweh.]

In order to reach the diorite and grey granite quarries of the Hammamat
Valley, the Pharaohs caused a series of rock-cut cisterns to be constructed
along the line of route. Some few insignificant springs, skilfully
conducted into these reservoirs, made it possible to plant workmen's
villages in the neighbourhood of the quarries, and also near the emerald
mines on the borders of the Red Sea. Hundreds of hired labourers, slaves,
and condemned criminals here led a wretched existence under the rule of
some eight or ten overseers, and the brutal surveillance of a company of
Libyan or negro mercenary troops. The least political disturbance in Egypt,
an unsuccessful campaign, or any untoward incident of a troubled reign,
sufficed to break up the precarious stability of these remote
establishments. The Bedawîn at once attacked the colony; the workmen
deserted; the guards, weary of exile, hastened back to the valley of the
Nile, and all was at a standstill.

The choicest materials, as diorite, basalt, black granite, porphyry, and
red and yellow breccia, which are only found in the desert, were rarely
used for architectural purposes. In order to procure them, it was necessary
to organise regular expeditions of soldiers and workmen; therefore they
were reserved for sarcophagi and important works of art. Those quarries
which supplied building materials for temples and funerary monuments, such
as limestone, sandstone, alabaster, and red granite, were all found in the
Nile valley, and were, therefore, easy of access. When the vein which it
was intended to work traversed the lower strata of the rock, the miners
excavated chambers and passages, which were often prolonged to a
considerable distance. Square pillars, left standing at intervals,
supported the superincumbent mass, while tablets sculptured in the most
conspicuous places commemorated the kings and engineers who began or
continued the work. Several exhausted or abandoned quarries have been
transformed into votive chapels; as, for instance, the Speos Artemidos,
which was consecrated by Hatshepsut, Thothmes III. and Seti I. to the local
goddess Pakhet.[9]

[Illustration: Fig. 49.--Quarries of Silsilis.]

[Illustration: Fig. 50.--Draught of Hathor capital in quarry of Gebel
Abûfeydeh.]

The most important limestone quarries are at Tûrah and Massarah, nearly
opposite Memphis. This stone lends itself admirably to the most delicate
touches of the chisel, hardens when exposed to the air, and acquires a
creamy tone most restful to the eye. Hence it was much in request by
architects and sculptors. The most extensive sandstone formations are at
Silsilis (fig. 49). Here the cliffs were quarried from above, and under the
open sky. Clean cut and absolutely vertical, they rise to a height of from
forty to fifty feet, sometimes presenting a smooth surface from top to
bottom, and sometimes cut in stages accessible by means of steps scarcely
large enough for one man at a time. The walls of these cuttings are covered
with parallel striae, sometimes horizontal, sometimes slanting to the left,
and sometimes to the right, so forming lines of serried chevrons framed, as
it were, between grooves an inch, or an inch and a half, in width, by nine
or ten feet in length. These are the scars left upon the surface by the
tools of the ancient workmen, and they show the method employed in
detaching the blocks. The size was outlined in red ink, and this outline
sometimes indicated the form which the stone was to take in the projected
building. The members of the French Commission, when they visited the
quarries of Gebel Abûfeydeh, copied the diagrams and squared designs of
several capitals, one being of the campaniform pattern, and others prepared
for the Hathor-head pattern (fig. 50).[10] The outline made, the vertical
faces of the block were divided by means of a long iron chisel, which was
driven in perpendicularly or obliquely by heavy blows of the mallet. In
order to detach the horizontal faces, they made use of wooden or bronze
wedges, inserted the way of the natural strata of the stone. Very
frequently the stone was roughly blocked out before being actually
extracted from the bed. Thus at Syene (Asûan) we see a couchant obelisk of
granite, the under side of which is one with the rock itself; and at Tehneh
there are drums of columns but half disengaged. The transport of quarried
stone was effected in various ways. At Syene, at Silsilis, at Gebel Sheikh
Herideh, and at Gebel Abûfeydeh, the quarries are literally washed by the
waters of the Nile, so that the stone was lowered at once into the barges.
At Kasr es Saîd,[11] at Tûrah, and other localities situate at some
distance from the river, canals dug expressly for the purpose conveyed the
transport boats to the foot of the cliffs. When water transit was out of
the question, the stone was placed on sledges drawn by oxen (fig. 51), or
dragged to its destination by gangs of labourers, and by the help of
rollers.

[Illustration: Fig. 51.--Bas-relief from one of the stelae of Ahmes, at
Tûrrah, Eighteenth Dynasty.]


[4] The bas-relief sculpture from which the illustration, fig. 42, is taken
    (outer wall of Hypostyle Hall, Karnak, north end) represents Seti I.
    returning in triumph from one of his Syrian campaigns. He is met at
    Zarû by the great officers of his court, who bring bouquets of lotus-
    blossoms in their hands. Pithom and other frontier forts are depicted
    in this tableau, and Pithom is apparently not very far from Zarû.
    Zarû, Zalu, is the Selle of the Roman Itineraries.--A.B.E.

[5] See _The Store City of Pithom and the Route of the Exodus,_ by Ed.
    Naville, with 13 Plates and 2 Maps; published by the Egypt Exploration
    Fund. First edition 1885, second edition 1885. Trübner & Co., London.
    --A.B.E.

[6] For an account of the explorations at Daphnae (the "Tahpanhes" of the
    Bible, the _Tell Defenneh_ of the present day) see Mr. Petrie's
    memoir, entitled _Tanis, Part II, (including Nebesheh, Gemayemi,
    Defenneh, etc.)_, published by the Egypt Exploration Fund.--A.B.E.

[7] The remains of this gigantic work may yet be seen about two hours'
    distance to the southward of Medûm. See Herodotus, book II.; chap.
    99.--A.B.E.

[8] See _The Fayûm and Lake Moeris_. Major R.H. Brown, R.E.

[9] Officially, this temple is attributed to Thothmes III., and the
    dedicatory inscription dates from the first year of his reign; but the
    work was really that of his aunt and predecessor, Queen Hatshepsût.

[10] See also an exact reduction of this design, to scale, in Mr. Petrie's
    work _A Season in Egypt_, 1887, Plate XXV.

[11] Chenoboscion.--A.B.E.



CHAPTER II.

_RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE_.

In the civil and military architecture of Ancient Egypt brick played the
principal part; but in the religious architecture of the nation it occupied
a very secondary position. The Pharaohs were ambitious of building eternal
dwellings for their deities, and stone was the only material which seemed
sufficiently durable to withstand the ravages of time and man.


I.--MATERIALS AND PRINCIPLES OF CONSTRUCTION.


It is an error to suppose that the Egyptians employed only large blocks for
building purposes. The size of their materials varied very considerably
according to the uses for which they were destined. Architraves, drums of
columns, lintel-stones, and door-jambs were sometimes of great size. The
longest architraves known--those, namely, which bridge the nave of the
hypostyle hall of Karnak--have a mean length of 30 feet. They each contain
40 cubic yards, and weigh about 65 tons. Ordinarily, however, the blocks
are not much larger than those now used in Europe. They measure, that is to
say, about 2-1/2 to 4 feet in height, from 3 to 8 feet in length, and from
2 to 6 feet in thickness.

Some temples are built of only one kind of stone; but more frequently
materials of different kinds are put together in unequal proportions. Thus
the main part of the temples of Abydos consists of very fine limestone; but
in the temple of Seti I., the columns, architraves, jambs, and lintels,--
all parts, in short, where it might be feared that the limestone would not
offer sufficient resistance,--the architect has had recourse to sandstone;
while in that of Rameses II., sandstone, granite, and alabaster were used.
At Karnak, Luxor, Tanis, and Memphis, similar combinations may be seen. At
the Ramesseum, and in some of the Nubian temples, the columns stand on
massive supports of crude brick. The stones were dressed more or less
carefully, according to the positions they were to occupy. When the walls
were of medium thickness, as in most partition walls, they are well wrought
on all sides. When the wall was thick, the core blocks were roughed out as
nearly cubic as might be, and piled together without much care, the hollows
being filled up with smaller flakes, pebbles, or mortar. Casing stones were
carefully wrought on the faces, and the joints dressed for two-thirds or
three-quarters of the length, the rest being merely picked with a point
(Note 6). The largest blocks were reserved for the lower parts of the
building; and this precaution was the more necessary because the architects
of Pharaonic times sank the foundations of their temples no deeper than
those of their houses. At Karnak, they are not carried lower than from 7 to
10 feet; at Luxor, on the side anciently washed by the river, three courses
of masonry, each measuring about 2-1/2 feet in depth, form a great platform
on which the walls rest; while at the Ramesseum, the brickwork bed on
which the colonnade stands does not seem to be more than 10 feet deep.
These are but slight depths for the foundations of such great buildings,
but the experience of ages proves that they are sufficient. The hard and
compact humus of which the soil of the Nile valley is composed, contracts
every year after the subsidence of the inundation, and thus becomes almost
incompressible. As the building progressed, the weight of the
superincumbent masonry gradually became greater, till the maximum of
pressure was attained, and a solid basis secured. Wherever I have bared the
foundations of the walls, I can testify that they have not shifted.

[Illustration: Fig. 52.--Masonry in temple of Seti I. at Abydos.]

The system of construction in force among the ancient Egyptians resembles
in many respects that of the Greeks. The stones are often placed together
with dry joints, and without the employment of any binding contrivance, the
masons relying on the mere weight of the materials to keep them in place.
Sometimes they are held together by metal cramps, or sometimes--as in the
temple of Seti I., at Abydos--by dovetails of sycamore wood bearing the
cartouche of the founder. Most commonly, they are united by a mortar-joint,
more or less thick. All the mortars of which I have collected samples are
thus far of three kinds: the first is white, and easily reduced to an
impalpable powder, being of lime only; the others are grey, and rough to
the touch, being mixtures of lime and sand; while some are of a reddish
colour, owing to the pounded brick powder with which they are mixed. A
judicious use of these various methods enabled the Egyptians to rival the
Greeks in their treatment of regular courses, equal blocks, and upright
joints in alternate bond. If they did not always work equally well, their
shortcomings must be charged to the imperfect mechanical means at their
disposal. The enclosure walls, partitions, and secondary façades were
upright; and they raised the materials by means of a rude kind of crane
planted on the top. The pylon walls and the principal façades (and
sometimes even the secondary façades) were sloped at an angle which varied
according to the taste of the architect. In order to build these, they
formed inclined planes, the slopes of which were lengthened as the
structure rose in height. These two methods were equally perilous; for,
however carefully the blocks might be protected while being raised, they
were constantly in danger of losing their edges or corners, or of being
fractured before they reached the top (Note 7). Thus it was almost always
necessary to re-work them; and the object being to sacrifice as little as
possible of the stone, the workmen often left them of most abnormal shapes
(fig. 52). They would level off one of the side faces, and then the joint,
instead of being vertical, leaned askew. If the block had neither height
nor length to spare, they made up the loss by means of a supplementary
slip. Sometimes even they left a projection which fitted into a
corresponding hollow in the next upper or lower course. Being first of all
expedients designed to remedy accidents, these methods degenerated into
habitually careless ways of working. The masons who had inadvertently
hoisted too large a block, no longer troubled themselves to lower it back
again, but worked it into the building in one or other of the ways before
mentioned. The architect neglected to duly supervise the dressing and
placing of the blocks. He allowed the courses to vary, and the vertical
joints, two or three deep, to come one over the other. The rough work done,
the masons dressed down the stone, reworked the joints, and overlaid the
whole with a coat of cement or stucco, coloured to match the material,
which concealed the faults of the real work. The walls rarely end with a
sharp edge. Bordered with a torus, around which a sculptured riband is
entwined, they are crowned by the _cavetto_ cornice surmounted by a flat
band (fig. 53); or, as at Semneh, by a square cornice; or, as at Medinet
Habu, by a line of battlements. Thus framed in, the walls looked like
enormous panels, each panel complete in itself, without projections and
almost without openings. Windows, always rare in Egyptian architecture, are
mere ventilators when introduced into the walls of temples, being intended
to light the staircases, as in the second pylon of Horemheb at Karnak, or
else to support decorative woodwork on festival days. The doorways project
but slightly from the body of the buildings (fig. 54), except where the
lintel is over-shadowed by a projecting cornice. Real windows occur only in
the pavilion of Medinet Habu; but that building was constructed on the
model of a fortress, and must rank as an exception among religious
monuments.

[Illustration: Fig. 53.--Temple wall with cornice.]

[Illustration: Fig. 54.--Niche and doorway in temple of Seti I. at Abydos.]

[Illustration: Fig. 55.--Pavement of the portico of Osiris in the temple of
Seti I. at Abydos.]

The ground-level of the courts and halls was flagged with rectangular
paving stones, well enough fitted, except in the intercolumniations, where
the architects, hopeless of harmonising the lines of the pavement with the
curved bases of the columns, have filled in the space with small pieces,
set without order or method (fig. 55). Contrary to their practice when
house building, they have scarcely ever employed the vault or arch in
temple architecture. We nowhere meet with it, except at Deir el Baharî, and
in the seven parallel sanctuaries of Abydos. Even in these instances, the
arch is produced by "corbelling"; that is to say, the curve is formed by
three or four superimposed horizontal courses of stone, chiselled out to
the form required (fig. 56). The ordinary roofing consists of flat paving
slabs. When the space between the walls was not too wide, these slabs
bridged it over at a single stretch; otherwise the roof had to be supported
at intervals, and the wider the space the more these supports needed to be
multiplied. The supports were connected by immense stone architraves, on
which the roofing slabs rested.

[Illustration: Fig. 56.--"Corbelled" arch, temple of Seti I. at Abydos.]

The supports are of two types,--the pillar and the column. Some are cut
from single blocks. Thus, the monolithic pillars of the temple of the
sphinx (Note 8), the oldest hitherto found, measure 16 feet in height by 4-
1/2 feet in width. Monolithic columns of red granite are also found among
the ruins of Alexandria, Bubastis,[12] and Memphis, which date from the
reigns of Horemheb and Rameses II., and measure some 20 to 26 feet in
height. But columns and pillars are commonly built in courses, which are
often unequal and irregular, like those of the walls which surround them.
The great columns of Luxor are not even solid, two-thirds of the diameter
being filled up with yellow cement, which has lost its strength, and
crumbles between the fingers. The capital of the column of Taharka at
Karnak contains three courses, each about 48 inches high. The last and most
projecting course is made up of twenty-six convergent stones, which are
held in place by merely the weight of the abacus. The same carelessness
which we have already noted in the workmanship of the walls is found in
the workmanship of the columns.

[Illustration: Fig. 57.--Hathor pillar, Abû Simbel.]

[Illustration: Fig. 58.--Pillar of Amenhotep III., Karnak.]

The quadrangular pillar, with parallel or slightly inclined sides, and
generally without either base or capital, frequently occurs in tombs of the
ancient empire. It reappears later at Medinet Habû, in the temple of
Thothmes III., and again at Karnak, in what is known as the processional
hall. The sides of these square pillars are often covered with painted
scenes, while the front faces were more decoratively treated, being
sculptured with lotus or papyrus stems in high relief, as on the pillar-
stelae of Karnak, or adorned with a head of Hathor crowned with the
sistrum, as in the small speos of Abû Simbel (fig. 57), or sculptured with
a full-length standing figure of Osiris, as in the second court of Medinet
Habû; or, as at Denderah and Gebel Barkal, with the figure of the god Bes.
At Karnak, in an edifice which was probably erected by Horemheb with
building material taken from the ruins of a sanctuary of Amenhotep II. and
III., the pillar is capped by a cornice, separated from the architrave by a
thin abacus (fig. 58). By cutting away its four edges, the square pillar
becomes an octagonal prism, and further, by cutting off the eight new
edges, it becomes a sixteen-sided prism. Some pillars in the tombs of Asûan
and Beni Hasan, and in the processional hall at Karnak (fig. 59), as well
as in the chapels of Deir el Baharî, are of this type. Besides the forms
thus regularly evolved, there are others of irregular derivation, with
six, twelve, fifteen, or twenty sides, or verging almost upon a perfect
circle. The portico pillars of the temple of Osiris at Abydos come last in
the series; the drum is curved, but not round, the curve being interrupted
at both extremities of the same diameter by a flat stripe. More frequently
the sides are slightly channelled; and sometimes, as at Kalabsheh, the
flutings are divided into four groups of five each by four vertical flat
stripes (fig. 60). The polygonal pillar has always a large, shallow plinth,
in the form of a rounded disc. At El Kab it bears the head of Hathor,
sculptured in relief upon the front (fig. 61); but almost everywhere else
it is crowned with a simple square abacus, which joins it to the
architrave. Thus treated, it bears a certain family likeness to the Doric
column; and one understands how Jomard and Champollion, in the first ardour
of discovery, were tempted to give it the scarcely justifiable name of
"proto-Doric."

[Illustration: Fig. 59.--Sixteen-sided pillars, Karnak.]

The column does not rest immediately upon the soil. It is always furnished
with a base like that of the polygonal pillar, sometimes square with the
ground, and sometimes slightly rounded. This base is either plain, or
ornamented only with a line of hieroglyphs. The principal forms fall into
three types: (1) the column with campaniform, or lotus-flower capital; (2)
the column with lotus-bud capital; (3) the column with Hathor-head capital.

[Illustration: Fig. 60.--Fluted pillar, Kalabsheh.]

[Illustration: Fig. 61.--Polygonal Hathor-headed pillar, El Kab.]

I. _Columns with Campaniform Capitals_.--The shaft is generally plain, or
merely engraved with inscriptions or bas-reliefs. Sometimes, however, as at
Medamot, it is formed of six large and six small colonnettes in
alternation. In Pharaonic times, it is bulbous, being curved inward at the
base, and ornamented with triangles one within another, imitating the large
leaves which sheathe the sprouting plant. The curve is so regulated that
the diameter at the base and the top shall be about equal. In the Ptolemaic
period, the bulb often disappears, owing probably to Greek influences. The
columns which surround the first court at Edfû rise straight from their
plinths. The shaft always tapers towards the top. It is finished by three
or five flat bands, one above the other. At Medamot, where the shaft is
clustered, the architect has doubtless thought that one tie at the top
appeared insufficient to hold in a dozen colonnettes; he has therefore
marked two other rings of bands at regular intervals. The campaniform
capital is decorated from the spring of the curve with a row of leaves,
like those which sheathe the base. Between these are figured shoots of
lotus and papyrus in flower and bud. The height of the capital, and the
extent of its projection beyond the line of the shaft, varied with the
taste of the architect. At Luxor, the campaniform capitals are eleven and a
half feet in diameter at the neck, eighteen feet in diameter at the top,
and eleven and a half feet in height. At Karnak, in the hypostyle hall, the
height of the capital is twelve and a quarter feet, and the greatest
diameter twenty-one feet. A square die surmounts the whole. This die is
almost hidden by the curve of the capital, though occasionally, as at
Denderah, it is higher, and bears on each face a figure of the god Bes
(fig. 62).

[Illustration: Fig. 62.--Column with square die, Contra Esneh.]

[Illustration: Fig. 63.--Column with campaniform capital, Ramesseum.]

The column with campaniform capital is mostly employed in the middle avenue
of hypostyle halls, as at Karnak, the Ramesseum, and Luxor (fig. 63); but
it was not restricted to this position, for we also find it in porticoes,
as at Medinet Habû, Edfû, and Philae. The processional hall[13] of
Thothmes III., at Karnak, contains one most curious variety (fig. 64); the
flower is inverted like a bell, and the shaft is turned upside down, the
smaller end being sunk in the plinth, while the larger is fitted to the
wide part of the overturned bell. This ungraceful innovation achieved no
success, and is found nowhere else. Other novelties were happier,
especially those which enabled the artist to introduce decorative elements
taken from the flora of the country. In the earlier examples at Soleb,
Sesebeh, Bubastis, and Memphis, we find a crown of palm branches springing
from the band, their heads being curved beneath the weight of the abacus
(fig. 65). Later on, as we approach the Ptolemaic period, the date and the
half-unfolded lotus were added to the palm-branches (fig. 66).

[Illustration: Fig. 64.--Inverted campaniform capital, Karnak.]

[Illustration: Fig. 65.--Palm capital, Bubastis.]

[Illustration: Fig. 66.--Compound capital.]

Under the Ptolemies and the Caesars the capital became a complete basket of
flowers and leaves, ranged row above row, and painted in the brightest
colours (fig. 67.) At Edfû, Ombos, and Philae one would fancy that the
designer had vowed never to repeat the same pattern in the same portico.

[Illustration: Fig. 67.--Ornate capitals, Ptolemaic.]

[Illustration: Fig. 68.--Lotus-bud column, Beni Hasan.]

[Illustration: Fig. 69.--Lotus-bud column, processional hall, Thothmes
III., Karnak.]

[Illustration: Fig. 70.--Column in the aisles of the hypostyle hall at
Karnak.]


II. _Columns with Lotus-bud Capitals_.--Originally these may perhaps have
represented a bunch of lotus plants, the buds being bound together at the
neck to form the capital. The columns of Beni Hasan consist of four rounded
stems (fig. 68). Those of the Labyrinth, of the processional hall of
Thothmes III., and of Medamot, consist of eight stems, each presenting a
sharp edge on the outer side (fig. 69). The bottom of the column is
bulbous, and set round with triangular leaves. The top is surrounded by
three or five bands. A moulding composed of groups of three vertical
stripes hangs like a fringe from the lowest band in the space between
every two stems. So varied a surface does not admit of hieroglyphic
decoration; therefore the projections were by degrees suppressed, and the
whole shaft was made smooth. In the hypostyle hall at Gûrneh, the shaft is
divided in three parts, the middle one being smooth and covered with
sculptures, while the upper and lower divisions are formed of clustered
stems. In the temple of Khonsû, in the aisles of the hypostyle hall of
Karnak, and in the portico of Medinet Habû, the shaft is quite smooth, the
fringe alone being retained below the top bands, while a slight ridge
between each of the three bands recalls the original stems (fig. 70). The
capital underwent a like process of degradation. At Beni Hasan, it is
finely clustered throughout its height. In the processional hall of
Thothmes III., at Luxor, and at Medamot, a circle of small pointed leaves
and channellings around the base lessens the effect, and reduces it to a
mere grooved and truncated cone. In the hypostyle hall of Karnak, at
Abydos, at the Ramesseum, and at Medinet Habû, various other ornaments, as
triangular leaves, hieroglyphic inscriptions, or bands of cartouches
flanked by uraei, fill the space thus unfortunately obtained. Neither is
the abacus hidden as in the campaniform capital, but stands out boldly, and
displays the cartouche of the royal founder.

[Illustration: Fig. 71.--Hathor-head capital, Ptolemaic.]


III. _Columns with Hathor-head Capitals_.--We find examples of the Hathor-
headed column dating from ancient times, as at Deir el Baharî; but this
order is best known in buildings of the Ptolemaic period, as at Contra
Latopolis, Philae, and Denderah. The shaft and the base present no special
characteristics. They resemble those of the campaniform columns. The
capital is in two divisions. Below we have a square block, bearing on each
face a woman's head in high relief and crowned with a naos. The woman has
the ears of a heifer. Her hair, confined over the brow by three vertical
bands, falls behind the ears, and hangs long on the shoulders. Each head
supports a fluted cornice, on which stands a naos framed between two
volutes, and crowned by a slender abacus (fig. 71). Thus each column has
for its capital four heads of Hathor. Seen from a distance, it at once
recalls the form of the sistrum, so frequently represented in the bas-
reliefs as held in the hands of queens and goddesses. It is in fact a
sistrum, in which the regular proportions of the parts are disregarded. The
handle is gigantic, while the upper part of the instrument is unduly
reduced. This notion so pleased the Egyptian fancy that architects did not
hesitate to combine the sistrum design with elements borrowed from other
orders. The four heads of Hathor placed above a campaniform capital,
furnished Nectenebo with a composite type for his pavilion at Philae (fig.
72). I cannot say that the compound is very satisfactory, but the column is
in reality less ugly than it appears in engravings.

[Illustration: Fig. 72.--Campaniform and Hathor-headed capital, Philae.]

[Illustration: Fig. 73.--Section of the hypostyle hall at Karnak to show
the
arrangement of the two varieties: campaniform and lotus-bud columns.]

Shafts of columns were regulated by no fixed rules of proportion or
arrangement. The architect might, if he chose, make use of equal heights
with very different diameters, and, regardless of any considerations apart
from those of general harmony, might design the various parts according to
whatever scale best suited him. The dimensions of the capital had no
invariable connection with those of the shaft, nor was the height of the
shaft dependent on the diameter of the column. At Karnak, the campaniform
columns of the hypostyle hall measure 10 feet high in the capital, and 55
feet high in the shaft, with a lower diameter of 11 feet 8 inches. At
Luxor, the capital measures 11-1/2 feet, the shaft 49 feet, and the
diameter at the spring of the base 11-1/4 feet. At the Ramesseum, the shaft
and capital measure 35 feet, and the spring diameter is 6-1/2 feet. The
lotus-bud or clustered column gives similar results. At Karnak, in the
aisles of the hypostyle hall, the capital is 10 feet high, the shaft 33
feet, and the base diameter 6-3/4 feet. At the Ramesseum, the capital is 5-
1/2 feet high, the shaft 24-1/2 feet, and the base diameter 5 feet 10
inches. We find the same irregularity as to architraves. Their height is
determined only by the taste of the architect or the necessities of the
building. So also with the spacing of columns. Not only does the inter-
columnar space vary considerably between temple and temple, or chamber and
chamber, but sometimes--as in the first court at Medinet Habû--they vary in
the same portico. We have thus far treated separately of each type; but
when various types were associated in a single building, no fixed relative
proportions were observed. In the hypostyle hall at Karnak, the campaniform
columns support the nave, while the lotus-bud variety is relegated to the
aisles (fig. 73). There are halls in the temple of Khonsû where the lotus-
bud column is the loftiest, and others where the campaniform dominates the
rest. In what remains of the Medamot structure, campaniform and lotus-bud
columns are of equal height. Egypt had no definite orders like those of
Greece, but tried every combination to which the elements of the column
could be made to lend themselves; hence, we can never determine the
dimensions of an Egyptian column from those of one of its parts.


[12] For an account of the excavations at Bubastis, see Eighth and Tenth
    Memoirs of the Egypt Exploration Fund, by M.E. Naville.

[13] French "Promenoir"; this is perhaps best expressed by "Processional
    Hall," in accordance with the description of its purpose on p. 67.
    --A.B.E.



2. THE TEMPLE.

[Illustration: Fig. 74.--Plan of temple of the Sphinx.]

Most of the famous sanctuaries--Denderah, Edfû, Abydos--were founded before
Men a by the _Servants of Hor_.[14] Becoming dilapidated or ruined in the
course of ages, they have been restored, rebuilt, remodelled, one after the
other, till nothing remains of the primitive design to show us what the
first Egyptian architecture was like. The funerary temples built by the
kings of the Fourth Dynasty have left some traces.[15] That of the second
pyramid of Gizeh was so far preserved at the beginning of the last century,
that Maillet saw four large pillars standing. It is now almost entirely
destroyed; but this loss has been more than compensated by the discovery,
in 1853, of a temple situate about fifty yards to the southward of the
sphinx (fig. 74). The façade is still hidden by the sand, and the inside is
but partly uncovered. The core masonry is of fine Tûrah limestone. The
casing, pillars, architraves, and roof were constructed with immense blocks
of alabaster or red granite (Note 9). The plan is most simple: In the
middle (A) is a great hall in shape of the letter T, adorned with sixteen
square pillars 16 feet in height; at the north-west corner of this hall is
a narrow passage on an inclined plane (B), by which the building is now
entered;[16] at the south-west corner is a recess (C) which contains six
niches, in pairs one over the other. A long gallery opening at each end
into a square chamber, now filled with rubbish (E), completes the plan.
Without any main door, without windows, and entered through a passage too
long to admit the light of day, the building can only have received light
and air through slanting air-slits in the roofing, of which traces are yet
visible on the tops of the walls (_e, e_) on each side of the main hall
(Note 10). Inscriptions, bas-reliefs, paintings, such as we are accustomed
to find everywhere in Egypt, are all wanting; and yet these bare walls
produce as great an impression upon the spectator as the most richly
decorated temples of Thebes. Not only grandeur but sublimity has been
achieved in the mere juxtaposition of blocks of granite and alabaster, by
means of purity of line and exactness of proportion.

Some few scattered ruins in Nubia, the Fayûm, and Sinai, do not suffice to
prove whether the temples of the Twelfth Dynasty merited the praises
lavished on them in contemporary inscriptions or not. Those of the Theban
kings, of the Ptolemies, and of the Caesars which are yet standing are in
some cases nearly perfect, while almost all are easy of restoration to
those who conscientiously study them upon the spot. At first sight, they
seem to present an infinite variety as to arrangement; but on a closer view
they are found to conform to a single type. We will begin with the
sanctuary. This is a low, small, obscure, rectangular chamber, inaccessible
to all save Pharaoh and the priests. As a rule it contained neither statue
nor emblem, but only the sacred bark, or a tabernacle of painted wood
placed upon a pedestal. A niche in the wall, or an isolated shrine formed
of a single block of stone, received on certain days the statue, or
inanimate symbol of the local god, or the living animal, or the image of
the animal, sacred to that god. A temple must necessarily contain this one
chamber; and if it contained but this one chamber, it would be no less a
temple than the most complex buildings. Very rarely, however, especially in
large towns, was the service of the gods thus limited to the strictly
necessary. Around the sanctuary, or "divine house," was grouped a series of
chambers in which sacrificial and ceremonial objects were stored, as
flowers, perfumes, stuffs, and precious vessels. In advance of this block
of buildings were next built one or more halls supported on columns; and in
advance of these came a courtyard, where the priests and devotees
assembled. This courtyard was surrounded by a colonnade to which the public
had access, and was entered through a gateway flanked by two towers, in
front of which were placed statues, or obelisks; the whole being surrounded
by an enclosure wall of brickwork, and approached through an avenue of
sphinxes. Every Pharaoh was free to erect a hall still more sumptuous in
front of those which his predecessors had built; and what he did, others
might do after him. Thus, successive series of chambers and courts, of
pylons and porticoes, were added reign after reign to the original nucleus;
and--vanity or piety prompting the work--the temple continued to increase
in every direction, till space or means had failed.

[Illustration: Fig. 75.--South Temple of Amenhotep III. at Elephantine.]

[Illustration: Fig. 76.--Plan of temple of Amenhotep III., at El Kab.]

The most simple temples were sometimes the most beautiful. This was the
case as regards the sanctuaries erected by Amenhotep III. in the island of
Elephantine, which were figured by the members of the French expedition at
the end of the last century, and destroyed by the Turkish governor of Asûan
in 1822. The best preserved, namely, the south temple (fig. 75), consisted
of but a single chamber of sandstone, 14 feet high, 31 feet wide, and 39
feet long. The walls, which were straight, and crowned with the usual
cornice, rested on a platform of masonry some 8 feet above the ground. This
platform was surrounded by a parapet wall, breast high. All around the
temple ran a colonnade, the sides each consisting of seven square pillars,
without capital or base, and the two façades, front and back, being
supported by two columns with the lotus-bud capital. Both pillars and
columns rose direct from the parapet; except on the east front, where a
flight of ten or twelve steps, enclosed between two walls of the same
height as the platform, led up to the _cella_. The two columns at the head
of the steps were wider apart than those of the opposite face, and through
the space thus opened was seen a richly-decorated door. A second door
opened at the other end, beneath the portico. Later, in Roman times, this
feature was utilised in altering the building. The inter-columnar space at
the end was filled up, and thus was obtained a second hall, rough and bare,
but useful for the purposes of the temple service. These Elephantine
sanctuaries bring to mind the peripteral temples of the Greeks, and this
resemblance to one of the most familiar forms of classical architecture
explains perhaps the boundless admiration with which they were regarded by
the French savants. Those of Mesheikh, of El Kab, and of Sharonah are
somewhat more elaborate. The building at El Kab is in three divisions (fig.
76); first, a hall of four columns (A); next, a chamber (B) supported by
four Hathor-headed pillars; and in the end wall, opposite the door, a niche
(C), approached by four steps. Of these small oratories the most complete
model now remaining belongs to the Ptolemaic period; namely, the temple of
Hathor at Deir el Medineh (fig. 77). Its length is just double its breadth.
The walls are built with a batter inclining inwards,[17] and are externally
bare, save at the door, which is framed in a projecting border covered with
finely-sculptured scenes. The interior is in three parts: A portico (B),
supported by two lotus flower columns; a pronaos (C), reached by a flight
of four steps, and separated from the portico by a wall which connects the
two lotus flower columns with two Hathor-headed pilasters _in antis_;
lastly, the sanctuary (D), flanked by two small chambers (E, E), which are
lighted by square openings cut in the ceiling. The ascent to the terrace is
by way of a staircase, very ingeniously placed in the south corner of the
portico, and furnished with a beautiful open window (F). This is merely a
temple in miniature; but the parts, though small, are so well proportioned
that it would be impossible to conceive anything more delicate or graceful.

[Illustration: Fig. 77.--Plan of temple of Hathor, Deir el Medineh.]

[Illustration: Fig. 78.--Plan of temple of Khonsû, Karnak.]

[Illustration: Fig. 79.--Pylon, with masts, from a bas-relief in the temple
of Khonsû at Karnak.]

[Illustration: Fig. 80.--The Ramesseum restored, to show the rising of the
ground.]

[Illustration: Fig. 81.--Crypts in the thickness of the walls, round the
sanctuary at Denderah.]

[Illustration: Fig. 82.--The pronaos of Edfû, as seen from the top of the
eastern pylon.]

We cannot say as much for the temple which the Pharaohs of the Twentieth
Dynasty erected to the south of Karnak, in honour of the god Khonsû (fig.
78); but if the style is not irreproachable, the plan is nevertheless so
clear, that one is tempted to accept it as the type of an Egyptian temple,
in preference to others more elegant or majestic. On analysis, it resolves
itself into two parts separated by a thick wall (A, A). In the centre of
the lesser division is the Holy of Holies (B), open at both ends and
isolated from the rest of the building by a surrounding passage (C) 10
feet in width. To the right and left of this sanctuary are small dark
chambers (D, D), and behind it is a hall of four columns (E), from which
open seven other chambers (F, F). Such was the house of the god, having no
communication with the adjoining parts, except by two doors (G) in the
southern wall (A, A). These opened into a wide and shallow hypostyle hall
(H), divided into nave and aisles. The nave is supported by four lotus-
flower columns, 23 feet in height; the aisles each contain two lotus-bud
columns 18 feet high. The roof of the nave is, therefore, 5 feet higher
than that of the sides. This elevation was made use of for lighting
purposes, the clerestory being fitted with stone gratings, which admitted
the daylight. The court (I) was square, and surrounded by a double
colonnade entered by way of four side-gates and a great central gateway
flanked by two quadrangular towers with sloping fronts. This pylon (K)
measures 105 feet in length, 33 feet in width, and 60 feet in height. It
contains no chambers, but only a narrow staircase, which leads to the top
of the gate, and thence up to the towers. Four long grooves in the façade,
reaching to a third of its height, correspond to four quadrangular openings
cut through. the whole thickness of the masonry. Here were fixed four
great wooden masts, formed of joined beams and held in place by a wooden
framework fixed in the four openings above mentioned. From these masts
floated long streamers of various colours (fig. 79). Such was the temple of
Khonsû, and such, in their main features, were the majority of the greater
temples of Theban and Ptolemaic times, as Luxor, the Ramesseum, Medinet
Habû, Edfû, and Denderah. Though for the most part half in ruins, they
affect one with a strange and disquieting sense of oppression. As mystery
was a favourite attribute of the Egyptian gods, even so the plan of their
temples is in such wise devised as to lead gradually from the full sunshine
of the outer world to the obscurity of their retreats. At the entrance we
find large open spaces, where air and light stream freely in. The hypostyle
hall is pervaded by a sober twilight; the sanctuary is more than half lost
in a vague darkness; and at the end of the building, in the farthest of the
chambers, night all but reigns completely. The effect of distance which was
produced by this gradual diminution of light, was still further heightened
by various structural artifices. The parts, for instance, are not on the
same level. The ground rises from the entrance (fig. 80), and there are
always a few steps to mount in passing from one part to another. In the
temple of Khonsû the difference of level is not more than 5-1/4 feet, but
it is combined with a lowering of the roof, which in most cases is very
strongly marked. From the pylon to the wall at the farther end, the height
decreases continuously. The peristyle is loftier than the hypostyle hall,
and the hypostyle hall is loftier than the sanctuary. The last hall of
columns and the farthest chamber are lower and lower still. The architects
of Ptolemaic times changed certain details of arrangement. They erected
chapels and oratories on the terraced roofs, and reserved space for the
construction of secret passages and crypts in the thickness of the walls,
wherein to hide the treasure of the god (fig. 81). They, however,
introduced only two important modifications of the original plan. The
sanctuary was formerly entered by two opposite doors; they left but one.
Also the colonnade, which was originally continued round the upper end of
the court, or, where there was no court, along the façade of the temple,
became now the pronaos, so forming an additional chamber. The columns of
the outer row are retained, but built into a wall reaching to about half
their height. This connecting wall is surmounted by a cornice, which thus
forms a screen, and so prevented the outer throng from seeing what took
place within (fig. 82). The pronaos is supported by two, three, or even
four rows of columns, according to the size of the edifice. For the rest,
it is useful to compare the plan of the temple of Edfû (fig. 83) with that
of the temple of Khonsû, observing how little they differ the one from the
other.

[Illustration: Fig. 83.--Plan of temple, Edfû.]

[Illustration: Fig. 84.--Plan of the temple of Karnak in the reign of
Amenhotep III.]

[Illustration: Fig. 85.--Plan of Hypostyle Hall, Karnak.]

[Illustration: Fig. 86.--Plan of great temple, Luxor.]

[Illustration: Fig. 87.--Plan of the Isle of Philae.]

Thus designed, the building sufficed for all the needs of worship. If
enlargement was needed, the sanctuary and surrounding chambers were
generally left untouched, and only the ceremonial parts of the building, as
the hypostyle halls, the courts, or pylons, were attacked. The procedure of
the Egyptians under these circumstances is best illustrated by the history
of the great temple of Karnak. Founded by Ûsertesen I., probably on the
site of a still earlier temple, it was but a small building, constructed of
limestone and sandstone, with granite doorways. The inside was decorated
with sixteen-sided pillars. The second and third Amenemhats added some work
to it, and the princes of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Dynasties adorned
it with statues and tables of offerings. It was still unaltered when, in
the eighteenth century B.C., Thothmes I., enriched with booty of war,
resolved to enlarge it. In advance of what already stood there, he erected
two chambers, preceded by a court and flanked by two isolated chapels. In
advance of these again, he erected three successive pylons, one behind the
other. The whole presented the appearance of a vast rectangle placed
crosswise at the end of another rectangle. Thothmes II. and Hatshepsût[18]
covered the walls erected by their father with bas-relief sculptures, but
added no more buildings. Hatshepsût, however, in order to bring in her
obelisks between the pylons of Thothmes I., opened a breach in the south
wall, and overthrew sixteen of the columns which stood in that spot.
Thothmes III., probably finding certain parts of the structure unworthy of
the god, rebuilt the first pylon, and also the double sanctuary, which he
renewed in the red granite of Syene. To the eastward, he rebuilt some old
chambers, the most important among them being the processional hall, used
for the starting-point and halting-place of ceremonial processions, and
these he surrounded with a stone wall. He also made the lake whereon the
sacred boats were launched on festival days; and, with a sharp change of
axis, he built two pylons facing towards the south, thus violating the true
relative proportion which had till then subsisted between the body and the
front of the general mass of the building. The outer enclosure was now too
large for the earlier pylons, and did not properly accord with the later
ones. Amenhotep III. corrected this defect. He erected a sixth and yet more
massive pylon, which was, therefore, better suited for the façade. As it
now stood (fig. 84), the temple surpassed even the boldest architectural
enterprises hitherto attempted; but the Pharaohs of the Nineteenth Dynasty
succeeded in achieving still more. They added only a hypostyle hall (fig.
85) and a pylon; but the hypostyle hall measured 170 feet in length by 329
feet in breadth. Down the centre they carried a main avenue of twelve
columns, with lotus-flower capitals, being the loftiest ever erected in the
interior of a building; while in the aisles, ranged in seven rows on either
side, they planted 122 columns with lotus-bud capitals. The roof of the
great nave rose to a height of 75 feet above the level of the ground, and
the pylon stood some fifty feet higher still. During a whole century, three
kings laboured to perfect this hypostyle hall. Rameses I. conceived the
idea; Seti I. finished the bulk of the work, and Rameses II. wrought nearly
the whole of the decoration. The Pharaohs of the next following dynasties
vied with each other for such blank spaces as might be found, wherein to
engrave their names upon the columns, and so to share the glory of the
three founders; but farther they did not venture. Left thus, however, the
monument was still incomplete. It still needed one last pylon and a
colonnaded court. Nearly three centuries elapsed before the task was again
taken in hand. At last the Bubastite kings decided to begin the colonnades,
but their work was as feeble as their, resources were limited. Taharkah,
the Ethiopian, imagined for a moment that he was capable of rivalling the
great Theban Pharaohs, and planned a hypostyle hall even larger than the
first; but he made a false start. The columns of the great nave, which were
all that he had time to erect, were placed too wide apart to admit of being
roofed over; so they never supported anything, but remained as memorials of
his failure. Finally, the Ptolemies, faithful to the traditions of the
native monarchy, threw themselves into the work; but their labours were
interrupted by revolts at Thebes, and the earthquake of the year 27 B.C.
destroyed part of the temple, so that the pylon remained for ever
unfinished. The history of Karnak is identical with that of all the great
Egyptian temples. When closely studied, the reason why they are for the
most part so irregular becomes evident. The general plan is practically the
same, and the progress of the building was carried forward in the same
way; but the architects could not always foresee the future importance of
their work, and the site was not always favourable to the development of
the building. At Luxor (fig. 86), the progress went on methodically enough
under Amenhotep III. and Seti I., but when Rameses II. desired to add to
the work of his predecessors, a bend in the river compelled him to turn
eastwards. His pylon is not parallel to that of Amenhotep III., and his
colonnades make a distinct angle with the general axis of the earlier work.
At Philae (fig. 87) the deviation is still greater. Not only is the larger
pylon out of alignment with the smaller, but the two colonnades are not
parallel with each other. Neither are they attached to the pylon with a due
regard to symmetry. This arises neither from negligence nor wilfulness, as
is popularly supposed. The first plan was as regular as the most
symmetrically-minded designer could wish; but it became necessary to adapt
it to the requirements of the site, and the architects were thenceforth
chiefly concerned to make the best of the irregularities to which they were
condemned by the configuration of the ground. Such difficulties were, in
fact, a frequent source of inspiration; and Philae shows with what skill
the Egyptians extracted every element of beauty and picturesqueness from
enforced disorder.

[Illustration: Fig. 88.--Plan of Speos, Kalaat Addah, Nubia.]

[Illustration: Fig, 89.--Plan of Speos, Gebel Silsileh.]

[Illustration: Fig. 90.--Plan of the Great Speos, Abû Simbel.]

[Illustration: Fig. 91.--Speos of Hathor, Abû Simbel.]

[Illustration: Fig. 92.--Plan of the upper portion of the temple of Deir el
Baharî, showing the state of the excavations, the Speos of Hathor (A); the
rock-cut sanctuary (B); the rock-cut funerary chapel of Thothmes I. (C);
the Speos of Anubis (D); and the excavated niches of the northern
colonnade. Reproduced from Plate III. of the _Archaeological Report of the
Egypt Exploration Fund_ for 1893-4.]

[Illustration: Fig. 93.--Plan of temple of Seti I., at Abydos.]

The idea of the rock-cut temple must have occurred to the Egyptians at an
early period. They carved the houses of the dead in the mountain side; why,
therefore, should they not in like manner carve the houses of the gods? Yet
the earliest known Speos-sanctuaries date from only the beginning of the
Eighteenth Dynasty. They are generally found in those parts of the valley
where the cultivable land is narrowest, as near Beni Hasan, at Gebel
Silsileh, and in Nubia. All varieties of the constructed temple are found
in the rock-cut temple, though more or less modified by local conditions.
The Speos Artemidos is approached by a pillared portico, but contains only
a square chamber with a niche at the end for the statue of the goddess
Pakhet. At Kalaat Addah (fig. 88), a flat narrow façade (A) faces the
river, and is reached by a steep flight of steps; next comes a hypostyle
hall (B), flanked by two dark chambers (C), and lastly a sanctuary in two
storeys, one above the other (D). The chapel of Horemheb (fig. 89), at
Gebel Silsileh, is formed of a gallery parallel to the river (A), supported
by four massive pillars left in the rock. From this gallery, the sanctuary
chamber opens at right angles. At Abû Simbel, the two temples are excavated
entirely in the cliff. The front of the great speos (fig. 90) imitates a
sloping pylon crowned with a cornice, and guarded as usual by four seated
colossi flanked by smaller statues. These colossi are sixty-six feet high.
The doorway passed, there comes a first hall measuring 130 feet in length
by 60 feet in width, which corresponds to the usual peristyle. Eight
Osiride statues backed by as many square pillars, seem to bear the
mountain on their heads. Beyond this come (1) a hypostyle hall; (2) a
transverse gallery, isolating the sanctuary, and (3) the sanctuary itself,
between two smaller chambers. Eight crypts, sunk at a somewhat lower level
than that of the main excavation, are unequally distributed to right and
left of the peristyle. The whole excavation measures 180 feet from the
doorway to the end of the sanctuary. The small speos of Hathor, about a
hundred paces to the northward, is of smaller dimensions. The façade is
adorned with six standing colossi, four representing Rameses II., and two
his wife, Nefertari. The peristyle and the crypts are lacking (fig. 91),
and the small chambers are placed at either end of the transverse passage,
instead of being parallel with the sanctuary. The hypostyle hall, however,
is supported by six Hathor-headed pillars. Where space permitted, the rock-
cut temple was but partly excavated in the cliff, the forepart being
constructed outside with blocks cut and dressed, and becoming half grotto,
half building. In the hemi-speos at Derr, the peristyle is external to the
cliff; at Beit el Wally, the pylon and court are built; at Gerf Husein and
Wady Sabûah, pylon, court, and hypostyle hall are all outside the mountain,
The most celebrated and original hemi-speos is that built by Queen
Hatshepsût, at Deir el Baharî, in the Theban necropolis (fig. 92),[19] The
sanctuary and chapels which, as usual, accompany it, were cut about 100 ft.
above the level of the valley. In order to arrive at that height, slopes
were made and terraces laid out according to a plan which was not
understood until the site was thoroughly excavated.

Between the hemi-speos and the isolated temple, the Egyptians created yet
another variety, namely, the built temple backed by, but not carried into,
the cliff. The temple of the sphinx at Gizeh, and the temple of Seti I. at
Abydos, may be cited as two good examples. I have already described the
former; the area of the latter (fig. 93) was cleared in a narrow and
shallow belt of sand, which here divides the plain from the desert. It was
sunk up to the roof, the tops of the walls but just showing above the level
of the ground. The staircase which led up to the terraced roof led also to
the top of the hill. The front, which stood completely out, seemed in
nowise extraordinary. It was approached by two pylons, two courts, and a
shallow portico supported on square pillars. The unusual part of the
building only began beyond this point. First, there were two hypostyle
halls instead of one. These are separated by a wall with seven doorways.
There is no nave, and the sanctuary opens direct from the second hall.
This, as usual, consists of an oblong chamber with a door at each end; but
the rooms by which it is usually surrounded are here placed side by side in
a line, two to the right and four to the left; further, they are covered by
"corbelled" vaults, and are lighted only from the doors. Behind the
sanctuary are further novelties. Another hypostyle hall (K) abuts on the
end wall, and its dependencies are unequally distributed to right and left.
As if this were not enough, the architect also constructed, to the left of
the main building, a court, five chambers of columns, various passages and
dark chambers--in short, an entire wing branching off at right angles to
the axis of the temple proper, with no counterbalancing structures on the
other side. These irregularities become intelligible when the site is
examined. The cliff is shallow at this part, and the smaller hypostyle hall
is backed by only a thin partition of rock. If the usual plan had been
followed, it would have been necessary to cut the cliff entirely away, and
the structure would have forfeited its special characteristic--that of a
temple backed by a cliff--as desired by the founder. The architect,
therefore, distributed in width those portions of the edifice which he
could not carry out in length; and he even threw out a wing. Some years
later, when Rameses II. constructed a monument to his own memory, about a
hundred yards to the northward of the older building, he was careful not to
follow in his father's footsteps. Built on the top of an elevation, his
temple had sufficient space for development, and the conventional plan was
followed in all its strictness.

[Illustration: Fig. 94.--Crio-sphinx from Wady Es Sabûah.]

[Illustration: Fig. 95.--Couchant ram, with statuette of royal founder,
restored from the Avenue of Sphinxes at Karnak.]

Most temples, even the smallest, should be surrounded by a square
enclosure or temenos.[20] At Medinet Habu, this enclosure wall is of
sandstone--low, and embattled. The innovation is due to a whim of Rameses
III., who, in giving to his monument the outward appearance of a fortress,
sought to commemorate his Syrian victories. Elsewhere, the doorways are of
stone, and the walls are built in irregular courses of crude bricks. The
great enclosure wall was not, as frequently stated, intended to isolate the
temple and screen the priestly ceremonies from eyes profane. It marked the
limits of the divine dwelling, and served, when needful, to resist the
attacks of enemies whose cupidity might be excited by the accumulated
riches of the sanctuary. As at Karnak, avenues of sphinxes and series of
pylons led up to the various gates, and formed triumphal approaches. The
rest of the ground was in part occupied by stables, cellarage, granaries,
and private houses. Just as in Europe during the Middle Ages the population
crowded most densely round about the churches and abbeys, so in Egypt they
swarmed around the temples, profiting by that security which the terror of
his name and the solidity of his ramparts ensured to the local deity. A
clear space was at first reserved round the pylons and the walls; but in
course of time the houses encroached upon this ground, and were even built
up against the boundary wall. Destroyed and rebuilt century after century
upon the self-same spot, the _débris_ of these surrounding dwellings so
raised the level of the soil, that the temples ended for the most part by
being gradually buried in a hollow formed by the artificial elevation of
the surrounding city. Herodotus noticed this at Bubastis, and on
examination it is seen to have been the same in many other localities. At
Ombos, at Edfû, at Denderah, the whole city nestled inside the precincts of
the divine dwelling. At El Kab, where the temple temenos formed a separate
enclosure within the boundary of the city walls, it served as a sort of
donjon, or keep, in which the garrison could seek a last refuge. At Memphis
and at Thebes, there were as many keeps as there were great temples, and
these sacred fortresses, each at first standing alone in the midst of
houses, were, from the time of the Eighteenth Dynasty, connected each with
each by avenues of sphinxes. These were commonly andro-sphinxes, combining
the head of a man and the body of a lion; but we also find crio-sphinxes,
which united a ram's head with a lion's body (fig. 94). Elsewhere, in
places where the local worship admitted of such substitution, a couchant
ram, holding a statuette of the royal founder between his bent forelegs,
takes the place of the conventional sphinx (fig. 95). The avenue leading
from Luxor to Karnak was composed of these diverse elements. It was one
mile and a quarter in length, and there were many bends in it; but this
fact affords no fresh proof of Egyptian "symmetrophobia." The enclosures of
the two temples were not oriented alike, and the avenues which started
squarely from the fronts of each could never have met had they not deviated
from their first course. Finally, it may be said that the inhabitants of
Thebes saw about as much of their temples as we see at the present day. The
sanctuary and its immediate surroundings were closed against them; but they
had access to the façades, the courts, and even the hypostyle halls, and
might admire the masterpieces of their architects as freely as we admire
them now.


[14] _Hor-shesû_, "followers," or "servants of Horus," are mentioned
    in the Turin papyrus as the predecessors of Mena, and are referred to
    in monumental inscriptions as representing the pre-historic people of
    Egypt. It is to the Hor-shesû that Professors Maspero and Mariette
    attribute the making of the Great Sphinx.--A.B.E.

[15] For a full description of the oldest funerary chapel known, that of
    King Sneferû, see W.M.F. Petrie's _Medum_.

[16] Conf. Mr. Petrie's plan of this temple in _Pyramids and Temples of
    Gizeh_, Plate VI.--A.B.E.

[17] That is to say, the wall is vertical on the inside; but is
    built much thicker at the bottom than at the top, so that on the
    outside it presents a sloping surface, retiring with the height of
    the wall.--A.B.E.

[18] "Hatshepsût," more commonly known as "Hatasû;" the new reading is,
    however, more correct. Professor Maspero thinks that it was pronounced
    "Hatshopsitû."--A.B.E.

[19] For full illustrated account of the complete excavation of this
    temple, see the _Deir el Baharî_ publications of the Egypt
    Exploration Fund.

[20] Temenos, _i.e._, the enclosure wall of the Temple, within which
    all was holy ground.--A.B.E.



3.--DECORATION.

[Illustration: Figs. 96 to 101.--DECORATIVE DESIGNS, FROM DENDERAH.]

[Illustration: Fig. 96.]

[Illustration: Fig. 97.]

[Illustration: Fig. 98.]

[Illustration: Fig. 99.]

[Illustration: Fig. 100.]

[Illustration: Fig. 101.]

[Illustration: Fig. 102.--Two Nile-gods, bearing lotus flowers and libation
vases.]

[Illustration: Fig. 103.--Dado decoration, hall of Thothmes III., Karnak.]

[Illustration: Fig. 104.--Ceiling decoration, from tomb of Bakenrenf
(Bocchoris), Sakkarah, Twenty-sixth Dynasty.]


Ancient tradition affirmed that the earliest Egyptian temples contained
neither sculptured images, inscriptions, nor symbols; and in point of fact,
the Temple of the Sphinx is bare. But this is a unique example. The
fragments of architraves and masonry bearing the name of Khafra, which were
used for building material in the northern pyramid of Lisht, show that this
primitive simplicity had already been abandoned by the time of the Fourth
Dynasty. During the Theban period, all smooth surfaces, all pylons, wall-
faces, and shafts of columns, were covered with figure-groups and
inscriptions. Under the Ptolemies and the Caesars, figures and hieroglyphs
became so crowded that the stone on which they are sculptured seems to be
lost under the masses of ornament with which it is charged. We recognise at
a glance that these scenes are not placed at random. They follow in
sequence, are interlinked, and form as it were a great mystic book in which
the official relations between gods and men, as well as between men and
gods, are clearly set forth for such as are skilled to read them. The
temple was built in the likeness of the world, as the world was known to
the Egyptians. The earth, as they believed, was a flat and shallow plane,
longer than its width. The sky, according to some, extended overhead like
an immense iron ceiling, and according to others, like a huge shallow
vault. As it could not remain suspended in space without some support, they
imagined it to be held in place by four immense props or pillars. The floor
of the temple naturally represented the earth. The columns, and if needful
the four corners of the chambers, stood for the pillars. The roof, vaulted
at Abydos, flat elsewhere, corresponded exactly with the Egyptian idea of
the sky. Each of these parts was, therefore, decorated in consonance with
its meaning. Those next to the ground were clothed with vegetation. The
bases of the columns were surrounded by leaves, and the lower parts of the
walls were adorned with long stems of lotus or papyrus (fig. 96), in the
midst of which animals were occasionally depicted. Bouquets of water-plants
emerging from the water (fig. 97), enlivened the bottom of the wall-space
in certain chambers. Elsewhere, we find full-blown flowers interspersed
with buds (fig. 98), or tied together with cords (fig. 99); or those
emblematic plants which symbolise the union of Upper and Lower Egypt under
the rule of a single Pharaoh (fig. 100); or birds with human hands and
arms, perched in an attitude of adoration on the sign which represents a
solemn festival; or kneeling prisoners tied to the stake in couples, each
couple consisting of an Asiatic and a negro (fig. 101). Male and female
Niles (fig. 102), laden with flowers and fruits, either kneel, or advance
in majestic procession, along the ground level. These are the nomes, lakes,
and districts of Egypt, bringing offerings of their products to the god.
In one instance, at Karnak, Thothmes III. caused the fruits, flowers, and
animals indigenous to the foreign lands which he had conquered, to be
sculptured on the lower courses of his walls (fig. 103). The ceilings were
painted blue, and sprinkled with five-pointed stars painted yellow,
occasionally interspersed with the cartouches of the royal founder. The
monotony of this Egyptian heaven was also relieved by long bands of
hieroglyphic inscriptions. The vultures of Nekheb and Ûati, the goddesses
of the south and north, crowned and armed with divine emblems (fig. 104),
hovered above the nave of the hypostyle halls, and on the under side of the
lintels of the great doors, above the head of the king as he passed through
on his way to the sanctuary. At the Ramesseum, at Edfû, at Philae, at
Denderah, at Ombos, at Esneh, the depths of the firmament seemed to open to
the eyes of the faithful, revealing the dwellers therein. There the
celestial ocean poured forth its floods navigated by the sun and moon with
their attendant escort of planets, constellations, and decani; and there
also the genii of the months and days marched in long procession. In the
Ptolemaic age, zodiacs fashioned after Greek models were sculptured side by
side with astronomical tables of purely native origin (fig. 105). The
decoration of the architraves which supported the massive roofing slabs was
entirely independent of that of the ceiling itself. On these were wrought
nothing save boldly cut inscriptions, in which the beauty of the temple,
the names of the builder-kings who had erected it, and the glory of the
gods to whom it was consecrated, are emphatically celebrated. Finally, the
decoration of the lowest part of the walls and of the ceiling was
restricted to a small number of subjects, which were always similar: the
most important and varied scenes being suspended, as it were, between earth
and heaven, on the sides of the chambers and the pylons.

[Illustration: Fig. 105.--Zodiacal circle of Denderah.]

These scenes illustrate the official relations which subsisted between
Egypt and the gods. The people had no right of direct intercourse with the
deities. They needed a mediator, who, partaking of both human and divine
nature, was qualified to communicate with both. The king alone, Son of the
Sun, was of sufficiently high descent to contemplate the god in his temple,
to serve him, and to speak with him face to face. Sacrifices could be
offered only by him, or through him, and in his name. Even the customary
offerings to the dead were supposed to pass through his hands, and the
family availed themselves of his name in the formula _sûten ta hotep_ to
forward them to the other world. The king is seen, therefore, in all parts
of the temple, standing, seated, kneeling, slaying the victim, presenting
the parts, pouring out the wine, the milk, and the oil, and burning the
incense. All humankind acts through him, and through him performs its duty
towards the gods. When the ceremonies to be performed required the
assistance of many persons, then alone did mortal subordinates (consisting,
as much as possible, of his own family) appear by his side. The queen,
standing behind him like Isis behind Osiris, uplifts her hand to protect
him, shakes the sistrum, beats the tambourine to dispel evil spirits, or
holds the libation vase or bouquet. The eldest son carries the net or
lassoes the bull, and recites the prayer while his father successively
presents to the god each object prescribed by the ritual. A priest may
occasionally act as substitute for the prince, but other men perform only
the most menial offices. They are slaughterers or servants, or they bear
the boat or canopy of the god. The god, for his part, is not always alone.
He has his wife and his son by his side; next after them the gods of the
neighbouring homes, and, in a general way, all the gods of Egypt. From the
moment that the temple is regarded as representing the world, it must, like
the world, contain all gods, both great and small. They are most frequently
ranged behind the principal god, seated or standing; and with him they
share in the homage paid by the king. Sometimes, however, they take an
active part in the ceremonies. The spirits of On and Khonû[21] kneel before
the sun, and proclaim his praise. Hor, Set, or Thoth conducts Pharaoh into
the presence of his father Amen Ra, or performs the functions elsewhere
assigned to the prince or the priest. They help him to overthrow the victim
or to snare birds for the sacrifice; and in order to wash away his
impurities, they pour upon his head the waters of youth and life. The
position and functions of these co-operating gods were strictly defined in
the theology. The sun, travelling from east to west, divided the universe
into two worlds, the world of the north and the world of the south. The
temple, like the universe, was double, and an imaginary line passing
through the axis of the sanctuary divided it into two temples--the temple
of the south on the right hand, and the temple of the north on the left.
The gods and their various manifestations were divided between these two
temples, according as they belonged to the northern or southern hemisphere.
This fiction of duality was carried yet further. Each chamber was divided,
in imitation of the temple, into two halves, the right half belonging to
the south, and the left half to the north. The royal homage, to be
complete, must be rendered in the temples of the south and of the north,
and to the gods of the south and of the north, and with the products of the
south and of the north. Each sculptured tableau must, therefore, be
repeated at least twice in each temple--on a right wall and on a left wall.
Amen, on the right, receives the corn, the wine, the liquids of the south;
while on the left he receives the corn, the wine, and the liquids of the
north. As with Amen, so with Maut, Khonsû, Mentû, and many other gods. Want
of space frequently frustrated the due execution of this scheme, and we
often meet with a tableau in which the products of north and south together
are placed before an Amen who represents both Amen of the south and Amen of
the north. These departures from decorative usage are, however,
exceptional, and the dual symmetry is always observed where space permits.

[Illustration: Fig. 106.--Frieze of uraei and cartouches.]

In Pharaonic times, the tableaux were not over-crowded. The wall-surface
intended to be covered was marked off below by a line carried just above
the ground level decoration, and was bounded above by the usual cornice, or
by a frieze. This frieze might be composed of uraei, or of bunches of
lotus; or of royal cartouches (fig. 106) supported on either side by divine
symbols; or of emblems borrowed from the local cult (by heads of Hathor,
for instance, in a temple dedicated to Hathor); or of a horizontal line of
dedicatory inscription engraved in large and deeply-cut hieroglyphs. The
wall space thus framed in contained sometimes a single scene and sometimes
two scenes, one above the other. The wall must be very lofty, if this
number is exceeded. Figures and inscriptions were widely spaced, and the
scenes succeeded one another with scarcely a break. The spectator had to
discover for himself where they began or ended. The head of the king was
always studied from the life, and the faces of the gods reproduced the
royal portrait as closely as possible. As Pharaoh was the son of the gods,
the surest way to obtain portraits of the gods was to model their faces
after the face of the king. The secondary figures were no less carefully
wrought; but when these were very numerous, they were arranged on two or
three levels, the total height of which never exceeded that of the
principal personages. The offerings, the sceptres, the jewels, the
vestments, the head-dresses, and all the accessories were treated with a
genuine feeling for elegance and truth. The colours, moreover, were so
combined as to produce in each tableau the effect of one general and
prevailing tone; so that in many temples there were chambers which can be
justly distinguished as the Blue Hall, the Red Hall, or the Golden Hall. So
much for the classical period of decoration.

[Illustration: Fig. 107.--Wall of a chamber at Denderah, to show the
arrangement of the tableaux.]

As we come down to later times, these tableaux are multiplied, and under
the Greeks and Romans they become so numerous that the smallest wall
contained not less than four (fig. 107), five, six, or even eight
registers. The principal figures are, as it were, compressed, so as to
occupy less room, and all the intermediate space is crowded with thousands
of tiny hieroglyphs. The gods and kings are no longer portraits of the
reigning sovereign, but mere conventional types without vigour or life. As
for the secondary figures and accessories, the sculptor's only care is to
crowd in as many as possible. This was not due to a defect of taste, and to
the prevalence of a religious idea which decided but enforced these
changes. The object of decoration was not merely the delight of the eye.
Applied to a piece of furniture, a coffin, a house, a temple, decoration
possessed a certain magic property, of which the power and nature were
determined by each being or action represented, by each word inscribed or
spoken, at the moment of consecration. Every subject was, therefore, an
amulet as well as an ornament. So long as it endured, it ensured to the god
the continuance of homage rendered, or sacrifices offered, by the king. To
the king, whether living or dead, it confirmed the favours granted to him
by the god in recompense for his piety. It also preserved from destruction
the very wall upon which it was depicted. At the time of the Eighteenth
Dynasty, it was thought that two or three such amulets sufficed to compass
the desired effect; but at a later period it was believed that their number
could not be too freely multiplied, and the walls were covered with as many
as the surface would contain. An average chamber of Edfû or Denderah yields
more material for study than the hypostyle hall of Karnak; and the chapel
of Antoninus Pius at Philae, had it been finished, would have contained
more scenes than the sanctuary of Luxor and the passages by which it is
surrounded.

Observing the variety of subjects treated on the walls of any one temple,
one might at first be tempted to think that the decoration does not form a
connected whole, and that, although many series of scenes must undoubtedly
contain the development of an historic idea or a religious dogma, yet that
others are merely strung together without any necessary link. At Luxor, and
again at the Ramesseum, each face of the pylon is a battle-field on which
may be studied, almost day for day, the campaign of Rameses II. against the
Kheta, which took place in the fifth year of his reign. There we see the
Egyptian camp attacked by night; the king's bodyguard surprised during the
march; the defeat of the enemy; their flight; the garrison of Kadesh
sallying forth to the relief of the vanquished; and the disasters which
befell the prince of the Kheta and his generals. Elsewhere, it is not the
war which is represented, but the human sacrifices which anciently
celebrated the close of each campaign. The king is seen in the act of
seizing his prostrate prisoners by the hair of their heads, and uplifting
his mace as if about to shatter their heads at a single blow. At Karnak,
along the whole length of the outer wall, Seti I. pursues the Bedawîn of
Sinai. At Medinet Habû Rameses III. destroys the fleet of the peoples of
the great sea, or receives the cut-off hands of the Libyans, which his
soldiers bring to him as trophies. In the next scene, all is peace; and we
behold Pharaoh pouring out a libation of perfumed water to his father Amen.
It would seem as if no link could be established between these subjects,
and yet the one is the necessary consequence of the others. If the god had
not granted victory to the king, the king in his turn would not have
performed these ceremonies in the temple. The sculptor has recorded the
events in their order:--first the victory, then the sacrifice. The favour
of the god precedes the thank-offering of the king. Thus, on closer
examination, we find this multitude of episodes forming the several links
of one continuous chain, while every scene, including such as seem at first
sight to be wholly unexplained, represents one stage in the development of
a single action which begins at the door, is carried through the various
halls, and penetrates to the farthest recesses of the sanctuary. The king
enters the temple. In the courts, he is everywhere confronted by
reminiscences of his victories; and here the god comes forth to greet him,
hidden in his shrine and surrounded by priests. The rites prescribed for
these occasions are graven on the walls of the hypostyle hall in which they
were performed. These being over, king and god together take their way to
the sanctuary. At the door which leads from the public hall to the
mysterious part of the temple, the escort halts. The king crosses the
threshold alone, and is welcomed by the gods. He then performs in due order
all the sacred ceremonies enjoined by usage. His merits increase by virtue
of his prayers; his senses become exalted; he rises to the level of the
divine type. Finally he enters the sanctuary, where the god reveals himself
unwitnessed, and speaks to him face to face. The sculptures faithfully
reproduce the order of this mystic presentation:--the welcoming reception
on the part of the god; the acts and offerings of the king; the vestments
which he puts on and off in succession; the various crowns which he places
on his head. The prayers which he recites and the favours which are
conferred upon him are also recorded upon the walls in order of time and
place. The king, and the few who accompany him, have their backs towards
the entrance and their faces towards the door of the sanctuary. The gods,
on the contrary, or at least such as do not make part of the procession,
face the entrance, and have their backs turned towards the sanctuary. If
during the ceremony the royal memory failed, the king needed but to raise
his eyes to the wall, whereon his duties were mapped out for him.

[Illustration: Fig. 108.--Obelisk of Ûsertesen I., of Heliopolis.]

Nor was this all. Each part of the temple had its accessory decoration and
its furniture. The outer faces of the pylons were ornamented, not only with
the masts and streamers before mentioned, but with statues and obelisks.
The statues, four or six in number, were of limestone, granite, or
sandstone. They invariably represented the royal founder, and were
sometimes of prodigious size. The two Memnons seated at the entrance of the
temple of Amenhotep III., at Thebes, measured about fifty feet in height.
The colossal Rameses II. of the Ramesseum measured fifty-seven feet, and
that of Tanis at least seventy feet. The greater number, however, did not
exceed twenty feet. They mounted guard before the temple, facing outwards,
as if confronting an approaching enemy. The obelisks of Karnak are mostly
hidden amid the central courts; and those of Queen Hatshepsut were imbedded
for seventeen feet of their height in masses of masonry which concealed
their bases. These are accidental circumstances, and easy of explanation.
Each of the pylons before which they are stationed had in its turn been the
entrance to the temple, and was thrown into the rear by the works of
succeeding Pharaohs. The true place of all obelisks was in front of the
colossi, on each side of the main entrance.[22] They are always in pairs,
but often of unequal height. Some have professed to see in them the emblem
of Amen, the Generator; or a finger of the god; or a ray of the sun. In
sober truth, they are a more shapely form of the standing stone, or menhir,
which is raised by semi-civilised peoples in commemoration of their gods or
their dead. Small obelisks, about three feet in height, are found in tombs
as early as the Fourth Dynasty. They are placed to right and left of the
stela; that is to say, on either side of the door which leads to the
dwelling of the dead. Erected before the pylon-gates of temples, they are
made of granite, and their dimensions are considerable. The obelisk of
Heliopolis (fig. 108) measures sixty-eight feet in the shaft, and the
obelisks of Luxor stand seventy-seven and seventy-five and a half feet
high, respectively. The loftiest known is the obelisk of Queen Hatshepsût
at Karnak, which rises to a height of 109 feet. To convey such masses, and
to place them in equilibrium, was a sufficiently difficult task, and one is
at a loss to understand how the Egyptians succeeded in erecting them with
no other appliances than ropes and sacks of sand. Queen Hatshepsût boasts
that her obelisks were quarried, shaped, transported, and erected in seven
months; and we have no reason to doubt the truth of her statement.[23]

[Illustration: Fig. 109.--Obelisk of Ûsertesen I., Begig, Fayûm.]

Obelisks were almost always square, with the faces slightly convex, and a
slight slope from top to bottom. The pedestal was formed of a single square
block adorned with inscriptions, or with cynocephali in high relief,
adoring the sun. The point was cut as a pyramidion, and sometimes covered
with bronze or gilt copper. Scenes of offerings to Ra Harmakhis, Hor, Tûm,
or Amen are engraved on the sides of the pyramidion and on the upper part
of the prism. The four upright faces are generally decorated with only
vertical lines of inscription in praise of the king (Note 11). Such is the
usual type of obelisk; but we here and there meet with exceptions. That of
Begig in the Fayûm (fig. 109) is in shape a rectangular oblong, with a
blunt top. A groove upon it shows that it was surmounted by some emblem in
metal, perhaps a hawk, like the obelisk represented on a funerary stela in
the Gizeh Museum. This form, which like the first is a survival of the
menhir, was in vogue till the last days of Egyptian art. It is even found
at Axûm, in the middle of Ethiopia, dating from about the fourth century of
our era, at a time when in Egypt the ancient obelisks were being carried
out of the country, and none dreamed of erecting new ones. Such was the
accessory decoration of the pylon. The inner courts and hypostyle halls of
the temple contained more colossi. Some, placed with their backs against
the outer sides of pillars or walls, were half engaged in the masonry, and
built up in courses. At Luxor under the peristyle, and at Karnak between
each column of the great nave, were also placed statues of Pharaoh; but
these were statues of Pharaoh the victor, clad in his robe of state. The
right of consecrating a statue in the temple was above all a royal
prerogative; yet the king sometimes permitted private persons to dedicate
their statues by the side of his own. This was, however, a special favour,
and such monuments always bear an inscription stating that it is "by the
king's grace" that they occupy that position. Rarely as this privilege was
granted, it resulted in a vast accumulation of votive statues, so that in
the course of centuries the courts of some temples became crowded with
them. At Karnak, the sanctuary enclosure was furnished outside with a kind
of broad bench, breast high, like a long base. Upon this the statues were
placed, with their backs to the wall. Attached to each was an oblong block
of stone, with a projecting spout on one side; these are known as "tables
of offerings" (fig. 110). The upper face is more or less hollowed, and is
often sculptured with bas-relief representations of loaves, joints of beef,
libation vases, and other objects usually presented to the dead or to the
gods. Those of King Ameni Entef Amenemhat, at Gizeh, are blocks of red
granite more than three feet in length, the top of which is hollowed out in
regular rows of cup-holes, each cup-hole being reserved for one particular
offering. There was, in fact, an established form of worship provided for
statues, and these tables were really altars upon which were deposited
sacrificial offerings of meat, cakes, fruits, vegetables, and the like.

[Illustration: Fig. 110.--Table of offerings, Karnak.]

[Illustration: Fig. 111.--Limestone altar.]

[Illustration: Fig.112.--Naos of wood in the Museum at Turin.]

The sanctuary and the surrounding chambers contained the objects used in
the ceremonial of worship. The bases of altars varied in shape, some being
square and massive, others polygonal or cylindrical. Some of these last are
in form not unlike a small cannon, which is the name given to them by the
Arabs. The most ancient are those of the Fifth Dynasty; the most beautiful
is one dedicated by Seti I., now in the Gizeh Museum. The only perfect
specimen of an altar known to me was discovered at Menshîyeh in 1884 (fig.
111). It is of white limestone, hard and polished like marble. It stands
upon a pedestal in the form of a long cone, having no other ornament than a
torus about half an inch below the top. Upon this pedestal, in a hollow
specially prepared for its reception, stands a large hemispherical basin.
The shrines are little chapels of wood or stone (fig. 112), in which the
spirit of the deity was supposed at all times to dwell, and which, on
ceremonial occasions, contained his image. The sacred barks were built
after the model of the Bari, or boat, in which the sun performed his daily
course. The shrine was placed amidship of the boat, and covered with a
veil, or curtain, to conceal its contents from all spectators. The crew
were also represented, each god being at his post of duty, the pilot at the
helm, the look-out at the prow, the king upon his knees before the door of
the shrine. We have not as yet discovered any of the statues employed in
the ceremonial, but we know what they were like, what part they played,
and of what materials they were made. They were animated, and in addition
to their bodies of stone, metal, or wood, they had each a soul magically
derived from the soul of the divinity which they represented. They spoke,
moved, acted--not metaphorically, but actually. The later Ramessides
ventured upon no enterprises without consulting them. They stated their
difficulties, and the god replied to each question by a movement of the
head. According to the Stela of Bakhtan,[24] a statue of Khonsû places its
hands four times on the nape of the neck of another statue, so transmitting
the power of expelling demons. It was after a conversation with the statue
of Amen in the dusk of the sanctuary, that Queen Hatshepsût despatched her
squadron to the shores of the Land of Incense.[25] Theoretically, the
divine soul of the image was understood to be the only miracle worker;
practically, its speech and motion were the results of a pious fraud.
Interminable avenues of sphinxes, gigantic obelisks, massive pylons, halls
of a hundred columns, mysterious chambers of perpetual night--in a word,
the whole Egyptian temple and its dependencies--were built by way of a
hiding-place for a performing puppet, of which the wires were worked by a
priest.


[21] That is, the spirits of the North, represented by On (Heliopolis), and
    of the South (Khonû).--A.B.E.

[22] At Tanis there seems to have been a close succession of obelisks and
    statues along the main avenue leading to the Temple, without the usual
    corresponding pylons. These were ranged in pairs; _i.e._, a pair
    of obelisks, a pair of statues; a pair of obelisks, a pair of shrines;
    and then a third pair of obelisks. See _Tanis_, Part I., by
    W.M.F. Petrie, published by the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1884.--A.B.E.

[23] This fact is recorded in the hieroglyphic inscription upon the
    obelisks.--A.B.E.

[24] This celebrated tablet, preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale,
    Paris, has been frequently translated, and is the subject of a
    valuable treatise by the late Vicomte de Rougé. It was considered
    authentic till Dr. Erman, in an admirable paper contributed to the
    _Zeitschrift,_ 1883, showed it to have been a forgery concocted
    by the priests of Khonsû during the period of the Persian rule in
    Egypt, or in early Ptolemaic times. (See Maspero's _Hist. Ancienne
    des Peuples de l'Orient_, chap, vi., pp. 287, 288. Fourth
    Edition.)--A.B.E.

[25] The Land of Incense, called also in the inscriptions "The Land of
    Pûnt," was the country from which the Egyptians imported spices,
    precious woods, gums, etc. It is supposed to represent the southern
    coasts of the Red Sea, on either side the Bab el Mandeb. Queen
    Hatshepsût's famous expedition is represented in a series of coloured
    bas-relief sculptures on the walls of her great temple at Deir el
    Baharî, reproduced in Dr. Dümichen's work, _The Fleet of an Egyptian
    Queen_, and in Mariette's _Deîr el Baharî_. For a full account
    of this temple, its decoration, and the expedition of Hatshepsût, see
    the _Deir el Baharî_ publications of the Egypt Exploration Fund.



CHAPTER III.

_TOMBS_.

The Egyptians regarded man as composed of various different entities, each
having its separate life and functions. First, there was the body; then the
_Ka_ or double, which was a less solid duplicate of the corporeal form--a
coloured but ethereal projection of the individual, reproducing him feature
for feature. The double of a child was as a child; the double of a woman
was as a woman; the double of a man was as a man. After the double (_Ka_)
came the Soul (_Bi_ or _Ba_), which was popularly represented as a human-
headed bird; after the Soul came the "_Khû_," or "the Luminous," a spark
from the divine fire. None of these elements were in their own natures
imperishable. Left to themselves, they would hasten to dissolution, and the
man would thus die a second time; that is to say, he would be annihilated.
The piety of the survivors found means, however, to avert this catastrophe.
By the process of embalmment, they could for ages suspend the decomposition
of the body; while by means of prayer and offerings, they saved the Double,
the Soul, and the "Luminous" from the second death, and secured to them all
that was necessary for the prolongation of their existence. The Double
never left the place where the mummy reposed: but the Soul and the "_Khû_"
went forth to follow the gods. They, however, kept perpetually returning,
like travellers who come home after an absence. The tomb was therefore a
dwelling-house, the "Eternal House" of the dead, compared with which the
houses of the living were but wayside inns; and these Eternal Houses were
built after a plan which exactly corresponded to the Egyptian idea of the
after-life. The Eternal House must always include the private rooms of the
Soul, which were closed on the day of burial, and which no living being
could enter without being guilty of sacrilege. It must also contain the
reception rooms of the Double, where priests and friends brought their
wishes or their offerings; the two being connected by a passage of more or
less length. The arrangement of these three parts[26] varied according to
the period, the place, the nature of the ground, and the caprice of each
person. The rooms accessible to the living were frequently built above
ground, and formed a separate edifice. Sometimes they were excavated in the
mountain side, as well as the tomb itself. Sometimes, again, the vault
where the mummy lay hidden, and the passages leading to that vault, were in
one place, while the place of prayer and offering stood far off in the
plain. But whatever variety there may be found as to detail and
arrangement, the principle is always the same. The tomb is a dwelling, and
it is constructed in such wise as may best promote the well-being, and
ensure the preservation, of the dead.


[26] These three parts are (l) the chapel, (2) the passage, or shaft, (3)
    the sepulchral vault. If the latter was below the level of the chapel,
    as in the time of the Ancient Empire, the communication was by a
    sloping or vertical shaft.--A.B.E.



I.--Mastabas.


The most ancient monumental tombs are found in the necropolis of Memphis,
between Abû Roash and Dahshûr, and in that of Medûm;[27] they belong to the
mastaba type (Note 12). The mastaba (fig. 113) is a quadrangular building,
which from a distance might be taken for a truncated pyramid. Many mastabas
are from 30 to 40-feet in height, 150 feet in length, and 80 feet in width;
while others do not exceed 10 feet in height or 15 feet in length. The
faces are symmetrically inclined and generally smooth, though sometimes the
courses retreat like steps. The materials employed are stone or brick. The
stone is limestone, cut in blocks about two and a half feet long, two feet
high, and twenty inches thick. Three sorts of limestone were employed: for
the best tombs, the fine white limestone of Tûrah, or the compact siliceous
limestone of Sakkarah; for ordinary tombs, the marly limestone of the
Libyan hills. This last, impregnated with salt and veined with crystalline
gypsum, is a friable material, and unsuited for ornamentation. The bricks
are of two kinds, both being merely sun-dried. The most ancient kind, which
ceased to be used about the time of the Sixth Dynasty, is small (8.7 X 4.3
X 5.5 inches), yellowish, and made of nothing but sand, mixed with a little
clay and grit.

[Illustration: Fig. 113.--A Mastaba.]

The later kind is of mud mixed with straw, black, compact, carefully
moulded, and of a fair size (15.0 X 7.1 X 5.5 inches). The style of the
internal construction differs according to the material employed by the
architect. In nine cases out of ten, the stone mastabas are but outwardly
regular in construction. The core is of roughly quarried rubble, mixed with
rubbish and limestone fragments hastily bedded in layers of mud, or piled
up without any kind of mortar. The brick mastabas are nearly always of
homogeneous construction. The facing bricks are carefully mortared, and the
joints inside are filled up with sand. That the mastaba should be
canonically oriented, the four faces set to the four cardinal points, and
the longer axis laid from north and south, was indispensable; but,
practically, the masons took no special care about finding the true north,
and the orientation of these structures is seldom exact. At Gizeh, the
mastabas are distributed according to a symmetrical plan, and ranged in
regular streets. At Sakkarah, at Abûsîr, and at Dahshûr, they are scattered
irregularly over the surface of the plateau, crowded in some places, and
wide apart in others. The Mussulman cemetery at Siût perpetuates the like
arrangement, and enables us to this day to realise the aspect of the
Memphite necropolis towards the close of the ancient empire.

[Illustration: Fig. 114.--False door in mastaba, from Mariette's _Les
Mastabahs_.]

[Illustration: Fig. 115.--Plan of forecourt of mastaba of Kaâpir.]

A flat, unpaved platform, formed by the top course of the core (Note 13),
covers the top of the mass of the mastaba. This platform is scattered over
with terracotta vases, nearly buried in the loose rubbish. These lie
thickly over the hollow interior, but are more sparsely deposited
elsewhere. The walls are bare. The doors face to the eastward side. They
occasionally face towards the north or south side, but never towards the
west. In theory, there should be two doors, one for the dead, the other for
the living. In practice, the entrance for the dead was a mere niche, high
and narrow, cut in the eastward face, near the north-east corner. At the
back of this niche are marked vertical lines, framing in a closed space.
Even this imitation of a door was sometimes omitted, and the soul was left
to manage as best it might. The door of the living was made more or less
important, according to the greater or less development of the chamber to
which it led. The chamber and door are in some cases represented by only a
shallow recess decorated with a stela and a table of offerings (fig. 114).
This is sometimes protected by a wall which projects from the façade, thus
forming a kind of forecourt open to the north. The forecourt is square in
the tomb of Kaâpir (fig. 114), and irregular in that of Neferhotep at
Sakkarah (fig. 116). When the plan includes one or more chambers, the door
sometimes opens in the middle of a small architectural façade (fig. 117),
or under a little portico supported by two square pillars without either
base or abacus (fig. 118). The doorway is very simple, the two jambs being
ornamented with bas-reliefs representing the deceased, and surmounted by a
cylindrical drum engraved with his name and titles. In the tomb of Pohûnika
at Sakkarah the jambs are two pilasters, each crowned with two lotus
flowers; but this example is, so far, unique.

[Illustration: Fig. 116.--Plan of forecourt, mastaba of Neferhotep.]

[Illustration: Fig. 117.--Door in façade of mastaba.]

[Illustration: Fig. 118.--Portico and door, from Mariette's _Les
Mastabahs_.]

[Illustration: Fig. 119.--Plan of chapel in mastaba of Khabiûsokari, Fourth
Dynasty.]

[Illustration: Fig. 120.--Plan of chapel in mastaba of Ti, Fifth Dynasty.]

[Illustration: Fig. 121.--Plan of chapel in mastaba of Shepsesptah, Fourth
Dynasty.]

[Illustration: Fig. 122.--Plan of chapel in mastaba of Affi, Sakkarah,
Fourth Dynasty.]

The chapel was usually small, and lost in the mass of the building (fig.
119), but no precise rule determined its size. In the tomb of Ti there is
first a portico (A), then a square ante-chamber with pillars (B), then a
passage (C) with a small room (D) on the right, leading to the last chamber
(E) (fig. 120). There was room enough in this tomb for many persons, and,
in point of fact, the wife of Ti reposed by the side of her husband. When
the monument belonged to only one person, the structure was less
complicated. A short and narrow passage led to an oblong chamber upon which
it opened at right angles, so that the place is in shape of a T (fig. 121).
The end wall is generally smooth; but sometimes it is recessed just
opposite the entrance passage, and then the plan forms a cross, of which
the head is longer or shorter (fig. 122). This was the ordinary
arrangement, but the architect was free to reject it, if he so pleased.
Here, a chapel consists of two parallel lobbies connected by a cross
passage (fig. 123). Elsewhere, the chamber opens from a corner of the
passage (fig. 124). Again, in the tomb of Ptahhotep, the site was hemmed in
by older buildings, and was not large enough. The builders therefore joined
the new mastaba to the older one in such wise as to give them one entrance
in common, and thus the chapel of the one is enlarged by absorbing the
whole of the space occupied by the other (fig. 125).

[Illustration: Fig. 123.--Plan of chapel in mastaba of Thenti II., Fourth
Dynasty, Sakkarah.]

[Illustration: Fig. 124.--Plan of chapel in mastaba of the _Red Scribe_,
Fourth Dynasty, Sakkarah.]

The chapel was the reception room of the Double. It was there that the
relations, friends, and priests celebrated the funerary sacrifices on the
days prescribed by law; that is to say, "at the feasts of the commencement
of the seasons; at the feast of Thoth on the first day of the year; at the
feast of Ûaga; at the great feast of Sothis; on the day of the procession
of the god Min; at the feast of shew-bread; at the feasts of the months and
the half months, and the days of the week." Offerings were placed in the
principal room, at the foot of the west wall, at the exact spot leading to
the entrance of the "eternal home" of the dead. Unlike the _Kiblah_ of the
mosques, or Mussulman oratories, this point is not always oriented towards
the same quarter of the compass, though often found to the west. In the
earliest times it was indicated by a real door, low and narrow, framed and
decorated like the door of an ordinary house, but not pierced through. An
inscription graven upon the lintel in large readable characters,
commemorated the name and rank of the owner. His portrait, either sitting
or standing, was carved upon the jambs; and a scene, sculptured or painted
on the space above the door, represented him seated before a small round
table, stretching out his hand towards the repast placed upon it. A flat
slab, or offering table, built into the floor between the two uprights of
the doorway, received the votive meats and drinks.

[Illustration: Fig. 125.--Plan of chapel in mastaba of Ptahhotep, Fifth
Dynasty, Sakkarah.]

[Illustration: Fig. 126.--Stela in tomb of Merrûka (Fifth Dynasty, Abûsir):
a false doorway containing the statue of the deceased.]

The general appearance of the recess is that of a somewhat narrow doorway.
As a rule it was empty, but occasionally it contained a portrait statue of
the dead standing with one foot forward as though about to cross the gloomy
threshold of his tomb, descend the few steps before him, advance into his
reception room or chapel, and pass out into the sunlight (fig. 126). As a
matter of fact, the stela symbolised the door leading to the private
apartments of the dead, a door closed and sealed to the living. It was
inscribed on door-posts and lintels, and its inscription was no mere
epitaph for the information of future generations; all the details which it
gave as to the name, rank, functions, and family of the deceased were
intended to secure the continuity of his individuality and civil status in
the life beyond death. A further and essential object of its inscriptions
was to provide him with food and drink by means of prayers or magic
formulae constraining one of the gods of the dead--Osiris or Anubis--to act
as intermediary between him and his survivors and to set apart for his use
some portion of the provisions offered for his sake in sacrifice to one or
other of these deities. By this agency the _Kas_ or Doubles of these
provisions were supposed to be sent on into the next world to gladden and
satisfy the human _Ka_ indicated to the divine intermediary. Offerings of
real provisions were not indispensable to this end; any chance visitor in
times to come who should simply repeat the formula of the stela aloud would
thereby secure the immediate enjoyment of all the good things enumerated to
the unknown dead whom he evoked.

[Illustration: Fig. 127.--Wall scene of funerary offerings, from mastaba of
Ptahhotep, Fifth Dynasty.]

[Illustration: Fig. 128.--Wall-painting, funeral voyage; mastaba of Urkhuû,
Gizeh, Fourth Dynasty.]

[Illustration: Fig. 129.--Wall-scene from mastaba of Ptahhotep, Fifth
Dynasty.]

The living having taken their departure, the Double was supposed to come
out of his house and feed. In principle, this ceremony was bound to be
renewed year by year, till the end of time; but the Egyptians ere long
discovered that this could not be. After two or three generations, the dead
of former days were neglected for the benefit of those more recently
departed. Even when a pious foundation was established, with a revenue
payable for the expenses of the funerary repasts and of the priests whose
duty it was to prepare them, the evil hour of oblivion was put off for only
a little longer. Sooner or later, there came a time when the Double was
reduced to seek his food among the town refuse, and amid the ignoble and
corrupt filth which lay rejected on the ground. Then, in order that the
offerings consecrated on the day of burial might for ever preserve their
virtues, the survivors conceived the idea of drawing and describing them on
the walls of the chapel (fig. 127). The painted or sculptured reproduction
of persons and things ensured the reality of those persons and things for
the benefit of the one on whose account they were executed. Thus the Double
saw himself depicted upon the walls in the act of eating and drinking, and
he ate and drank. This notion once accepted, the theologians and artists
carried it out to the fullest extent. Not content with offering mere
pictured provisions, they added thereto the semblance of the domains which
produced them, together with the counterfeit presentment of the herds,
workmen, and slaves belonging to the same. Was a supply of meat required to
last for eternity? It was enough, no doubt, to represent the several parts
of an ox or a gazelle--the shoulder, the leg, the ribs, the breast, the
heart, the liver, the head, properly prepared for the spit; but it was
equally easy to retrace the whole history of the animal--its birth, its
life in the pasture-lands, its slaughter, the cutting up of the carcass,
and the presentation of the joints. So also as regarded the cakes and
bread-offerings, there was no reason why the whole process of tillage,
harvesting, corn-threshing, storage, and dough-kneading should not be
rehearsed. Clothing, ornaments, and furniture served in like manner as a
pretext for the introduction of spinners, weavers, goldsmiths, and cabinet-
makers. The master is of superhuman proportions, and towers above his
people and his cattle. Some prophetic tableaux show him in his funeral
bark, speeding before the wind with all sail set, having started on his way
to the next world the very day that he takes possession of his new abode
(fig. 128). Elsewhere, we see him as actively superintending his imaginary
vassals as formerly he superintended his vassals of flesh and blood (fig.
129). Varied and irregular as they may appear, these scenes are not placed
at random upon the walls. They all converge towards that semblance of a
door which was supposed to communicate with the interior of the tomb. Those
nearest to the door represent the sacrifice and the offering; the earlier
stages of preparation and preliminary work being depicted in retrograde
order as that door is left farther and farther behind. At the door itself,
the figure of the master seems to await his visitors and bid them welcome.

[Illustration: Fig. 130. Plan of serdab in mastaba at Gizeh, Fourth
Dynasty.]

The details are of infinite variety. The inscriptions run to a less or
greater length according to the caprice of the scribe; the false door loses
its architectural character, and is frequently replaced by a mere stela
engraved with the name and rank of the master; yet, whether large or small,
whether richly decorated or not decorated at all, the chapel is always the
dining-room--or, rather, the larder--to which the dead man has access when
he feels hungry.

[Illustration: Fig. 131.--Plan of serdab and chapel in mastaba of Rahotep
at Sakkarah, Fourth Dynasty.]

[Illustration: Fig. 132.--Plan of serdab and chapel in mastaba of Thenti I.
at Sakkarah, Fourth Dynasty.]

On the other side of the wall was constructed a hiding-place in the form of
either a high and narrow cell, or a passage without outlet. To this hiding-
place archaeologists have given the Arab name of "_serdab_." Most mastabas
contain but one; others contain three or four (fig. 130). These _serdabs_
communicated neither with each other nor with the chapel; and are, as it
were, buried in the masonry (fig. 131). If connected at all with the outer
world, it is by means of an aperture in the wall about as high up as a
man's head (fig. 132), and so small that the hand can with difficulty pass
through it. To this orifice came the priests, with murmured prayers and
perfumes of incense. Within lurked the Double, ready to profit by these
memorial rites, or to accept them through the medium of his statues. As
when he lived upon earth, the man needed a body in which to exist. His
corpse, disfigured by the process of embalmment, bore but a distant
resemblance to its former self. The mummy, again, was destructible, and
might easily be burned, dismembered, scattered to the winds. Once it had
disappeared, what was to become of the Double? The portrait statues walled
up inside the _serdab_ became, when consecrated, the stone, or wooden,
bodies of the defunct. The pious care of his relatives multiplied these
bodies, and consequently multiplied the supports of the Double. A single
body represented a single chance of existence for the Double; twenty bodies
represented twenty such chances. For the same reason, statues also of his
wife, his children, and his servants were placed with the statues of the
deceased, the servants being modelled in the act of performing their
domestic duties, such as grinding corn, kneading dough, and applying a coat
of pitch to the inside surfaces of wine-jars. As for the figures which were
merely painted on the walls of the chapel, they detached themselves, and
assumed material bodies inside the _serdab_. Notwithstanding these
precautions, all possible means were taken to guard the remains of the
fleshly body from natural decay and the depredations of the spoiler. In the
tomb of Ti, an inclined passage, starting from the middle of the first
hall, leads from the upper world to the sepulchral vault; but this is
almost a solitary exception. Generally, the vault is reached by way of a
vertical shaft constructed in the centre of the platform (fig. 133), or,
more rarely, in a corner of the chapel. The depth of this shaft varies from
10 to 100 feet. It is carried down through the masonry: it pierces the
rock; and at the bottom, a low passage, in which it is not possible to walk
upright, leads in a southward direction to the vault. There sleeps the
mummy in a massive sarcophagus of limestone, red granite, or basalt.
Sometimes, though rarely, the sarcophagus bears the name and titles of the
deceased. Still more rarely, it is decorated with ornamental sculpture.
Some examples are known which reproduce the architectural decoration of an
Egyptian house, with its doors and windows.[28] The furniture of the vault
is of the simplest character,--some alabaster perfume vases; a few cups
into which the priest had poured drops of the various libation liquids
offered to the dead; some large red pottery jars for water; a head-rest of
wood or alabaster; a scribe's votive palette. Having laid the mummy in the
sarcophagus and cemented the lid, the workmen strewed the floor of the
vault with the quarters of oxen and gazelles which had just been
sacrificed. They next carefully walled up the entrance into the passage,
and filled the shaft to the top with a mixture of sand, earth, and stone
chips. Being profusely watered, this mass solidified, and became an almost
impenetrable body of concrete. The corpse, left to itself, received no
visits now, save from the Soul, which from time to time quitted the
celestial regions wherein it voyaged with the gods, and came down to re-
unite itself with the body. The sepulchral vault was the abode of the Soul,
as the funerary chapel was the abode of the Double.

[Illustration: Fig. 133.--Section showing shaft and vault of mastaba at
Gizeh, Fourth Dynasty.]

[Illustration: Fig. 134.--Section of mastaba, Sakkarah, Sixth Dynasty.]

[Illustration: Fig. 135.--Wall painting of funerary offerings, from mastaba
of Nenka, Sakkarah, Sixth Dynasty.]

Up to the time of the Sixth Dynasty, the walls of the vault are left bare.
Once only did Mariette find a vault containing half-effaced inscriptions
from _The Book of the Dead_. In 1881, I however discovered some tombs at
Sakkarah, in which the vault is decorated in preference to the chapel.
These tombs are built with large bricks, a niche and a stela sufficing for
the reception of sacrificial offerings. In place of the shaft, they contain
a small rectangular court, in the western corner of which was placed the
sarcophagus. Over the sarcophagus was erected a limestone chamber just as
long and as wide as the sarcophagus itself, and about three and a half feet
high. This was roofed in with flat slabs. At the end, or in the wall to the
right, was a niche, which answered the purpose of a _serdab_; and above the
flat roof was next constructed an arch of about one foot and a half radius,
the space above the arch being filled in with horizontal courses of
brickwork up to the level of the platform. The chamber occupies about two-
thirds of the cavity, and looks like an oven with the mouth open. Sometimes
the stone walls rest on the lid of the sarcophagus, the chamber having
evidently been built after the interment had taken place (fig. 134).
Generally speaking, however, these walls rest on brick supports, so that
the sarcophagus may be opened or closed when required. The decoration,
which is sometimes painted, sometimes sculptured, is always the same. Each
wall was a house stocked with the objects depicted or catalogued upon its
surface, and each was, therefore, carefully provided with a fictitious
door, through which the Double had access to his goods. On the left wall he
found a pile of provisions (fig. 135)[29] and a table of offerings; on the
end wall a store of household utensils, as well as a supply of linen and
perfumes, the name and quantity of each being duly registered. These
paintings more briefly sum up the scenes depicted in the chapels of
ordinary mastabas. Transferred from their original position to the walls of
an underground cellar, they were the more surely guaranteed against such
possible destruction as might befall them in chambers open to all comers;
while upon their preservation depended the length of time during which the
dead man would retain possession of the property which they represented.


[27] For an account of the necropolis of Medûm, see W.M.F. Petrie's
    _Medum_.

[28] The sarcophagus of Menkara, unfortunately lost at sea when on its way
    to England, was of this type. See illustration No. 19, Chapter III.,
    in Sir E. Wilson's _Egypt of the Past_.--A.B.E.

[29] This wall scene is from the tomb of Nenka, near Sakkarah. For a
    coloured facsimile on a large scale, see Professor Maspero's article
    entitled "Trois Années de Fouilles," in _Mémoires de la Mission
    Archéologique Française du Caire_, Pl. 2. 1884.--A.B.E.



2.--THE PYRAMIDS.

[For the following translation of this section of Professor Maspero's book
I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. W.M. Flinders Petrie, whose work on
_The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh_, published with the assistance of a
grant from the Royal Society in 1883, constitutes our standard authority on
the construction of these Pyramids.--A.B.E.]

The royal tombs have the form of pyramids with a square base, and are the
equivalent in stone or brick of the tumulus of heaped earth which was piled
over the body of the warrior chief in prehistoric times (Note 14). The same
ideas prevailed as to the souls of kings as about those of private men; the
plan of the pyramid consists, therefore, of three parts, like the mastaba,
--the chapel, the passage, and the sepulchral vault.

The chapel is always separate. At Sakkarah no trace of it has been found;
it was probably, as later on at Thebes, in a quarter nearer to the town. At
Medûm, Gizeh, Abûsîr, and Dahshûr, these temples stood at the east or north
fronts of the pyramids. They were true temples, with chambers, courts, and
passages. The fragments of bas-reliefs hitherto found show scenes of
sacrifice, and prove that the decoration was the same as in the public
halls of the mastabas. The pyramid, properly speaking, contained only the
passages and sepulchral vault. The oldest of which the texts show the
existence, north of Abydos, is that of Sneferû; the latest belong to the
princes of the Twelfth Dynasty. The construction of these monuments was,
therefore, a continuous work, lasting for thirteen or fourteen centuries,
under government direction. Granite, alabaster, and basalt for the
sarcophagus and some details were the only materials of which the use and
the quantity was not regulated in advance, and which had to be brought from
a distance. To obtain them, each king sent one of the great men of his
court on a mission to the quarries of Upper Egypt; and the quickness with
which the blocks were brought back was a strong claim upon the sovereign's
favour. The other material was not so costly. If mainly brick, the bricks
were moulded on the spot with earth taken from the foot of the hill. If of
stone, the nearest parts of the plateau provided the common marly limestone
in abundance (Note 15). The fine limestone of Tûrah was usually reserved
for the chambers and the casing, and this might be had without even sending
specially for it to the opposite side of the Nile; for at Memphis there
were stores always full, upon which they continually drew for public
buildings, and, therefore, also for the royal tombs. The blocks being taken
from these stores, and borne by boats to close below the hill, were raised
to their required places along gently sloping causeways. The internal
arrangement of the pyramids, the lengths of the passages and their heights,
were very variable; the pyramid of Khûfû (Cheops) rose to 475 feet above
the ground, the smallest was not 30 feet high. The difficulty of imagining
now what motives determined the Pharaohs to choose such different
proportions has led some to think that the mass built was in direct
proportion to the time occupied in building; that is to say, to the length
of each reign. Thus it was supposed that the king would begin by hastily
erecting a pyramid large enough to contain the essential parts of a tomb;
and then, year by year, would add fresh layers around the first core, until
the time when his death for ever arrested the growth of the monument. But
the facts do not justify this hypothesis. The smallest of the pyramids of
Sakkarah is that of Ûnas, who reigned thirty years; while the two imposing
pyramids of Gizeh were raised by Khûfû and Khafra (Chephren), who governed
Egypt, the one for twenty-four, and the other for twenty-three years.
Merenra, who died very young, had a pyramid as large as that of Pepi II.,
whose reign lasted more than ninety years (Note 16). The plan of each
pyramid was laid down, once for all, by the architect, according to the
instructions which he had received, and the resources placed at his
disposal. He then followed it out to the end of the work, without
increasing or reducing the scale (Note 17).

[Illustration: Fig. 136.--Section of the Great Pyramid.[30]]

The pyramids were supposed to have their four faces to the four cardinal
points, like the mastabas; but, either from bad management or neglect, the
greater part are not oriented exactly, and many vary distinctly from the
true north (Note 18). Without speaking of the ruins of Abû Roash or Zowyet
el Aryan, which have not been studied closely enough, they naturally form
six groups, distributed from north to south on the border of the Libyan
plateau, from Gizeh to the Fayûm, by Abûsîr, Sakkarah, Dahshûr, and Lisht.
The Gizeh group contains nine, including those of Khûfû, Khafra, and
Menkara, which were anciently reckoned among the wonders of the world. The
ground on which the pyramid of Khûfû stands was very irregular at the time
of construction. A small rocky height which rose above the surface was
roughly cut (fig. 136) and enclosed in the masonry, the rest being smoothed
and covered with large slabs, some of which still remain (Note 19). The
pyramid itself was 481 feet high and 755 feet wide, dimensions which the
injuries of time have reduced to 454 feet and 750 feet respectively. It
preserved, until the Arab conquest, a casing of stones of different colours
(Note 20), so skilfully joined as to appear like one block from base to
summit. The casing work was begun from the top, and the cap placed on
first, the steps being covered one after the other, until they reached the
bottom (Note 21). In the inside all was arranged so as to hide the exact
place of the sarcophagus, and to baffle any spoilers whom chance or
perseverance had led aright. The first point was to discover the entrance
under the casing, which masked it. It was nearly in the middle of the north
face (fig. 136), but at the level of the eighteenth course, at about forty-
five feet from the ground. When the block which closed it was displaced, an
inclined passage, 41.2 inches wide and 47.6 inches high, was revealed, the
lower part of which was cut in the rock. This descended for 317 feet,
passed through an unfinished chamber, and ended sixty feet farther in a
blind passage. This would be a first disappointment to the spoilers. If,
however, they were not discouraged, but examined the passage with care,
they would find in the roof, sixty-two feet distant from the door, a block
of granite (Note 22) among the surrounding limestone. It was so hard that
the seekers, after having vainly tried to break or remove it, took the
course of forcing a way through the softer stone around (Note 23). This
obstacle past, they came into an ascending passage which joins the first at
an angle of 120° (Note 24), and is divided into two branches. One branch
runs horizontally into the centre of the pyramid, and ends in a limestone
chamber with pointed roof, which is called, without any good reason, "The
Queen's Chamber." The other, continuing upward, changes its form and
appearance. It becomes a gallery 148 feet long and 28 feet high, built of
Mokattam stone, so polished and finely wrought that it is difficult to put
a "needle or even a hair" into the joints (Note 25). The lower courses are
vertical; the seven others "corbel" forwards, until at the roof they are
only twenty-one inches apart. A fresh obstacle arose at the end of this
gallery. The passage which led to the chamber of the sarcophagus was closed
by a slab of granite (Note 26); farther on was a small vestibule divided in
equal spaces by four portcullises of granite (Note 27), which would need to
be broken. The royal sepulchre is a granite chamber with a flat roof,
nineteen feet high, thirty-four feet long, and seventeen feet wide. Here
are neither figures nor inscriptions; nothing but a granite sarcophagus,
lidless and mutilated. Such were the precautions taken against invaders;
and the result showed that they were effectual, for the pyramid guarded its
deposit during more than four thousand years (Note 28). But the very weight
of the materials was a more serious danger. To prevent the sepulchral
chamber from being crushed by the three hundred feet of stone which stood
over it, five low hollow spaces, one over the other, were left above it.
The last is sheltered by a pointed roof, formed of two enormous slabs (Note
29) leaning one against the other. Thanks to this device, the central
pressure was thrown almost entirely on the side faces, and the chamber was
preserved. None of the stones which cover it have been crushed; none have
yielded a fraction since the day when the workmen cemented them into their
places (Note 30).

[Illustration: Fig. 137.--The Step Pyramid of Sakkarah.]

The pyramids of Khafra and Menkara were built on a different plan inside to
that of Khûfû. Khafra's had two entrances, both to the north, one from the
platform before the pyramid, the other fifty feet above the ground.
Menkara's still preserves the remains of its casing of red granite (Note
31). The entrance passage descends at an angle of twenty-six degrees, and
soon runs into the rock. The first chamber is decorated with panels
sculptured in the stone, and was closed at the further end by three
portcullises of granite. The second chamber appears to be unfinished, but
this was a trap to deceive the spoilers. A passage cut in the floor, and
carefully hidden, gave access to a lower chamber. There lay the mummy in a
sarcophagus of sculptured basalt. The sarcophagus was still perfect at the
beginning of this century. Removed thence by Colonel Howard Vyse, it
foundered on the Spanish coast with the ship which was bearing it to
England.

[Illustration: Fig. 138.--Plan and Section of the Pyramid of Ûnas.]

[Illustration: Fig. 139.--Portcullis and passage, pyramid of Ûnas.]

The same variety of arrangement prevails in the groups of Abûsîr, and in
one part of the Sakkarah group. The great pyramid of Sakkarah is not
oriented with exactness. The north face is turned 4° 21' E. of the true
north. It is not a perfect square, but is elongated from east to west, the
sides being 395 and 351 feet. It is 196 feet high, and is formed of six
great steps with inclined faces, each retreating about seven feet; the step
nearest the ground is thirty-seven and a half feet high, and the top one is
twenty-nine feet high (fig. 137). It is built entirely of limestone,
quarried from the neighbouring hills. The blocks are small and badly cut,
and the courses are concave, according to a plan applied both to quays and
to fortresses. On examining the breaches in the masonry, it is seen that
the outer face of each step is coated with two layers, each of which has
its regular casing (Note 32). The mass is solid, the chambers being cut in
the rock below the pyramid. It has four entrances, the main one being in
the north; and the passages form a perfect labyrinth, which it is perilous
to enter. Porticoes with columns, galleries, and chambers, all end in a
kind of pit, in the bottom of which a hiding place was contrived, doubtless
intended to contain the most precious objects of the funeral furniture.
The pyramids which surround this extraordinary monument have been nearly
all built on one plan, and only differ in their proportions. The door (fig.
138, A) opens close below the first course, about the middle of the north
face, and the passage (B) descends by a gentle slope between two walls of
limestone. It is plugged up all along by large blocks (Note 33), which
needed to be broken up before the first chamber could be entered (C).
Beyond this chamber, it is carried for some way through the limestone rock;
then it passes between walls, ceiling and floor of polished syenite; after
which the limestone re-appears, and the passage opens into the vestibule
(E). The part built of granite is interrupted thrice, at intervals of two
to two and a half feet, by three enormous portcullises of granite (D).
Above each of these a hollow is left, in which the portcullis stone could
be held up by props, and thus leave a free passage (fig. 139). The mummy
once placed inside, the workmen, as they left, removed the supports, and
the portcullises fell into place, cutting off all communication with the
outside. The vestibule was flanked on the east by a flat-roofed _serdab_
(F) divided into three niches, and encumbered with chips of stone swept
hastily in by the workmen when they cleared the chambers to receive the
mummy. The pyramid of Ûnas has all three niches preserved; but in the
pyramids of Teti and of Merenra, the separating walls have been neatly cut
away in ancient times, without leaving any trace but a line of attachment,
and a whiter colour in the stone where it had been originally covered. The
sarcophagus chamber (G) extends west of the vestibule; the sarcophagus was
placed there along the west wall, feet to the south, head to the north. The
roof over the two main chambers was pointed (fig. 140). It was formed of
large beams of limestone, joined at the upper ends, and supported below
upon a low bench (1) which surrounded the chamber outside (Note 34). The
first beams were covered by two others, and these by two more; and the six
together (J) thoroughly protected the vestibule of the vault.

[Illustration: Fig. 140.--Section of the Pyramid of Ûnas.]

The pyramids of Gizeh belonged to the Pharaohs of the Fourth Dynasty, and
those of Abûsir to the Pharaohs of the Fifth. The five pyramids of
Sakkarah, of which the plan is uniform, belonged to Ûnas and to the first
four kings of the Sixth Dynasty, Teti, Pepi I., Merenra, and Pepi II., and
are contemporary with the mastabas with painted vaults which I have
mentioned above (p. 129). It is, therefore, no matter of surprise to find
them inscribed and decorated. The ceilings are covered with stars, to
represent the night-sky. The rest of the decoration is very simple. In the
pyramid of Ûnas, which is the most ornamented, the decoration occupies only
the end wall of the sepulchral chamber; the part against the sarcophagus
was lined with alabaster, and engraved to represent great monumental doors,
through which the deceased was supposed to enter his storerooms of
provisions. The figures of men and of animals, the scenes of daily life,
the details of the sacrifice, are not here represented, and, moreover,
would not be in keeping; they belong to those places where the Double lived
his public life, and where visitors actually performed the rites of
offering; the passages and the vault in which the soul alone was free to
wander needed no ornamentation except that which related to the life of the
soul. The texts are of two kinds. One kind--of which there are the fewest--
refer to the nourishment of the Double, and are literal transcriptions of
the formulae by which the priests ensured the transmission of each object
to the other world; this was a last resource for him, in case the real
sacrifices should be discontinued, or the magic scenes upon the chapel
walls be destroyed. The greater part of the inscriptions were of a
different kind. They referred to the soul, and were intended to preserve it
from the dangers which awaited it, in heaven and on earth. They revealed to
it the sovereign incantations which protected it against the bites of
serpents and venomous animals, the passwords which enabled it to enter into
the company of the good gods, and the exorcisms which counteracted the
influence of the evil gods. The destiny of the Double was to continue to
lead the shadow of its terrestrial life, and fulfil it in the chapel; the
destiny of the Soul was to follow the sun across the sky, and it,
therefore, needed the instructions which it read on the walls of the vault.
It was by their virtue that the absorption of the dead into Osiris became
complete, and that they enjoyed hereafter all the immunity of the divine
state. Above, in the chapel, they were men, and acted as men; here they
were gods, and acted as gods.

[Illustration: Fig. 141.--Mastabat el Faraûn.]

[Illustration: Fig. 142.--Pyramid of Medûm.]

The enormous rectangular mass which the Arabs call _Mastabat el Faraûn_,
"the seat of Pharaoh" (fig. 141), stands beside the pyramid of Pepi II.
Some have thought it to be an unfinished pyramid, some a tomb surmounted by
an obelisk; in reality it is a pyramid which was left unfinished by its
builder, King Ati of the Sixth Dynasty. Recent excavations have, on the
other hand, shown that the brick pyramids of Dahshûr probably belonged to
the Twelfth Dynasty. The stone pyramids of that group, which may be older,
furnish a curious variation from the usual type. One of these stone
pyramids has the lower half inclined at 54° 41', while the upper part
changes sharply to 42° 59'; it might be called a mastaba (Note 35) crowned
by a gigantic attic. At Lisht, where the two pyramids now standing are of
the same period (one of them was erected by Ûsertesen I.), the structure is
again changed. The sloping passage ends in a vertical shaft, at the bottom
of which open chambers now filled by the infiltration of the Nile. The
pyramids of Illahûn and Hawara, which contained the remains of Ûsertesen
II. and Amenemhat III., are of the same type as those at Lisht. Their rooms
are now filled with water. The pyramid of Medûm is empty, having been
violated before the Ramesside age. It consists of three square towers (Note
36) with sides slightly sloping, placed in retreating stages one over the
other (fig. 142). The entrance is on the north, at about 53 feet above the
sand. After 60 feet, the passage goes into the rock; at 174 feet it runs
level; at 40 feet farther it stops, and turns perpendicularly towards the
surface, opening in the floor of a vault twenty-one feet higher (fig. 143).
A set of beams and ropes still in place above the opening show that the
spoilers drew the sarcophagus out of the chamber in ancient times. Its
small chapel, built against the eastern slope of the pyramid, with
courtyard containing a low flat altar between two standing stelae nearly 14
feet high, was found intact. The walls of the chapel were uninscribed, and
bare; but the _graffiti_ found there prove that the place was much visited
during the times of the Eighteenth Dynasty by scribes, who recorded their
admiration of the beauty of the monument, and believed that King Sneferû
had raised it for himself and for his queen Meresankhû.

[Illustration: Fig. 143.--Section of passage and vault in pyramid of
Medûm.]

The custom of building pyramids did not end with the Twelfth Dynasty; there
are later pyramids at Manfalût, at Hekalli to the south of Abydos, and at
Mohammeriyeh to the south of Esneh. Until the Roman period, the semi-
barbarous sovereigns of Ethiopia held it as a point of honour to give the
pyramidal form to their tombs. The oldest, those of Nûrri, where the
Pharaohs of Napata sleep, recall by their style the pyramids of Sakkarah;
the latest, those of Meroë, present fresh characteristics. They are higher
than they are wide, are built of small blocks, and are sometimes decorated
at the angles with rounded borderings. The east face has a false window,
surmounted by a cornice, and is flanked by a chapel, which is preceded by a
pylon. These pyramids are not all dumb. As in ordinary tombs, the walls
contain scenes borrowed from the "Ritual of Burial," or showing the
vicissitudes of the life beyond the grave.


[30] This section is reproduced, by permission of Mr. W.M.F. Petrie, from
    Plate VII. of his "_Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh_." The vertical
    shaft sunk by Perring is shown going down from the floor of the
    subterranean unfinished chamber. The lettering along the base of the
    pyramid, though not bearing upon the work of Professor Maspero, has
    been preserved for the convenience of readers who may wish to consult
    Mr. Petrie's work for more minute details and measurements. This
    lettering refers to that part of Mr. Petrie's argument which disproves
    the "accretion theory" of previous writers (see "_Pyramids and
    Temples of Gizeh_" chap, xviii., p. 165).--A.B.E.



3.--THE TOMBS OF THE THEBAN EMPIRE.

_Excavated Tombs_.

Two subsequent systems replaced the mastaba throughout Egypt. The first
preserved the chapel constructed above ground, and combined the pyramid
with the mastaba; the second excavated the whole tomb in the rock,
including the chapel.

[Illustration: Fig. 144.--Section of "vaulted" brick pyramid, Abydos.]

[Illustration: Fig. 145.--Section of "vaulted" tomb, Abydos.]

[Illustration: Fig. 146.--Plan of tomb, at Abydos.]

[Illustration: Fig. 147.--Theban tomb, with pyramidion, from scene in a
tomb at Sheikh Abd el Gûrneh.]

[Illustration: Fig. 148.--Theban tomb with pyramidion, from wall-painting.]

The necropolis quarter of Abydos, in which were interred the earlier
generations of the Theban Empire, furnishes the most ancient examples of
the first system. The tombs are built of large, black, unbaked bricks, made
without any mixture of straw or grit. The lower part is a mastaba with a
square or oblong rectangular base, the greatest length of the latter being
sometimes forty or fifty feet. The walls are perpendicular, and are seldom
high enough for a man to stand upright inside the tomb. On this kind of
pedestal was erected a pointed pyramid of from 12 to 30 feet in height,
covered externally with a smooth coat of clay painted white. The defective
nature of the rock below forbade the excavation of the sepulchral chamber;
there was no resource, therefore, except to hide it in the brickwork. An
oven-shaped chamber with "corbel" vault was constructed in the centre (fig.
144); but more frequently the sepulchral chamber is found to be half above
ground in the mastaba and half sunk in the foundations, the vaulted space
above being left only to relieve the weight (fig. 145). In many cases there
was no external chapel; the stela, placed in the basement, or set in the
outer face, alone marking the place of offering. In other instances a
square vestibule was constructed in front of the tomb where the relations
assembled (fig. 146). Occasionally a breast-high enclosure wall surrounded
the monument, and defined the boundaries of the ground belonging to the
tomb. This mixed form was much employed in Theban cemeteries from the
beginning of the Middle Empire. Many kings and nobles of the Eleventh
Dynasty were buried at Drah Abû'l Neggeh, in tombs like those of Abydos
(fig. 147). The relative proportion of mastaba and pyramid became modified
during the succeeding centuries. The mastaba--often a mere insignificant
substructure--gradually returned to its original height, while the pyramid
as gradually decreased, and ended by being only an unimportant pyramidion
(fig. 148). All the monuments of this type which ornamented the Theban
necropolis during the Ramesside period have perished, but contemporary
tomb-paintings show many varieties, and the chapel of an Apis which died
during the reign of Amenhotep III. still remains to show that this fashion
extended as far as Memphis. Of the pyramidion, scarcely any traces remain;
but the mastaba is intact. It is a square mass of limestone, raised on a
base, supported by four columns at the corners, and surmounted by an
overhanging cornice; a flight of five steps leads up to the inner chamber
(fig. 149).

[Illustration: Fig. 149.--Section of Apis tomb, _tempo_ Amenhotep III.]

The earliest examples of the second kind are those found at Gizeh among the
mastabas of the Fourth Dynasty, and these are neither large nor much
ornamented. They begin to be carefully wrought about the time of the Sixth
Dynasty, and in certain distant places, as at Bersheh, Sheîkh Saîd, Kasr es
Saîd, Asûan, and Negadeh. The rock-cut tomb did not, however, attain its
full development until the times of the last Memphite kings and the early
kings of the Theban line.

In these rock-cut tombs we find all the various parts of the mastaba. The
designer selected a prominent vein of limestone, high enough in the cliff
side to risk nothing from the gradual rising of the soil, and yet low
enough for the funeral procession to reach it without difficulty. The
feudal lords of Minieh slept at Beni Hasan; those of Khmûnû at Bersheh;
those of Siût and Elephantine at Siût and in the cliff opposite Asûan (fig.
150). Sometimes, as at Siût, Bersheh, and Thebes, the tombs are excavated
at various levels; sometimes, as at Beni Hasan, they follow the line of the
stratum, and are ranged in nearly horizontal terraces.[31] A flight of
steps, rudely constructed in rough-hewn stones, leads up from the plain to
the entrance of the tomb. At Beni Hasan and Thebes, these steps are either
destroyed or buried in sand; but recent excavations have brought to light a
well-preserved example leading up to a tomb at Asûan.[32]

[Illustration: Fig. 150.--Tombs in cliff opposite Asûan.]

[Illustration: Fig. 151.--Façade of tomb of Khnûmhotep, at Beni Hasan,
Twelfth Dynasty.]

[Illustration: Fig. 152.--Façade of tomb, Asûan.]

The funeral procession, having slowly scaled the cliff-side, halted for a
moment at the entrance to the chapel. The plan was not necessarily uniform
throughout any one group of tombs. Several of the Beni Hasan tombs have
porticoes, the pillars, bases, and entablatures being all cut in the rock;
those of Ameni and Khnûmhotep have porticoes supported on two polygonal
columns (fig. 151). At Asûan (fig. 152), the doorway forms a high and
narrow recess cut in the rock wall, but is divided, at about one-third of
its height, by a rectangular lintel, thus making a smaller doorway in the
doorway itself. At Siût, the tomb of Hapizefa was entered by a true porch
about twenty-four feet in height, with a "vaulted" roof elegantly
sculptured and painted. More frequently the side of the mountain was merely
cut away, and the stone dressed over a more or less extent of surface,
according to the intended dimensions of the tomb. This method ensured the
twofold advantage of clearing a little platform closed in on three sides in
front of the tomb, and also of forming an upright façade which could be
decorated or left plain, according to the taste of the proprietor. The
door, sunk in the middle of this façade, has sometimes no framework;
sometimes, however, it has two jambs and a lintel, all slightly projecting.
The inscriptions, when any occur, are very simple, consisting of one or two
horizontal lines above, and one or two vertical lines down each side, with
the addition perhaps of a sitting or standing figure. These inscriptions
contain a prayer, as well as the name, titles, and parentage of the
deceased. The chapel generally consists of a single chamber, either square
or oblong, with a flat or a slightly vaulted ceiling. Light is admitted
only through the doorway. Sometimes a few pillars, left standing in the
rock at the time of excavation, give this chamber the aspect of a little
hypostyle hall. Four such pillars decorate the chapels of Ameni and
Khnûmhotep at Beni Hasan (fig. 153). Other chapels there contain six or
eight, and are very irregular in plan. One tomb, unfinished, was in the
first instance a simple oblong hall, with a barrel roof and six columns.
Later on, it was enlarged on the right side, the new part forming a kind of
flat-roofed portico supported on four columns (fig. 154).

[Illustration: Fig. 153.--Plan of tomb of Khnûmhotep, at Beni Hasan.]

[Illustration: Fig. 154.--Plan of unfinished tomb, Beni Hasan.]

[Illustration: Fig. 155.--Funeral processions and ceremonies from wall-
painting in tomb of Manna, Thebes, Nineteenth Dynasty.]

To form a _serdab_ in the solid rock was almost impossible; while on the
other hand, movable statues, if left in a room accessible to all comers,
would be exposed to theft or mutilation. The _serdab_, therefore, was
transformed, and combined with the stela of the ancient mastabas. The false
door of the olden time became a niche cut in the end wall, almost always
facing the entrance. Statues of the deceased and his wife, carved in the
solid rock, were there enthroned. The walls were decorated with scenes of
offerings, and the entire decoration of the tomb converged towards the
niche, as that of the mastaba converged towards the stela. The series of
tableaux is, on the whole, much the same as of old, though with certain
noteworthy additions. The funeral procession, and the scene where the
deceased enters into possession of his tomb, both merely indicated in the
mastaba, are displayed in full upon the walls of the Theban sepulchre. The
mournful _cortège_ is there, with the hired mourners, the troops of
friends, the bearers of offerings, the boats for crossing the river, and
the catafalque drawn by oxen. It arrives at the door of the tomb. The
mummy, placed upright upon his feet, receives the farewell of his family;
and the last ceremonies, which are to initiate him into the life beyond the
grave, are duly represented (fig. 155). The sacrifices, with all the
preliminary processes, as tillage, seed-growing, harvesting, stock-
breeding, and the practice of various kinds of handicraft, are either
sculptured or painted, as before. Many details, however, which are absent
from tombs of the earlier dynasties are here given, while others which are
invariably met with in the neighbourhood of the pyramids are lacking.
Twenty centuries work many changes in the usages of daily life, even in
conservative Egypt. We look almost in vain for herds of gazelles upon the
walls of the Theban tombs, for the reason that these animals, in Ramesside
times, had ceased to be bred in a state of domestication. The horse, on the
other hand, had been imported into the valley of the Nile, and is depicted
pawing the ground where formerly the gazelle was seen cropping the
pasturage. The trades are also more numerous and complicated; the workmen's
tools are more elaborate; the actions of the deceased are more varied and
personal. In former times, when first the rules of tomb decoration were
formulated, the notion of future retribution either did not exist, or was
but dimly conceived. The deeds which he had done here on earth in no wise
influenced the fate which awaited the man after death. Whether good or bad,
from the moment when the funeral rites were performed and the necessary
prayers recited, he was rich and happy. In order to establish his identity,
it was enough to record his name, his title, and his parentage; his past
was taken for granted. But when once a belief in rewards and punishments to
come had taken possession of men's minds, they bethought them of the
advisability of giving to each dead man the benefit of his individual
merits. To the official register of his social status, they now therefore
added a brief biographical notice. At first, this consisted of only a few
words; but towards the time of the Sixth Dynasty (as where Ûna recounts his
public services under four kings), these few words developed into pages of
contemporary history. With the beginning of the New Empire, tableaux and
inscriptions combine to immortalise the deeds of the owner of the tomb.
Khnûmhotep of Beni Hasan records in full the origin and greatness of his
ancestors. Khetî displays upon his walls all the incidents of a military
life--parades, war-dances, sieges, and sanguinary battle scenes. In this
respect, as in all others, the Eighteenth Dynasty perpetuated the tradition
of preceding ages. Aï, in his fine tomb at Tell el Amarna, recounts the
episode of his marriage with the daughter of Khûenaten. Neferhotep of
Thebes, having received from Horemheb the decoration of the Golden Collar,
complacently reproduces every little incident of his investiture, the words
spoken by the king, as also the year and the day when this crowning reward
was conferred upon him. Another, having conducted a survey, is seen
attended by his subordinates with their measuring chains; elsewhere he
superintends a census of the population, just as Ti formerly superintended
the numbering of his cattle. The stela partakes of these new
characteristics in wall-decoration. In addition to the usual prayers, it
now proclaims the praises of the deceased, and gives a summary of his life.
This is too seldom followed by a list of his honours with their dates.

When space permitted, the vault was excavated immediately below the chapel.
The shaft was sometimes sunk in a corner of one of the chambers, and
sometimes outside, in front of the door of the tomb. In the great
cemeteries, as for instance at Thebes and Memphis, the superposition of
these three parts--the chapel, the shaft, and the vault--was not always
possible. If the shaft were carried to its accustomed depth, there was
sometimes the risk of breaking into tombs excavated at a lower level. This
danger was met either by driving a long passage into the rock, and then
sinking the shaft at the farther end, or by substituting a slightly sloping
or horizontal disposition of the parts for the old vertical arrangement of
the mastaba model. The passage in this case opens from the centre of the
end wall, its average length being from 20 to 130 feet. The sepulchral
vault is always small and plain, as well as the passage. Under the Theban
dynasties, as under the Memphite kings, the Soul dispensed with
decorations; but whenever the walls of the vault are decorated, the figures
and inscriptions are found to relate chiefly to the life of the Soul, and
very slightly to the life of the Double. In the tomb of Horhotep, which is
of the time of the Ûsertesens, and in similar rock-cut sepulchres, the
walls (except on the side of the door) are divided into two registers. The
upper row belongs to the Double, and contains, besides the table of
offerings, pictured representations of the same objects which are seen in
certain mastabas of the Sixth Dynasty; namely, stuffs, jewels, arms, and
perfumes, all needful to Horhotep for the purpose of imparting eternal
youth to his limbs. The lower register belonged to both the Soul and the
Double, and is inscribed with extracts from a variety of liturgical
writings, such as _The Book of the Dead_, the _Ritual of Embalmment_, and
the _Funeral Ritual_, all of which were possessed of magic properties which
protected the Soul and supported the Double. The stone sarcophagus, and
even the coffin, are also covered with closely-written inscriptions.
Precisely as the stela epitomised the whole chapel, so did the sarcophagus
and coffin epitomise the sepulchral chamber, thus forming, as it were, a
vault within a vault. Texts, tableaux, all thereon depicted, treat of the
life of the Soul, and of its salvation in the world to come.

At Thebes, as at Memphis, the royal tombs are those which it is most
necessary to study, in order to estimate the high degree of perfection to
which the decoration of passages and sepulchral chambers was now carried.
The most ancient were situated either in the plain or on the southern
slopes of the western mountain; and of these, no remains are extant. The
mummies of Amenhotep I., and Thothmes III., of Sekenenra, and Aahhotep have
survived the dwellings of solid stone designed for their protection.
Towards the middle of the Eighteenth Dynasty, however, all the best places
were taken up, and some unoccupied site in which to establish a new royal
cemetery had to be sought. At first they went to a considerable distance,
namely, to the end of the valley (known as the Western Valley), which
opens from near Drah Abû'l Neggeh. Amenhotep III., Aï, and perhaps others,
were there buried. Somewhat later, they preferred to draw nearer to the
city of the living. Behind the cliff which forms the northern boundary of
the plain of Thebes, there lay a kind of rocky hollow closed in on every
side, and accessible from the outer world by only a few perilous paths. It
divides into two branches, which cross almost at right angles. One branch
turns to the south-east, while the other, which again divides into
secondary branches, turns to the south-west. Westward rises a mountain
which recalls upon a gigantic scale the outline of the great step-pyramid
of Sakkarah (fig. 137). The Egyptian engineers of the time observed that
this hollow was separated from the ravine of Amenhotep III. by a mere
barrier some 500 cubits in thickness. In this there was nothing to dismay
such practised miners. They therefore cut a trench some fifty or sixty
cubits deep through the solid rock, at the end of which a narrow passage
opens like a gateway into the hidden valley beyond. Was it in the time of
Horemheb, or during the reign of Rameses I., that this gigantic work was
accomplished? Rameses I. is, at all events, the earliest king whose tomb
has as yet been found in this spot. His son, Seti I., then his grandson,
Rameses II., came hither to rest beside him. The Ramesside Pharaohs
followed one after the other. Herhor may perhaps have been the last of the
series. These crowded catacombs caused the place to be called "The Valley
of the Tombs of the Kings,"--a name which it retains to this day.

These tombs are not complete. Each had its chapel; but those chapels stood
far away in the plain, at Gûrneh, at the Ramesseum, at Medinet Habû; and
they have already been described. The Theban rock, like the Memphite
pyramid, contained only the passages and the sepulchral chamber. During the
daytime, the pure Soul was in no serious danger; but in the evening, when
the eternal waters which flow along the vaulted heavens fall in vast
cascades adown the west and are engulfed in the bowels of the earth, the
Soul follows the bark of the Sun and its escort of luminary gods into a
lower world bristling with ambuscades and perils. For twelve hours, the
divine squadron defiles through long and gloomy corridors, where numerous
genii, some hostile, some friendly, now struggle to bar the way, and now
aid it in surmounting the difficulties of the journey. Great doors, each
guarded by a gigantic serpent, were stationed at intervals, and led to an
immense hall full of flame and fire, peopled by hideous monsters and
executioners whose office it was to torture the damned. Then came more dark
and narrow passages, more blind gropings in the gloom, more strife with
malevolent genii, and again the joyful welcoming of the propitious gods. At
midnight began the upward journey towards the eastern regions of the world;
and in the morning, having reached the confines of the Land of Darkness,
the sun emerged from the east to light another day. The tombs of the kings
were constructed upon the model of the world of night. They had their
passages, their doors, their vaulted halls, which plunged down into the
depths of the mountain. Their positions in the valley were determined by no
consideration of dynasty or succession.

[Illustration: Fig. 156.--Plan of tomb of Rameses IV.]

[Illustration: Fig. 157.--Plan of tomb of Rameses IV., from Turin papyrus.]

[Illustration: Fig. 158.--Plan of tomb of Seti I.]

Each king attacked the rock at any point where he might hope to find a
suitable bed of stone; and this was done with so little regard for his
predecessors, that the workmen were sometimes obliged to change the
direction of the excavation in order not to invade a neighbouring catacomb.
The designer's plan was a mere sketch, to be modified when necessary, and
which was by no means intended to be strictly carried out. Hence the plan
and measurement of the actual tomb of Rameses IV. (fig. 156) differ in the
outline of the sides and in the general arrangement from the plan of that
same tomb which is preserved on a papyrus in the Turin Museum (fig. 153).
Nothing, however, could be more simple than the ordinary distribution of
the parts. A square door, very sparingly ornamented, opened upon a passage
leading to a chamber of more or less extent. From the further end of this
chamber opened a second passage leading to a second chamber, and thence
sometimes to more chambers, the last of which contained the sarcophagus. In
some tombs, the whole excavation is carried down a gently inclined plane,
broken perhaps by only one or two low steps between the entrance and the
end. In others, the various parts follow each other at lower and lower
levels. In the catacomb of Seti I. (fig. 158) a long and narrow flight of
stairs and a sloping corridor (A) lead to a little antechamber and two
halls (B) supported on pillars. A second staircase (C) leads through a
second antechamber to another pillared hall (D), which was the hiding-place
of the sarcophagus. The tomb did not end here. A third staircase (E)
opening from the end of the principal hall was in progress, and would no
doubt have led to more halls and chambers, had not the work been stopped by
the death of the king.[33] If we go from catacomb to catacomb, we do not
find many variations from this plan. The entrance passage in the tomb of
Rameses III. is flanked by eight small lateral chambers. In almost every
other instance, the lesser or greater length of the passages, and the
degree of finish given to the wall paintings, constitute the only
differences between one tomb and another. The smallest of these catacombs
comes to an end at fifty-three feet from the entrance; that of Seti I.,
which is the longest, descends to a distance of 470 feet, and there remains
unfinished. The same devices to which the pyramid builders had recourse, in
order to mislead the spoiler, were adopted by the engineers of the Theban
catacombs. False shafts were sunk which led to nothing, and walls
sculptured and painted were built across the passages. When the burial was
over, the entrance was filled up with blocks of rock, and the natural slope
of the mountain side was restored as skilfully as might be.

[Illustration: Fig. 159.--Wall-painting of the Fields of Aalû, tomb of
Rameses III.]

The most complete type of this class of catacomb is that left to us by Seti
I.; figures and hieroglyphs alike are models of pure design and elegant
execution. The tomb of Rameses III. already points to decadence. It is for
the most part roughly painted. Yellow is freely laid on, and the raw tones
of the reds and blues are suggestive of the early daubs of our childhood.
Mediocrity ere long reigned supreme, the outlines becoming more feeble, the
colour more and more glaring, till the latest tombs are but caricatures of
those of Seti I. and Rameses III. The decoration is always the same, and is
based on the same principles as the decoration of the pyramids. At Thebes
as at Memphis, the intention was to secure to the Double the free enjoyment
of his new abode, and to usher the Soul into the company of the gods of the
solar cycle and the Osirian cycle, as well as to guide it through the
labyrinth of the infernal regions. But the Theban priests exercised their
ingenuity to bring before the eyes of the deceased all that which the
Memphites consigned to his memory by means of writing, thus enabling him to
see what he had formerly been obliged to read upon the walls of his tomb.
Where the texts of the pyramid of Ûnas relate how Ûnas, being identified
with the sun, navigates the celestial waters or enters the Fields of Aalû,
the pictured walls of the tomb of Seti I. show Seti sailing in the solar
bark, while a side chamber in the tomb of Rameses III. shows Rameses III.
in the Fields of Aalû (fig. 159). Where the walls of the pyramid of Ûnas
give the prayers recited over the mummy to open his mouth, to restore the
use of his limbs, to clothe, to perfume, to feed him, the walls of Seti's
catacomb contain representations of the actual mummy, of the Ka statues
which are the supports of his Double, and of the priests who open their
mouths, who clothe them, perfume them, and offer them the various meats and
drinks of the funeral feast. The ceilings of the pyramid chambers were
sprinkled over with stars to resemble the face of the heavens; but there
was nothing to instruct the Soul as to the names of those heavenly bodies.
On the ceilings of some of the Theban catacombs, we not only find the
constellations depicted, each with its personified image, but astronomical
tables giving the aspect of the heavens fortnight by fortnight throughout
the months of the Egyptian year, so that the Soul had but to lift its eyes
and see in what part of the firmament its course lay night after night.
Taken as a series, these tableaux form an illustrated narrative of the
travels of the sun and the Soul throughout the twenty-four hours of the day
and night. Each hour is represented, as also the domain of each hour with
its circumscribed boundary, the door of which is guarded by a huge serpent.
These serpents have their various names, as "Fire-Face," "Flaming Eye,"
"Evil Eye," etc. The fate of Souls was decided in the third hour of the
day. They were weighed by the god Thoth, who consigned them to their future
abode according to the verdict of the scales. The sinful Soul was handed
over to the cynocephalous-ape assessors of the infernal tribunal, who
hunted and scourged it, after first changing it into a sow, or some other
impure animal. The righteous Soul, on the contrary, passed in the fifth
hour into the company of his fellows, whose task it was to cultivate the
Fields of Aalû and reap the corn of the celestial harvest, after which they
took their pleasure under the guardianship of the good genii. After the
fifth hour, the heavenly ocean became a vast battlefield. The gods  of
light  pursued,  captured, and bound the serpent Apapi, and at the
twelfth hour they strangled him. But this triumph was not of long duration.
Scarcely had the sun achieved this victory when his bark was borne by the
tide into the realm of the night hours, and from that moment he was
assailed, like Virgil and Dante at the Gates of Hell, by frightful sounds
and clamourings. Each circle had its voice, not to be confounded with the
voices of other circles. Here the sound was as an immense humming of wasps;
yonder it was as the lamentations of women for their husbands, and the
howling of she-beasts for their mates; elsewhere it was as the rolling of
the thunder. The sarcophagus, as well as the walls, was covered with these
scenes of joyous or sinister import. It was generally of red or black
granite. As it was put in hand last of all, it frequently happened that the
sculptors had not time to finish it. When finished, however, the scenes and
texts with which it was covered contained an epitome of the whole
catacomb.[34] Thus, lying in his sarcophagus, the dead man found his future
destinies depicted thereon, and learned to understand the blessedness of
the gods. The tombs of private persons were not often so elaborately
decorated. Two tombs of the period of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty--that of
Petamenoph at Thebes and that of Bakenrenf at Memphis--compete in this
respect, however, with the royal catacombs. Their walls are not only
sculptured with the text (more or less complete) of _The Book of the Dead_,
but also with long extracts from _The Book of the Opening of the Mouth_ and
the religious formulae found in the pyramids.

As every part of the tomb had its special decoration, so also it had its
special furniture. Of the chapel furniture few traces have been preserved.
The table of offerings, which was of stone, is generally all that remains.
The objects placed in the _serdab_, in the passages, and in the sepulchral
chamber, have suffered less from the ravages of time and the hand of man.
During the Ancient Empire, the funerary portrait statues were always
immured in the _serdab_. The sepulchral vault contained, besides the
sarcophagus, head-rests of limestone or alabaster; geese carved in stone;
sometimes (though rarely) a scribe's palette; generally some terra-cotta
vases of various shapes: and lastly a store of food-cereals, and the bones
of the victims sacrificed on the day of burial. Under the Theban Dynasties,
the household goods of the dead were richer and more numerous. The Ka
statues of his servants and family, which in former times were placed in
the _serdab_ with those of the master, were now consigned to the vault, and
made on a smaller scale. On the other hand, many objects which used to be
merely depicted on the walls were now represented by models, or by actual
specimens. Thus we find miniature funeral boats, with crew, mummy,
mourners, and friends complete; imitation bread-offerings of baked clay,
erroneously called "funerary cones," stamped with the name of the deceased;
bunches of grapes in glazed ware; and limestone moulds wherewith the
deceased was supposed to make pottery models of oxen, birds, and fish,
which should answer the purpose of fish, flesh, and fowl. Toilet and
kitchen utensils, arms, and instruments of music abound. These are mostly
broken--piously slain, in order that their souls should go hence to wait
upon the soul of the dead man in the next world. Little statuettes in
stone, wood, and enamel--blue, green, and white--are placed by hundreds,
and even by thousands, with these piles of furniture, arms, and provisions.
Properly speaking, they are reduced _serdab_-statues, destined, like their
larger predecessors, to serve as bodies for the Double, and (by a later
conception) for the Soul. They were at first represented clothed like the
individual whose name they bore. As time went on, their importance
dwindled, and their duties were limited to merely answering for their
master when called by Thoth to the _corvée_, and acting as his substitutes
when he was summoned by the gods to work in the Fields of Aalû. Thenceforth
they were called "Respondents" (_Ûshabtiû_), and were represented with
agricultural implements in their hands. No longer clothed as the man was
clothed when living, they were made in the semblance of a mummified corpse,
with only the face and hands unbandaged. The so-called "canopic vases,"
with lids fashioned like heads of hawks, cynocephali, jackals, and men,
were reserved from the time of the Eleventh Dynasty for the viscera, which
were extracted from the body by the embalmers. As for the mummy, it
continued, as time went on, to be more and more enwrapped in _cartonnage_,
and more liberally provided with papyri and amulets; each amulet forming an
essential part of its magic armour, and serving to protect its limbs and
soul from destruction.

Theoretically, every Egyptian was entitled to an eternal dwelling
constructed after the plan which I have here described with its successive
modifications; but the poorer folk were fain to do without those things
which were the necessities of the wealthier dead. They were buried wherever
it was cheapest--in old tombs which had been ransacked and abandoned; in
the natural clefts of the rock; or in common pits. At Thebes, in the time
of the Ramessides, great trenches dug in the sand awaited their remains.
The funeral rites once performed, the grave-diggers cast a thin covering of
sand over the day's mummies, sometimes in lots of two or three, and
sometimes in piles which they did not even take the trouble to lay in
regular layers. Some were protected only by their bandages; others were
wrapped about with palm-branches, lashed in the fashion of a game-basket.
Those most cared for lie in boxes of rough-hewn wood, neither painted nor
inscribed. Many are huddled into old coffins which have not even been
altered to suit the size of the new occupant, or into a composite
contrivance made of the fragments of three or four broken mummy-cases. As
to funerary furniture, it was out of the question for such poor souls as
these. A pair of sandals of painted cardboard or plaited reeds; a staff for
walking along the heavenly highways; a ring of enamelled ware; a bracelet
or necklace of little blue beads; a tiny image of Ptah, of Osiris, of
Anubis, of Hathor, or of Bast; a few mystic eyes or scarabs; and, above
all, a twist or two of cord round the arm, the neck, the leg, or the body,
intended to preserve the corpse from magical influences,--are the only
possessions of the pauper dead.


[31] For a full account of the Twelfth Dynasty tombs at Beni Hasan and El
    Bersheh see the first memoirs of the _Archaeological Survey of the
    Egypt Exploration Fund_.

[32] The steps are shown in fig. 150. They were discovered by General Sir
    F. Grenfell in 1885. Noting the remains of two parallel walls running
    up from the water's edge to a part of the cliff which had evidently
    been escarped and presented a vertical face, General Grenfell caused
    the sand to be cleared, thus disclosing the entrances to several rock-
    cut tombs dating from the Sixth and Twelfth Dynasties, as well as two
    flights of steps on either side of an inclined plane leading from the
    Nile bank to the door of one of the tombs. The distance between the
    two walls is ten feet. The steps are eighteen inches deep, and 250 in
    number. The steps were for the haulers, the mummies and sarcophagi
    being dragged up the inclined plane. (See p. 209.)--A.B.E.

[33] M. Léfébure has lately produced a superb and elaborate volume on this
    tomb, with the whole of the texts and the wall decorations faithfully
    reproduced: _Mémoires publiés par les Membres de la Mission du
    Caire_, Vol. II., fasc. I.--A.B.E.

[34] We have in this country two very fine specimens of inscribed
    sarcophagi; namely, that of Seti I., of beautiful alabaster, in the
    Soane collection (xixth Dyn.), and that of Queen Ankhnesraneferab
    (xxvith Dyn.) in the British Museum.--A.B.E.



CHAPTER IV.


_PAINTING AND SCULPTURE_.

The statues and bas-reliefs which decorated the temples and tombs of
Ancient Egypt were for the most part painted. Coloured stones, such as
granite, basalt, diorite, serpentine, and alabaster, sometimes escaped this
law of polychrome; but in the case of sandstone, limestone, or wood it was
rigorously enforced. If sometimes we meet with uncoloured monuments in
these materials, we may be sure that the paint has been accidentally rubbed
off, or that the work is unfinished. The sculptor and the painter were
therefore inseparably allied. The first had no sooner finished his share of
the task than the other took it up; and the same artist was often as
skilful a master of the brush as of the chisel.



I.--DRAWING AND COMPOSITION.

Of the system upon which drawing was taught by the Egyptian masters, we
know nothing. They had learned from experience to determine the general
proportions of the body, and the invariable relations of the various parts
one with another; but they never troubled themselves to tabulate those
proportions, or to reduce them to a system. Nothing in what remains to us
of their works justifies the belief that they ever possessed a canon based
upon the length of the human finger or foot. Theirs was a teaching of
routine, and not of theory. Models executed by the master were copied over
and over again by his pupils, till they could reproduce them with absolute
exactness. That they also studied from the life is shown by the facility
with which they seized a likeness, or rendered the characteristics and
movements of different kinds of animals. They made their first attempts
upon slabs of limestone, on drawing boards covered with a coat of red or
white stucco, or on the backs of old manuscripts of no value. New papyrus
was too dear to be spoiled by the scrawls of tyros. Having neither pencil
nor stylus, they made use of the reed, the end of which, when steeped in
water, opened out into small fibres, and made a more or less fine brush
according to the size of the stem. The palette was of thin wood, in shape a
rectangular oblong, with a groove in which to lay the brush at the lower
end. At the upper end were two or more cup-like hollows, each fitted with a
cake of ink; black and red being the colours most in use. A tiny pestle and
mortar for colour-grinding (fig. 160), and a cup of water in which to clip
and wash the brush, completed the apparatus of the student. Palette in
hand, he squatted cross-legged before his copy, and, without any kind of
support for his wrist, endeavoured to reproduce the outline in black. The
master looked over his work when done, and corrected the errors in red ink.

[Illustration: Fig. 160.--Pestle and mortar for grinding colours.]

[Illustration: Fig. 161.--Comic sketch on ostrakon in New York Museum.]

[Illustration: Fig. 162.--Vignette from _The Book of the Dead_, Saïte
period]

[Illustration: Fig. 163.--Vignette from _The Book of the Dead_, from
the papyrus of Hûnefer.]

The few designs which have come down to us are drawn on pieces of
limestone, and are for the most part in sufficiently bad preservation. The
British Museum possesses two or three subjects in red outline, which may
perhaps have been used as copies by the decorators of some Theban tomb
about the time of the Twentieth Dynasty. A fragment in the Museum of Gizeh
contains studies of ducks or geese in black ink; and at Turin may be seen a
sketch of a half-nude female figure bending backwards, as about to turn a
somersault. The lines are flowing, the movement is graceful, the modelling
delicate. The draughtsman was not hampered then as now, by the rigidity of
the instrument between his fingers. The reed brush attacked the surface
perpendicularly; broadened, diminished, or prolonged the line at will; and
stopped or turned with the utmost readiness. So supple a medium was
admirably adapted to the rapid rendering of the humorous or ludicrous
episodes of daily life. The Egyptians, naturally laughter-loving and
satirical, were caricaturists from an early period. One of the Turin papyri
chronicles the courtship of a shaven priest and a songstress of Amen in a
series of spirited vignettes; while on the back of the same sheet are
sketched various serio-comic scenes, in which animals parody the pursuits
of civilised man. An ass, a lion, a crocodile, and an ape are represented
in the act of giving a vocal and instrumental concert; a lion and a gazelle
play at draughts; the Pharaoh of all the rats, in a chariot drawn by dogs,
gallops to the assault of a fortress garrisoned by cats; a cat of fashion,
with a flower on her head, has come to blows with a goose, and the hapless
fowl, powerless in so unequal a contest, topples over with terror. Cats, by
the way, were the favourite animals of Egyptian caricaturists. An ostrakon
in the New York Museum depicts a cat of rank _en grande toilette_, seated
in an easy chair, and a miserable Tom, with piteous mien and tail between
his legs, serving her with refreshments (fig. 161). Our catalogue of comic
sketches is brief; but the abundance of pen-drawings with which certain
religious works were illustrated compensates for our poverty in secular
subjects. These works are _The Book of the Dead_ and _The Book of Knowing
That which is in Hades_, which were reproduced by hundreds, according to
standard copies preserved in the temples, or handed down through families
whose hereditary profession it was to conduct the services for the dead.
When making these illustrations, the artist had no occasion to draw upon
his imagination. He had but to imitate the copy as skilfully as he could.
Of _The Book of Knowing That which is in Hades_ we have no examples earlier
than the time of the Twentieth Dynasty, and these are poor enough in point
of workmanship, the figures being little better than dot-and-line forms,
badly proportioned and hastily scrawled. The extant specimens of _The Book
of the Dead_ are so numerous that a history of the art of miniature
painting in ancient Egypt might be compiled from this source alone. The
earliest date from the Eighteenth Dynasty, the more recent being
contemporary with the first Caesars. The oldest copies are for the most
part remarkably fine in execution. Each chapter has its vignette
representing a god in human or animal form, a sacred emblem, or the
deceased in adoration before a divinity. These little subjects are
sometimes ranged horizontally at the top of the text, which is written in
vertical columns (fig. 162); sometimes, like the illuminated capitals in
our mediaeval manuscripts, they are scattered throughout the pages. At
certain points, large subjects fill the space from top to bottom of the
papyrus. The burial scene comes at the beginning; the judgment of the soul
about the middle; and the arrival of the deceased in the Fields of Aalû at
the end of the work. In these, the artist seized the opportunity to display
his skill, and show what he could do. We here see the mummy of Hûnefer
placed upright before his stela and his tomb (fig. 163). The women of his
family bewail him; the men and the priest present offerings. The papyri of
the princes and princesses of the family of Pinotem in the Museum of Gizeh
show that the best traditions of the art were yet in force at Thebes in the
time of the Twenty-first Dynasty. Under the succeeding dynasties, that art
fell into rapid decadence, and during some centuries the drawings continue
to be coarse and valueless. The collapse of the Persian rule produced a
period of Renaissance. Tombs of the Greek time have yielded papyri with
vignettes carefully executed in a dry and minute style which offers a
singular contrast to the breadth and boldness of the Pharaonic ages. The
broad-tipped reed-pen was thrown aside for the pen with a fine point, and
the scribes vied with each other as to which should trace the most
attenuated lines. The details with which they overloaded their figures, the
elaboration of the beard and the hair, and the folds of the garments, are
sometimes so minute that it is scarcely possible to distinguish them
without a magnifying glass. Precious as these documents are, they give a
very insufficient idea of the ability and technical methods of the artists
of ancient Egypt. It is to the walls of their temples and tombs that we
must turn, if we desire to study their principles of composition.

[Illustration: Figs. 164 and 165.--Scenes from the tomb of Khnûmhotep at
Beni Hasan, Twelfth Dynasty.]

[Illustration: Fig. 166.--From a tomb-painting in the British Museum,
Eighteenth Dynasty.]

Their conventional system differed materially from our own. Man or beast,
the subject was never anything but a profile relieved against a flat
background. Their object, therefore, was to select forms which presented a
characteristic outline capable of being reproduced in pure line upon a
plane surface. As regarded animal life, the problem was in no wise
complicated. The profile of the back and body, the head and neck, carried
in undulating lines parallel with the ground, were outlined at one sweep of
the pencil. The legs also are well detached from the body. The animals
themselves are lifelike, each with the gait and action and flexion of the
limbs peculiar to its species. The slow and measured tread of the ox; the
short step, the meditative ear, the ironical mouth of the ass; the abrupt
little trot of the goat, the spring of the hunting greyhound, are all
rendered with invariable success of outline and expression. Turning from
domestic animals to wild beasts, the perfection of treatment is the same.
The calm strength of the lion in repose, the stealthy and sleepy tread of
the leopard, the grimace of the ape, the slender grace of the gazelle and
the antelope, have never been better expressed than in Egypt. But it was
not so easy to project man--the whole man--upon a plane surface without
some departure from nature. A man cannot be satisfactorily reproduced by
means of mere lines, and a profile outline necessarily excludes too much of
his person. The form of the forehead and the nose, the curvature of the
lips, the cut of the ear, disappear when the head is drawn full face; but,
on the other hand, it is necessary that the bust should be presented full
face, in order to give the full development of the shoulders, and that the
two arms may be visible to right and left of the body. The contours of the
trunk are best modelled in a three-quarters view, whereas the legs show to
most advantage when seen sidewise. The Egyptians did not hesitate to
combine these contradictory points of view in one single figure. The head
is almost always given in profile, but is provided with a full-face eye and
placed upon a full-face bust. The full-face bust adorns a trunk seen from a
three-quarters point of view, and this trunk is supported upon legs
depicted in profile. Very seldom do we meet with figures treated according
to our own rules of perspective. Most of the minor personages represented
in the tomb of Khnûmhotep seem, however, to have made an effort to
emancipate themselves from the law of malformation. Their bodies are given
in profile, as well as their heads and legs; but they thrust forward first
one shoulder and then the other, in order to show both arms (fig. 164), and
the effect is not happy. Yet, if we examine the treatment of the farm
servant who is cramming a goose, and, above all, the figure of the standing
man who throws his weight upon the neck of a gazelle to make it kneel down
(fig. 165), we shall see that the action of the arms and hips is correctly
rendered, that the form of the back is quite right, and that the prominence
of the chest--thrown forward in proportion as the shoulders and arms are
thrown back--is drawn without any exaggeration. The wrestlers of the Beni
Hasan tombs, the dancers and servants of the Theban catacombs, attack,
struggle, posture, and go about their work with perfect naturalness and
ease (fig. 166). These, however, are exceptions. Tradition, as a rule, was
stronger than nature, and to the end of the chapter, the Egyptian masters
continued to deform the human figure. Their men and women are actual
monsters from the point of view of the anatomist; and yet, after all, they
are neither so ugly nor so ridiculous as might be supposed by those who
have seen only the wretched copies so often made by our modern artists. The
wrong parts are joined to the right parts with so much skill that they seem
to have grown there. The natural lines and the fictitious lines follow and
complement each other so ingeniously, that the former appear to give rise
of necessity to the latter. The conventionalities of Egyptian art once
accepted, we cannot sufficiently admire the technical skill displayed by
the draughtsman. His line was pure, firm, boldly begun, and as boldly
prolonged. Ten or twelve strokes of the brush sufficed to outline a figure
the size of life. The whole head, from the nape of the neck to the rise of
the throat above the collar-bone, was executed at one sweep. Two long
undulating lines gave the external contour of the body from the armpits to
the ends of the feet. Two more determined the outlines of the legs, and two
the arms. The details of costume and ornaments, at first but summarily
indicated, were afterwards taken up one by one, and minutely finished. We
may almost count the locks of the hair, the plaits of the linen, the
inlayings of the girdles and bracelets. This mixture of artless science and
intentional awkwardness, of rapid execution and patient finish, excludes
neither elegance of form, nor grace of attitude, nor truth of movement.
These personages are of strange aspect, but they live; and to those who
will take the trouble to look at them without prejudice, their very
strangeness has a charm about it which is often lacking to works more
recent in date and more strictly true to nature.

[Illustration: Fig. 167.--Funerary repast, tomb of Horemheb, Eighteenth
Dynasty.]

[Illustration: Fig. 168.--From a wall-painting, Thebes, Ramesside period.]

We admit, then, that the Egyptians could draw. Were they, as it has been
ofttimes asserted, ignorant of the art of composition? We will take a scene
at hazard from a Theban tomb--that scene which represents the funerary
repast offered to Prince Horemheb by the members of his family (fig. 167).
The subject is half ideal, half real. The dead man, and those belonging to
him who are no longer of this world, are depicted in the society of the
living. They are present, yet aloof. They assist at the banquet, but they
do not actually take part in it. Horemheb sits on a folding stool to the
left of the spectator. He dandles on his knee a little princess, daughter
of Amenhotep III., whose foster-father he was, and who died before him. His
mother, Sûit, sits at his right hand a little way behind, enthroned in a
large chair. She holds his arm with her left hand, and with the right she
offers him a lotus blossom and bud. A tiny gazelle which was probably
buried with her, like the pet gazelle discovered beside Queen Isiemkheb in
the hiding-place at Deir el Baharî, is tied to one of the legs of the
chair. This ghostly group is of heroic size, the rule being that gods are
bigger than men, kings bigger than their subjects, and the dead bigger than
the living. Horemheb, his mother, and the women standing before them,
occupy the front level, or foreground. The relations and friends are ranged
in line facing their deceased ancestors, and appear to be talking one with
another. The feast has begun. The jars of wine and beer, placed in rows
upon wooden stands, are already unsealed. Two young slaves rub the hands
and necks of the living guests with perfumes taken from an alabaster vase.
Two women dressed in robes of ceremony present offerings to the group of
dead, consisting of vases filled with flowers, perfumes, and grain. These
they place in turn upon a square table. Three others dance, sing, and play
upon the lute, by way of accompaniment to those acts of homage. In the
picture, as in fact, the tomb is the place of entertainment. There is no
other background to the scene than the wall covered with hieroglyphs, along
which the guests were seated during the ceremony. Elsewhere, the scene of
action, if in the open country, is distinctly indicated by trees and tufts
of grass; by red sand, if in the desert; and by a maze of reeds and lotus
plants, if in the marshes. A lady of quality comes in from a walk (fig.
168). One of her daughters, being athirst, takes a long draught from a
"gûllah"; two little naked children with shaven heads, a boy and a girl,
who ran to meet their mother  at the gate, are made happy with toys
brought home and handed to them by a servant. A trellised enclosure covered
with vines, and trees laden with fruit, are shown above; yonder, therefore,
is the garden, but the lady and her daughters have passed through it
without stopping, and are now indoors. The front of the house is half put
in and half left out, so that we may observe what is going on inside. We
accordingly see three attendants hastening to serve their mistresses with
refreshments. The picture is not badly composed, and it would need but
little alteration if transferred to a modern canvas. The same old
awkwardness, or rather the same old obstinate custom, which compelled the
Egyptian artist to put a profile head upon a full-face bust, has, however,
prevented him from placing his middle distance and background behind his
foreground. He has, therefore, been reduced to adopt certain more or less
ingenious contrivances, in order to make up for an almost complete absence
of perspective.

[Illustration: Fig. 169.--From wall-scene in tomb of Horemheb.]

[Illustration: Fig. 170.--From wall-scene, Ramesseum.]

[Illustration: Fig. 171.--Archers, as represented on walls of Medinet
Habû.]

Again, when a number of persons engaged in the simultaneous performance of
any given act were represented on the same level, they were isolated as
much as possible, so that each man's profile might not cover that of his
neighbour. When this was not done, they were arranged to overlap each
other, and this, despite the fact that all stood on the one level; so that
they have actually but two dimensions and no thickness. A herdsman walking
in the midst of his oxen plants his feet upon precisely the same ground-
line as the beast which interposes between his body and the spectator. The
most distant soldier of a company which advances in good marching order to
the sound of the trumpet, has his head and feet on exactly the same level;
as the head and feet of the foremost among his comrades (fig. 169). When a
squadron of chariots defiles before Pharaoh, one would declare that their
wheels all ran in the self-same ruts, were it not that the body of the
first chariot partly hides the horse by which the second chariot is drawn
(fig. 170). In these examples the people and objects are, either
accidentally or naturally, placed so near together, that the anomaly does
not strike one as too glaring. In taking these liberties, the Egyptian
artist but anticipated a contrivance adopted by the Greek sculptor of a
later age. Elsewhere, the Egyptian has occasionally approached nearer to
truth of treatment. The archers of Rameses III. at Medinet Habû make an
effort, which is almost successful, to present themselves in perspective.
The row of helmets slopes downwards, and the row of bows slopes upwards,
with praiseworthy regularity; but the men's feet are all on the same level,
and do not, therefore, follow the direction of the other lines (fig. 171).
This mode of representation is not uncommon during the Theban period. It
was generally adopted when men or animals, ranged in line, had to be shown
in the act of doing the same thing; but it was subject to the grave
drawback (or what was in Egyptian eyes the grave drawback) of showing the
body of the first man only, and of almost entirely hiding the rest of the
figures. When, therefore, it was found impossible to range all upon the
same level without hiding some of their number, the artist frequently broke
his masses up into groups, and placed one above the other on the same
vertical plane. Their height in no wise depends on the place they occupy in
the perspective of the tableau, but only upon the number of rows required
by the artist to carry out his idea. If two rows of figures are sufficient,
he divides his space horizontally into equal parts; if he requires three
rows, he divides it into three parts; and so on. When, however, it is a
question of mere accessories, they are made out upon a smaller scale.
Secondary scenes are generally separated by a horizontal line, but this
line is not indispensable. When masses of figures formed in regular order
had to be shown, the vertical planes lapped over, so to speak, according to
the caprice of the limner. At the battle of Kadesh, the files of Egyptian
infantry rise man above man, waist high, from top to bottom of the phalanx
(fig. 172); while those of the Kheta, or Hittite battalions, show but one
head above another (fig. 173).

[Illustration: Fig. 172.--Phalanx of Egyptian infantry, Ramesseum.]

[Illustration: Fig. 173.--Hittite battalion, Ramesseum.]

It was not only in their treatment of men and animals that the
Egyptians allowed themselves this latitude. Houses, trees, land and
water, were as freely misrepresented. An oblong rectangle placed upright,
or on its side, and covered with regular zigzags, represents a canal. Lest
one should be in doubt as to its meaning, fishes and crocodiles are put in,
to show that it is water, and nothing but water. Boats are seen floating
upright upon this edgewise surface; the flocks ford it where it is shallow;
and the angler with his line marks the spot where the water ends and the
bank begins. Sometimes the rectangle is seen suspended like a framed
picture, at about half way of the height of several palm trees (fig. 174);
whereby we are given to understand a tank bordered on both sides by trees.
Sometimes, again, as in the tomb of Rekhmara, the trees are laid down in
rows round the four sides of a square pond, while a profile boat conveying
a dead man in his shrine, hauled by slaves also shown in profile, floats on
the vertical surface of the water (fig. 175). The Theban catacombs of the
Ramesside period supply abundant examples of contrivances of this kind;
and, having noted them, we end by not knowing which most to wonder at--the
obstinacy of the Egyptians in not seeking to discover the natural laws of
perspective, or the inexhaustible wealth of resource which enabled them to
invent so many false relations between the various parts of their subjects.

[Illustration: Fig. 174.--Pond and palm-trees, from wall painting in tomb
of Rekhmara, Eighteenth Dynasty.]

When employed upon a very large scale, their methods of composition shock
the eye less than when applied to small subjects. We instinctively feel
that even the ablest artist must sometimes have played fast and loose with
the laws of perspective, if tasked to cover the enormous surfaces of
Egyptian pylons.

[Illustration: Fig. 175.--Scene from tomb of Rekhmara, Eighteenth Dynasty.]

[Illustration: Fig. 176.--Scene from Mastaba of Ptahhotep, Fifth Dynasty.]

[Illustration: Fig. 177.--Palestrina mosaic.]

Hence the unities of the subject are never strictly observed in these
enormous bas-reliefs. The main object being to perpetuate the memory of a
victorious Pharaoh, that Pharaoh necessarily plays the leading part; but
instead of selecting from among his striking deeds some one leading episode
pre-eminently calculated to illustrate his greatness, the Egyptian artist
delighted to present the successive incidents of his campaigns at a single
_coup d'oeil_. Thus treated, the pylons of Luxor and the Ramesseum show a
Syrian night attack upon the Egyptian camp; a seizure of spies sent by the
prince of the Kheta for the express purpose of being caught and giving
false intelligence of his movements; the king's household troops surprised
and broken by the Khetan chariots; the battle of Kadesh and its various
incidents, so furnishing us, as it were, with a series of illustrated
despatches of the Syrian campaign undertaken by Rameses II. in the fifth
year of his reign. After this fashion precisely did the painters of the
earliest Italian schools depict within the one field, and in one
uninterrupted sequence, the several episodes of a single narrative. The
scenes are irregularly dispersed over the surface of the wall, without any
marked lines of separation, and, as with the bas-reliefs upon the column of
Trajan, one is often in danger of dividing the groups in the wrong place,
and of confusing the characters. This method is reserved almost exclusively
for official art. In the interior decoration of temples and tombs, the
various parts of the one subject are distributed in rows ranged one above
the other, from the ground line to the cornice. Thus another difficulty is
added to the number of those which prevent us from understanding the style
and intention of Egyptian design. We often imagine that we are looking at a
series of isolated scenes, when in fact we have before our eyes the
_disjecta membra_ of a single composition. Take, for example, one wall-side
of the tomb of Ptahhotep at Sakkarah (fig. 176). If we would discover the
link which divides these separate scenes, we shall do well to compare this
wall-subject with the mosaic at Palestrina (fig. 177), a monument of
Graeco-Roman time which represents almost the same scenes, grouped,
however, after a style more familiar to our ways of seeing and thinking.
The Nile occupies the immediate foreground of the picture, and extends as
far as the foot of the mountains in the distance. Towns rise from the
water's edge; and not only towns, but obelisks, farm-houses, and towers of
Graeco-Italian style, more like the buildings depicted in Pompeian
landscapes than the monuments of the Pharaohs. Of these buildings, only the
large temple in the middle distance to the right of the picture, with its
pylon gateway and its four Osirian colossi, recalls the general arrangement
of Egyptian architecture. To the left, a party of sportsmen in a large boat
are seen in the act of harpooning the hippopotamus and crocodile. To the
right, a group of legionaries, drawn up in front of a temple and preceded
by a priest, salute a passing galley. Towards the middle of the foreground,
in the shade of an arched trellis thrown across a small branch of the
Nile, some half-clad men and women are singing and carousing. Little
papyrus skiffs, each rowed by a single boatman, and other vessels fill the
vacant spaces of the composition. Behind the buildings we see the
commencement of the desert. The water forms large pools at the base of
overhanging hills, and various animals, real or imaginary, are pursued by
shaven-headed hunters in the upper part of the picture. Now, precisely
after the manner of the Roman mosaicist, the old Egyptian artist placed
himself, as it were, on the Nile, and reproduced all that lay between his
own standpoint and the horizon. In the wall-painting (fig. 176) the river
flows along the line next the floor, boats come and go, and boatmen fall to
blows with punting poles and gaffs. In the division next above, we see the
river bank and the adjoining flats, where a party of slaves, hidden in the
long grasses, trap and catch birds. Higher still, boat-making, rope-making,
and fish-curing are going on. Finally, in the highest register of all, next
the ceiling, are depicted the barren hills and undulating plains of the
desert, where greyhounds chase the gazelle, and hunters trammel big game
with the lasso. Each longitudinal section corresponds, in fact, with a
plane of the landscape; but the artist, instead of placing his planes in
perspective, has treated them separately, and placed them one above the
other. We find the same disposition of the parts in all Egyptian tomb
paintings. Scenes of inundation and civil life are ranged along the base of
the wall, mountain subjects and hunting scenes being invariably placed high
up. Sometimes, interposed between these two extremes, the artist has
introduced subjects dealing with the pursuits of the herdsman, the field
labourer, and the craftsman. Elsewhere, he suppresses these intermediary
episodes, and passes abruptly from the watery to the sandy region. Thus,
the mosaic of Palestrina and the tomb-paintings of Pharaonic Egypt
reproduce the same group of subjects, treated after the conventional styles
and methods of two different schools of art. Like the mosaic, the wall
scenes of the tomb formed, not a series of independent scenes, but an
ordinary composition, the unity of which is readily recognised by such as
are skilled to read the art-language of the period.



2.--TECHNICAL PROCESSES.


[Illustration: Fig. 178.--Sculptor's sketch from Ancient Empire tomb.]

[Illustration: Fig. 179.--Sculptor's sketch from Ancient Empire tomb.]


The preparation of the surface about to be decorated demanded much time and
care. Seeing how imperfect were the methods of construction, and how
impossible it was for the architect to ensure a perfectly level surface for
the facing stones of his temple-walls and pylons, the decorator had
perforce to accommodate himself to a surface slightly rounded in some
places and slightly hollowed in others. Even the blocks of which it was
formed were scarcely homogeneous in texture. The limestone strata in which
the Theban catacombs were excavated were almost always interspersed with
flint nodules, fossils, and petrified shells. These faults were variously
remedied according as the decoration was to be sculptured or painted. If
painted, the wall was first roughly levelled, and then overlaid with a coat
of black clay and chopped straw, similar to the mixture used for brick-
making. If sculptured, then the artist had to arrange his subject so as to
avoid the inequalities of the stone as much as possible. When these
occurred in the midst of the figure subjects, and if they did not offer too
stubborn a resistance to the chisel, they were simply worked over;
otherwise the piece was cut out and a new piece fitted in, or the hole was
filled up with white cement. This mending process was no trifling matter.
We could point to tomb-chambers where every wall is thus inlaid to the
extent of one quarter of its surface. The preliminary work being done, the
whole was covered with a thin coat of fine plaster mixed with white of
egg, which hid the mud-wash or the piecing, and prepared a level and
polished surface for the pencil of the artist. In chambers, or parts of
chambers, which have been left unfinished, and even in the quarries, we
constantly find sketches of intended bas-reliefs, outlined in red or black
ink. The copy was generally executed upon a small scale, then squared off,
and transferred to the wall by the pupils and assistants of the master. As
in certain scenes carefully copied by Prisse from the walls of Theban
tombs, the subject is occasionally indicated by only two or three rapid
strokes of the reed (fig. 178). Elsewhere, the outline is fully made out,
and the figures only await the arrival of the sculptor. Some designers took
pains to determine the position of the shoulders, and the centre of gravity
of the bodies, by vertical and horizontal lines, upon which, by means of a
dot, they noted the height of the knee, the hips, and other parts (fig.
179). Others again, more self-reliant, attacked their subject at once, and
drew in the figures without the aid of guiding points. Such were the
artists who decorated the catacomb of Seti I., and the southern walls of
the temple of Abydos. Their outlines are so firm, and their facility is so
surprising, that they have been suspected of stencilling; but no one who
has closely examined their figures, or who has taken the trouble to measure
them with a compass, can maintain that opinion. The forms of some are
slighter than the forms of others; while in some the contours of the chest
are more accentuated, and the legs farther apart, than in others. The
master had little to correct in the work of these subordinates. Here and
there he made a head more erect, accentuated or modified the outline of a
knee, or improved some detail of arrangement. In one instance, however, at
Kom Ombo, on the ceiling of a Graeco-Roman portico, some of the divinities
had been falsely oriented, their feet being placed where their arms should
have been. The master consequently outlined them afresh, and on the same
squared surface, without effacing the first drawing. Here, at all events,
the mistake was discovered in time. At Karnak, on the north wall of the
hypostyle hall, and again at Medinet Habu, the faults of the original
design were not noticed till the sculptor had finished his part of the
work. The figures of Seti I. and Rameses III. were thrown too far back, and
threatened to overbalance themselves; so they were smoothed over with
cement and cut anew. Now, the cement has flaked off, and the work of the
first chisel is exposed to view. Seti I. and Rameses III. have each two
profiles, the one very lightly marked, the other boldly cut into the
surface of the stone (fig. 180).

[Illustration: Fig. 180.--Sculptor's correction, Medinet Habû, Rameses
III.]

[Illustration: Fig. 181.--Bow drill.]

The sculptors of ancient Egypt were not so well equipped as those of our
own day. A kneeling scribe in limestone at the Gizeh Museum has been carved
with the chisel, the grooves left by the tool being visible on his skin. A
statue in grey serpentine, in the same collection, bears traces of the use
of two different tools, the body being spotted all over with point-marks,
and the unfinished head being blocked out splinter by splinter with a small
hammer. Similar observations, and the study of the monuments, show that the
drill (fig. 181), the toothed-chisel, and the gouge were also employed.
There have been endless discussions as to whether these tools were of iron
or of bronze. Iron, it is argued, was deemed impure. No one could make use
of it, even for the basest needs of daily life, without incurring a taint
prejudicial to the soul both in this world and the next. But the impurity
of any given object never sufficed to prevent the employment of it when
required. Pigs also were impure; yet the Egyptians bred them. They bred
them, indeed, so abundantly in certain districts, that our worthy Herodotus
tells us how the swine were turned into the fields after seed-sowing, in
order that they might tread in the grain. So also iron, like many other
things in Egypt, was pure or impure according to circumstances. If some
traditions held it up to odium as an evil thing, and stigmatised it as the
"bones of Typhon," other traditions equally venerable affirmed that it was
the very substance of the canopy of heaven. So authoritative was this view,
that iron was currently known as "_Ba-en-pet_," or the celestial metal.[35]
The only fragment of metal found in the great pyramid is a piece of plate-
iron;[36] and if ancient iron objects are nowadays of exceptional rarity as
compared with ancient bronze objects, it is because iron differs from
bronze, inasmuch as it is not protected from destruction by its oxide. Rust
speedily devours it, and it needs a rare combination of favourable
circumstances to preserve it intact. If, however, it is quite certain that
the Egyptians were acquainted with, and made use of, iron, it is no less
certain that they were wholly unacquainted with steel. This being the case,
one asks how they can possibly have dealt at will upon the hardest rocks,
even upon such as we ourselves hesitate to attack, namely, diorite, basalt,
and the granite of Syene. The manufacturers of antiquities who sculpture
granite for the benefit of tourists, have found a simple solution of this
problem. They work with some twenty common iron chisels at hand, which
after a very few turns are good for nothing. When one is blunted, they take
up another, and so on till the stock is exhausted. Then they go to the
forge, and put their tools into working order again. The process is neither
so long nor so difficult as might be supposed. In the Gizeh Museum is a
life-size head, produced from a block of black and red granite in less than
a fortnight by one of the best forgers in Luxor. I have no doubt that the
ancient Egyptians worked in precisely the same way, and mastered the
hardest stones by the use of iron. Practice soon taught them methods by
which their labour might be lightened, and their tools made to yield
results as delicate and subtle as those which we achieve with our own. As
soon as the learner knew how to manage the point and the mallet, his master
set him to copy a series of graduated models representing an animal in
various stages of completion, or a part of the human body, or the whole
human body, from the first rough sketch to the finished design (fig. 182).
Every year, these models are found in sufficient number to establish
examples of progressive series. Apart from isolated specimens which are
picked up everywhere, the Gizeh collection contains a set of fifteen from
Sakkarah, forty-one from Tanis, and a dozen from Thebes and Medinet Habû.
They were intended partly for the study of bas-reliefs, partly for the
study of sculpture proper; and they reveal the method in use for both.[37]

[Illustration: Fig. 182.--Sculptor's trial-piece, Eighteenth Dynasty.]

The Egyptians treated bas-relief in three ways: either as a simple
engraving executed by means of incised lines; or by cutting away the
surface of the stone round the figure, and so causing it to stand out in
relief upon the wall; or by sinking the design below the wall-surface and
cutting it in relief at the bottom of the hollow. The first method has the
advantage of being expeditious, and the disadvantage of not being
sufficiently decorative. Rameses III. made use of it in certain parts of
his temple at Medinet Habû; but, as a rule, it was preferred for stelae and
small monuments. The last-named method lessened not only the danger of
damage to the work, but the labour of the workman. It evaded the dressing
down of the background, which was a distinct economy of time, and it left
no projecting work on the surface of the walls, the design being thus
sheltered from accidental blows. The intermediate process was, however,
generally adopted, and appears to have been taught in the schools by
preference. The models were little rectangular tablets, squared off in
order that the scholar might enlarge or reduce the scale of his subject
without departing from the traditional proportions. Some of these models
are wrought on both sides; but the greater number are sculptured on one
side only. Sometimes the design represents a bull; sometimes the head of a
cynocephalous ape, of a ram, of a lion, of a divinity. Occasionally, we
find the subject in duplicate, side by side, being roughly blocked out to
the left, and highly finished to the right. In no instance does the relief
exceed a quarter of an inch, and it is generally even less. Not but that
the Egyptians sometimes cut boldly into the stone. At Medinet Habû and
Karnak--on the higher parts of these temples, where the work is in granite
or sandstone, and exposed to full daylight--the bas-relief decoration
projects full 6-3/8 inches above the surface. Had it been lower, the
tableaux would have been, as it were, absorbed by the flood of light poured
upon them, and to the eye of the spectator would have presented only a
confused network of lines. The models designed for the study of the round
are even more instructive than the rest. Some which have come down to us
are plaster casts of familiar subjects. The head, the arms, the legs, the
trunk, each part of the body, in short, was separately cast. If a complete
figure were wanted, the _disjecta membra_ were put together, and the result
was a statue of a man, or of a woman, kneeling, standing, seated,
squatting, the arms extended or falling passively by the sides. This
curious collection was discovered at Tanis, and dates probably from
Ptolemaic times.[38] Models of the Pharaonic ages are in soft limestone,
and nearly all represent portraits of reigning sovereigns. These are best
described as cubes measuring about ten inches each way. The work was begun
by covering one face of a cube with a network of lines crossing each other
at right angles; these regulated the relative position of the features.
Then the opposite side was attacked, the distances being taken from the
scale on the reverse face. A mere oval was designed on this first block; a
projection in the middle and a depression to right and left, vaguely
indicating the whereabouts of nose and eyes. The forms become more definite
as we pass from cube to cube, and the face emerges by degrees. The limit of
the contours is marked off by parallel lines cut vertically from top to
bottom. The angles were next cut away and smoothed down, so as to bring out
the forms. Gradually the features become disengaged from the block, the eye
looks out, the nose gains refinement, the mouth is developed. When the
last cube is reached, there remains nothing to finish save the details of
the head-dress and the basilisk on the brow. No scholar's model in basalt
has yet been found;[39] but the Egyptians, like our monumental masons,
always kept a stock of half-finished statues in hard stone, which could be
turned out complete in a few hours. The hands, feet, and bust needed only a
few last touches; but the heads were merely blocked out, and the clothing
left in the rough. Half a day's work then sufficed to transform the face
into a portrait of the purchaser, and to give the last new fashion to the
kilt. The discovery of some two or three statues of this kind has shown us
as much of the process as a series of teacher's models might have done.
Volcanic rocks could not be cut with the continuity and regularity of
limestone. The point only could make any impression upon these obdurate
materials. When, by force of time and patience, the work had thus been
finished to the degree required, there would often remain some little
irregularities of surface, due, for example, to the presence of nodules and
heterogeneous substances, which the sculptor had not ventured to attack,
for fear of splintering away part of the surrounding surface. In order to
remove these irregularities, another tool was employed; namely, a stone cut
in the form of an axe. Applying the sharp edge of this instrument to the
projecting nodule, the artist struck it with a round stone in place of a
mallet. A succession of carefully calculated blows with these rude tools
pulverised the obtrusive knob, which disappeared in dust. All minor
defects being corrected, the monument still looked dull and unfinished. It
was necessary to polish it, in order to efface the scars of point and
mallet. This was a most delicate operation, one slip of the hand, or a
moment's forgetfulness, being enough to ruin the labour of many weeks. The
dexterity of the Egyptian craftsman was, however, so great that accidents
rarely happened. The Sebekemsaf of Gizeh, the colossal Rameses II. of
Luxor, challenge the closest examination. The play of light upon the
surface may at first prevent the eye from apprehending the fineness of the
work; but, seen under favourable circumstances, the details of knee and
chest, of shoulder and face, prove to be no less subtly rendered in granite
than in limestone. Excess of polish has no more spoiled the statues of
Ancient Egypt than it spoiled those of the sculptors of the Italian
Renaissance.

A sandstone or limestone statue would have been deemed imperfect if left to
show the colour of the stone in which it was cut, and was painted from head
to foot. In bas-relief, the background was left untouched and only the
figures were coloured. The Egyptians had more pigments at their disposal
than is commonly supposed. The more ancient painters' palettes--and we have
some which date from the Fifth Dynasty--have compartments for yellow, red,
blue, brown, white, black, and green.[40] Others, of the time of the
Eighteenth Dynasty, provide for three varieties of yellow, three of brown,
two of red, two of blue, and two of green; making in all some fourteen or
sixteen different tints.

Black was obtained by calcining the bones of animals. The other substances
employed in painting were indigenous to the country. The white is made of
gypsum, mixed with albumen or honey; the yellows are ochre, or sulphuret of
arsenic, the orpiment of our modern artists; the reds are ochre, cinnabar,
or vermilion; the blues are pulverised lapis-lazuli, or silicate of copper.
If the substance was rare or costly, a substitute drawn from the products
of native industry was found. Lapis-lazuli, for instance, was replaced by
blue frit made with an admixture of silicate of copper, and this was
reduced to an impalpable powder. The painters kept their colours in tiny
bags, and, as required, mixed them with water containing a little gum
tragacanth. They laid them on by means of a reed, or a more or less fine
hair brush. When well prepared, these pigments are remarkably solid, and
have changed but little during the lapse of ages. The reds have darkened,
the greens have faded, the blues have turned somewhat green or grey; but
this is only on the surface. If that surface is scraped off, the colour
underneath is brilliant and unchanged. Before the Theban period, no
precautions were taken to protect the painter's work from the action of air
and light. About the time of the Twentieth Dynasty, however, it became
customary to coat painted surfaces with a transparent varnish which was
soluble in water, and which was probably made from the gum of some kind of
acacia. It was not always used in the same manner. Some painters varnished
the whole surface, while others merely glazed the ornaments and
accessories, without touching the flesh-tints or the clothing. This varnish
has cracked from the effects of age, or has become so dark as to spoil the
work it was intended to preserve. Doubtless, the Egyptians discovered the
bad effects produced by it, as we no longer meet with it after the close of
the Twentieth Dynasty.

Egyptian painters laid on broad, flat, uniform washes of colour; they did
not paint in our sense of the term; they illuminated. Just as in drawing
they reduced everything to lines, and almost wholly suppressed the internal
modelling, so in adding colour they still further simplified their subject
by merging all varieties of tone, and all play of light and shadow, in one
uniform tint. Egyptian painting is never quite true, and never quite false.
Without pretending to the faithful imitation of nature, it approaches
nature as nearly as it may; sometimes understating, sometimes exaggerating,
sometimes substituting ideal or conventional renderings for strict
realities. Water, for instance, is always represented by a flat tint of
blue, or by blue covered with zigzag lines in black. The buff and bluish
hues of the vulture are translated into bright red and vivid blue. The
flesh-tints of men are of a dark reddish brown, and the flesh-tints of
women are pale yellow. The colours conventionally assigned to each animate
and inanimate object were taught in the schools, and their use handed on
unchanged from generation to generation. Now and then it happened that a
painter more daring than his contemporaries ventured to break with
tradition. In the Sixth Dynasty tombs at Deir el Gebrawî, there are
instances where the flesh tint of the women is that conventionally devoted
to the depiction of men. At Sakkarah, under the Fifth Dynasty, and at Abû
Simbel, under the Nineteenth Dynasty, we find men with skins as yellow as
those of the women; while in the tombs of Thebes and Abydos, about the time
of Thothmes IV. and Horemheb, there occur figures with flesh-tints of rose-
colour.[41]

It must not, however, be supposed that the effect produced by this
artificial system was grating or discordant. Even in works of small size,
such as illuminated MSS. of _The Book of the Dead_, or the decoration of
mummy-cases and funerary coffers, there is both sweetness and harmony of
colour. The most brilliant hues are boldly placed side by side, yet with
full knowledge of the relations subsisting between these hues, and of the
phenomena which must necessarily result from such relations. They neither
jar together, nor war with each other, nor extinguish each other. On the
contrary, each maintains its own value, and all, by mere juxtaposition,
give rise to the half-tones which harmonise them.

Turning from small things to large ones, from the page of papyrus, or the
panel of sycamore wood, to the walls of tombs and temples, we find the
skilful employment of flat tints equally soothing and agreeable to the eye.
Each wall is treated as a whole, the harmony of colour being carried out
from bottom to top throughout the various superimposed stages into which
the surface was divided. Sometimes the colours are distributed according to
a scale of rhythm, or symmetry, balancing and counterbalancing each other.
Sometimes one special tint predominates, thus determining the general tone
and subordinating every other hue. The vividness of the final effect is
always calculated according to the quality and quantity of light by which
the picture is destined to be seen. In very dark halls the force of colour
is carried as far as it will go, because it would not otherwise have been
visible by the flickering light of lamps and torches. On outer wall-
surfaces and on pylon-fronts, it was as vivid as in the darkest depths of
excavated catacombs; and this because, no matter how extreme it might be,
the sun would subdue its splendour. But in half-lighted places, such as the
porticoes of temples and the ante-chambers of tombs, colour is so dealt
with as to be soft and discreet. In a word, painting was in Egypt the mere
humble servant of architecture and sculpture. We must not dream of
comparing it with our own, or even with that of the Greeks; but if we take
it simply for what it is, accepting it in the secondary place assigned to
it, we cannot fail to recognise its unusual merits. Egyptian painting
excelled in the sense of monumental decoration, and if we ever revert to
the fashion of colouring the _façades_ of our houses and our public
edifices, we shall lose nothing by studying Egyptian methods or reproducing
Egyptian processes.


[35] The late T. Deveria ingeniously conjectured that "Ba-en-pet" (iron of
    heaven) might mean the ferruginous substance of meteoric stones. See
    _Mélanges d'Archéologie Egyptienne et Assyrienne_, vol. i.--
    A.B.E.

[36] The traces of tools upon the masonry show the use of bronze and
    jewel-points.--A.B.E.

[37] Many such trial-pieces were found by Petrie in the ruins of a
    sculptor's house at Tell el Amarna.

[38] A similar collection was found by Mr. F. Ll. Griffith at Tell
    Gemayemi, in 1886, during his excavations for the Egypt Exploration
    Fund. See Mr. Petrie's _Tanis_. Part II., Egypt Exploration
    Fund.--A.B.E.

[39] Mr. Loftie's collection contains, however, an interesting piece of
    trial-work consisting of the head of a Ptolemaic queen in red
    granite.--A.B.E.

[40] For pigments used at the beginning of the Fourth Dynasty, see Petrie's
    _Medum_.

[41] The rose-coloured, or rather crimson, flesh-tints are also to be seen
    at El Kab, and in the famous speos at Beit el Wally, both _tempo_
    Nineteenth Dynasty.--A.B.E.



3.--WORKS OF SCULPTURE.

[Illustration: Fig. 183.--The Great Sphinx of Gizeh.]

To this day, the most ancient statue known is a colossus--namely, the Great
Sphinx of Gizeh. It was already in existence in the time of Khûfû (Cheops),
and perhaps we should not be far wrong if we ventured to ascribe it to the
generations before Mena, called in the priestly chronicles "the Servants
of Horus." Hewn in the living rock at the extreme verge of the Libyan
plateau, it seems, as the representative of Horus, to uprear its head in
order to be the first to catch sight of his father, Ra, the rising sun,
across the valley (fig. 183). For centuries the sands have buried it to the
chin, yet without protecting it from ruin. Its battered body preserves but
the general form of a lion's body. The paws and breast, restored by the
Ptolemies and the Caesars, retain but a part of the stone facing with which
they were then clothed in order to mask the ravages of time. The lower part
of the head-dress has fallen, and the diminished neck looks too slender to
sustain the enormous weight of the head. The nose and beard have been
broken off by fanatics, and the red hue which formerly enlivened the
features is almost wholly effaced. And yet, notwithstanding its fallen
fortunes, the monster preserves an expression of sovereign strength and
greatness. The eyes gaze out afar with a look of intense and profound
thoughtfulness; the mouth still wears a smile; the whole countenance is
informed with power and repose. The art which conceived and carved this
prodigious statue was a finished art; an art which had attained self-
mastery, and was sure of its effects. How many centuries had it taken to
arrive at this degree of maturity and perfection? In certain pieces
belonging to various museums, such as the statues of Sepa and his wife at
the Louvre, and the bas-reliefs of the tomb of Khabiûsokarî at Gizeh,
critics have mistakenly recognised the faltering first efforts of an
unskilled people. The stiffness of attitude and gesture, the exaggerated
squareness of the shoulders, the line of green paint under the eyes,--in a
word, all those characteristics which are quoted as signs of extreme
antiquity, are found in certain monuments of the Fifth and Sixth
Dynasties. The contemporary sculptors of any given period were not all
equally skilful. If some were capable of doing good work, the greater
number were mere craftsmen; and we must be careful not to ascribe awkward
manipulation, or lack of teaching, to the timidity of archaism. The works
of the primitive dynasties yet sleep undiscovered beneath seventy feet of
sand at the foot of the Sphinx; those of the historic dynasties are daily
exhumed from the depths of the neighbouring tombs. These have not yielded
Egyptian art as a whole; but they have familiarised us with one of its
schools--the school of Memphis. The Delta, Hermopolis, Abydos, the environs
of Thebes and Asûan[42], do not appear upon the stage earlier than towards
the Sixth Dynasty; and even so, we know them through but a small number of
sepulchres long since violated and despoiled. The loss is probably not very
great. Memphis was the capital; and thither the presence of the Pharaohs
must have attracted all the talent of the vassal principalities. Judging
from the results of our excavations in the Memphite necropolis alone, it is
possible to determine the characteristics of both sculpture and painting in
the time of Seneferû and his successors with as much exactness as if we
were already in possession of all the monuments which the valley of the
Nile yet holds in reserve for future explorers.

[Illustration: Fig. 184.--Panel from tomb of Hesi.]

The lesser folk of the art-world excelled in the manipulation of brush and
chisel, and that their skill was of a high order is testified by the
thousands of tableaux they have left behind them. The relief is low; the
colour sober; the composition learned. Architecture, trees, vegetation,
irregularities of ground, are summarily indicated, and are introduced only
when necessary to the due interpretation of the scene represented. Men and
animals, on the other hand, are rendered with a wealth of detail, a truth
of character, and sometimes a force of treatment, to which the later
schools of Egyptian art rarely attained. Six wooden panels from the tomb of
Hesi in the Gizeh Museum represent perhaps the finest known specimens of
this branch of art. Mariette ascribed them to the Third Dynasty, and he may
perhaps have been right; though for my own part I incline to date them from
the Fifth Dynasty. In these panels there is nothing that can be called a
"subject." Hesi either sits or stands (fig. 184), and has four or five
columns of hieroglyphs above his head; but the firmness of line, the
subtlety of modelling, the ease of execution, are unequalled. Never has
wood been cut with a more delicate chisel or a firmer hand.

The variety of attitude and gesture which we so much admire in the Egyptian
bas-relief is lacking to the statues. A mourner weeping, a woman bruising
corn for bread, a baker rolling dough, are subjects as rare in the round as
they are common in bas-relief. In sculpture, the figure is generally
represented either standing with the feet side by side and quite still, or
with one leg advanced in the act of walking; or seated upon a chair or a
cube; or kneeling; or, still more frequently, sitting on the ground cross-
legged, as the fellahin are wont to sit to this day. This intentional
monotony of style would be inexplicable if we were ignorant of the purpose
for which such statues were intended. They represent the dead man for whom
the tomb was made, his family, his servants, his slaves, and his kinsfolk.
The master is always shown sitting or standing, and he could not
consistently be seen in any other attitude. The tomb is, in fact, the house
in which he rests after the labours of life, as once he used to rest in his
earthly home; and the scenes depicted upon the walls represent the work
which he was officially credited with performing. Here he superintends the
preliminary operations necessary to raise the food by which he is to be
nourished in the form of funerary offerings; namely, seed-sowing,
harvesting, stock-breeding, fishing, hunting, and the like. In short, "he
superintends all the labour which is done for the eternal dwelling." When
thus engaged, he is always standing upright, his head uplifted, his hands
pendent, or holding the staff and baton of command. Elsewhere, the diverse
offerings are brought to him one by one, and then he sits in a chair of
state. These are his two attitudes, whether as a bas-relief subject or a
statue. Standing, he receives the homage of his vassals; sitting, he
partakes of the family repast. The people of his household comport
themselves before him as becomes their business and station. His wife
either stands beside him, sits on the same chair or on a second chair by
his side, or squats beside his feet as during his lifetime. His son, if a
child at the time when the statue was ordered, is represented in the garb
of infancy; or with the bearing and equipment proper to his position, if a
man. The slaves bruise the corn, the cellarers tar the wine jars, the hired
mourners weep and tear their hair. His little social world followed the
Egyptian to his tomb, the duties of his attendants being prescribed for
them after death, just as they had been prescribed for them during life.
And the kind of influence which the religious conception of the soul
exercised over the art of the sculptor did not end here. From the moment
that the statue is regarded as the support of the Double, it becomes a
condition of primary importance that the statue shall reproduce, at least
in the abstract, the proportions and distinctive peculiarities of the
corporeal body; and this in order that the Double shall more easily adapt
himself to his new body of stone or wood.[43] The head is therefore always
a faithful portrait; but the body, on the contrary, is, as it were, a
medium kind of body, representing the original at his highest development,
and consequently able to exert the fulness of his physical powers when
admitted to the society of the gods. Hence men are always sculptured in the
prime of life, and women with the delicate proportions of early womanhood.
This conventional idea was never departed from, unless in cases of very
marked deformity. The statue of a dwarf reproduced all the ugly
peculiarities of the dwarf's own body; and it was important that it should
so reproduce them. If a statue of the ordinary type had been placed in the
tomb of the dead man, his "Ka," accustomed during life to the deformity of
his limbs, would not be able to adapt itself to an upright and shapely
figure, and would therefore be deprived of the conditions necessary to his
future well-being. The artist was free to vary the details and arrange the
accessories according to his fancy; but without missing the point of his
work, he could not change the attitude, or depart from the general style of
the conventional portrait statue. This persistent monotony of pose and
subject produces a depressing effect upon the spectator,--an effect which
is augmented by the obtrusive character given to the supports. These
statues are mostly backed by a kind of rectangular pediment, which is
either squared off just at the base of the skull, or carried up in a point
and lost in the head-dress, or rounded at the top and showing above the
head of the figure. The arms are seldom separated from the body, but are
generally in one piece with the sides and hips. The whole length of the leg
which is placed in advance of the other is very often connected with the
pediment by a band of stone. It has been conjectured that this course was
imposed upon the sculptor by reason of the imperfection of his tools, and
the consequent danger of fracturing the statue when cutting away the
superfluous material--an explanation which may be correct as regards the
earliest schools, but which does not hold good for the time of the Fourth
Dynasty. We could point to more than one piece of sculpture of that period,
even in granite, in which all the limbs are free, having been cut away by
means of either the chisel or the drill. If pediment supports were
persisted in to the end, their use must have been due, not to helplessness,
but to routine, or to an exaggerated respect for ancient method.

[Illustration: Fig. 185.--The Cross-legged Scribe at the Louvre, Old
Empire.]

Most museums are poor in statues of the Memphite school; France and Egypt
possess, however, some twenty specimens which suffice to ensure it an
honourable place in the history of art. At the Louvre we have the "Cross-
legged Scribe,"[44] and the statues of Skemka and Pahûrnefer; at Gizeh
there are the "Sheikh el Beled"[45] and his wife, Khafra[46], Ranefer, the
Prince and General Rahotep, and his wife, Nefert, a "Kneeling Scribe," and
a "Cross-legged Scribe." The original of the "Cross-legged Scribe" of the
Louvre was not a handsome man (fig. 185), but the vigour and fidelity of
his portrait amply compensate for the absence of ideal beauty. His legs are
crossed and laid flat to the ground in one of those attitudes common among
Orientals, yet all but impossible to Europeans. The bust is upright, and
well balanced upon the hips. The head is uplifted. The right hand holds the
reed pen, which pauses in its place on the open papyrus scroll. Thus, for
six thousand years he has waited for his master to go on with the long-
interrupted dictation. The face is square-cut, and the strongly-marked
features indicate a man in the prime of life. The mouth, wide and thin-
lipped, rises slightly towards the corners, which are lost in the
projecting muscles by which it is framed in. The cheeks are bony and lank;
the ears are thick and heavy, and stand out well from the head; the thick,
coarse hair is cut close above the brow. The eyes, which are large and well
open, owe their lifelike vivacity to an ingenious contrivance of the
ancient artist. The orbit has been cut out from the stone, the hollow being
filled with an eye composed of enamel, white and black. The edges of the
eyelids are of bronze, and a small silver nail inserted behind the iris
receives and reflects the light in such wise as to imitate the light of
life. The contours of the flesh are somewhat full and wanting in firmness,
as would be the case in middle life, if the man's occupation debarred him
from active exercise. The forms of the arm and back are in good relief; the
hands are hard and bony, with fingers of somewhat unusual length; and the
knees are sculptured with a minute attention to anatomical details. The
whole body is, as it were, informed by the expression of the face, and is
dominated by the attentive suspense which breathes in every feature. The
muscles of the arm, of the bust, and of the shoulder are caught in half
repose, and are ready to return at once to work. This careful observance of
the professional attitude, or the characteristic gesture, is equally marked
in the Gizeh Cross-legged Scribe, and in all the Ancient Empire statues
which I have had an opportunity of studying.

The Cross-legged Scribe of Gizeh (fig. 186) was discovered by M. de Morgan
at Sakkarah in the beginning of 1893. This statue exhibits a no less
surprising vigour and certainty of intention and execution on the part of
the sculptor than does its fellow of the Louvre, while representing a
younger man of full, firm, and supple figure.

[Illustration: Fig. 186.--The Cross-legged Scribe of Gizeh, from Sakkarah.]

Khafra is a king (fig. 187). He sits squarely upon his chair of state, his
hands upon his knees, his chest thrown forward, his head erect, his gaze
confident. Had the emblems of his rank been destroyed, and the inscription
effaced which tells his name, his bearing alone would have revealed the
Pharaoh. Every trait is characteristic of the man who from childhood
upwards has known himself to be invested with sovereign authority. Ranefer
belonged to one of the great feudal families of his time. He stands
upright, his arms down, his left leg forward, in the attitude of a prince
inspecting a march-past of his vassals. The countenance is haughty, the
attitude bold; but Ranefer does not impress us with the almost superhuman
calm and decision of Khafra.

[Illustration: Fig. 187.--King Khafra, Fourth Dynasty.]

[Illustration: Fig. 188.--Sheikh el Beled, Old Empire.]

[Illustration: Fig. 189.--Rahotep, Ancient Empire.]

General Rahotep[47] (fig. 189), despite his title and his high military
rank, looks as if he were of inferior birth. Stalwart and square-cut, he
has somewhat of the rustic in his physiognomy. Nefert, on the contrary
(fig. 190), was a princess of the blood royal; and her whole person is, as
it were, informed with a certain air of resolution and command, which the
sculptor has expressed very happily. She wears a close-fitting garment,
opening to a point in front. The shoulders, bosom, and bodily contours are
modelled under the drapery with a grace and reserve which it is impossible
to praise too highly. Her face, round and plump, is framed in masses of
fine black hair, confined by a richly-ornamented bandeau. This wedded pair
are in limestone, painted; the husband being coloured of a reddish brown
hue, and the wife of a tawny buff.

[Illustration: Fig. 190.--Nefert, wife of Rahotep, Ancient Empire.]

[Illustration: Fig. 191.--Head of the Sheikh el Beled.]

[Illustration: Fig. 192.--Wife of the Sheikh el Beled, Old Empire.]

[Illustration: Fig. 193.--The Kneeling Scribe, Old Empire.]

[Illustration: Fig. 194.--A Bread-maker, Old Empire.]

Turning to the "Sheikh el Beled" (figs. 188, 191), we descend several
degrees in the social scale. Raemka was a "superintendent of works," which
probably means that he was an overseer of corvée labour at the time of
building the great pyramids. He belonged to the middle class; and his whole
person expresses vulgar contentment and self-satisfaction. We seem to see
him in the act of watching his workmen, his staff of acacia wood in his
hand. The feet of the statue had perished, but have been restored. The body
is stout and heavy, and the neck thick. The head (fig. 191), despite its
vulgarity, does not lack energy. The eyes are inserted, like those of the
"Cross-legged Scribe." By a curious coincidence, the statue, which was
found at Sakkarah, happened to be strikingly like the local Sheikh el
Beled, or head-man, of the village. Always quick to seize upon the amusing
side of an incident, the Arab diggers at once called it the "Sheikh el
Beled," and it has retained the name ever since. The statue of his wife,
interred beside his own, is unfortunately mutilated. It is a mere trunk,
without legs or arms (fig. 192); yet enough remains to show that the figure
represented a good type of the Egyptian middle-class matron, commonplace in
appearance and somewhat acid of temper. The "Kneeling Scribe" of the Gizeh
collection (fig. 193) belongs to the lowest middle-class rank, such as it
is at the present day. Had he not been dead more than six thousand years, I
could protest that I had not long ago met him face to face, in one of the
little towns of Upper Egypt. He has just brought a roll of papyrus, or a
tablet covered with writing, for his master's approval. Kneeling in the
prescribed attitude of an inferior, his hands crossed, his shoulders
rounded, his head slightly bent forward, he waits till the great man shall
have read it through. Of what is he thinking? A scribe might feel some not
unreasonable apprehensions, when summoned thus into the presence of his
superior. The stick played a prominent part in official life, and an error
of addition, a fault in orthography, or an order misunderstood, would be
enough to bring down a shower of blows. The sculptor has, with inimitable
skill, seized that expression of resigned uncertainty and passive
gentleness which is the result of a whole life of servitude. There is a
smile upon his lips, but it is the smile of etiquette, in which there is no
gladness. The nose and cheeks are puckered up in harmony with the forced
grimace upon the mouth. His large eyes (again in enamel) have the fixed
look of one who waits vacantly, without making any effort to concentrate
his sight or his thoughts upon a definite object. The face lacks both
intelligence and vivacity; but his work, after all, called for no special
nimbleness of wit. Khafra is in diorite; Raemka and his wife are carved in
wood; the other statues named are of limestone; yet, whatever the material
employed, the play of the chisel is alike free, subtle, and delicate. The
head of the scribe and the bas-relief portrait of Pharaoh Menkaûhor, in the
Louvre, the dwarf Nemhotep (fig. 195), and the slaves who prepare food-
offerings at Gizeh, are in no wise inferior to the "Cross-legged Scribe" or
the "Sheikh el Beled." The baker kneading his dough (fig. 194) is
thoroughly in his work. His half-stooping attitude, and the way in which he
leans upon the kneading-trough, are admirably natural. The dwarf has a
big, elongated head, balanced by two enormous ears (fig. 195). He has a
foolish face, an ill-shapen mouth, and narrow slits of eyes, inclining
upwards to the temples. The bust is well developed, but the trunk is out of
proportion with the rest of his person. The artist has done his best to
disguise the lower limbs under a fine white tunic; but one feels that it is
too long for the little man's arms and legs.

[Illustration: Fig. 195.--The dwarf Nemhotep, Old Empire.]

[Illustration: Fig. 196.--One of the Tanis Sphinxes.]

The thighs could have existed only in a rudimentary form, and Nemhotep,
standing as best he can upon his misshapen feet, seems to be off his
balance, and ready to fall forward upon his face. It would be difficult to
find another work of art in which the characteristics of dwarfdom are more
cleverly reproduced.

The sculpture of the first Theban empire is in close connection with that
of Memphis. Methods, materials, design, composition, all are borrowed from
the elder school; the only new departure being in the proportions assigned
to the human figure. From the time of the Eleventh Dynasty, the legs become
longer and slighter, the hips smaller, the body and the neck more slender.
Works of this period are not to be compared with the best productions of
the earlier centuries. The wall-paintings of Siût, of Bersheh, of Beni
Hasan, and of Asûan, are not equal to those in the mastabas of Sakkarah and
Gizeh; nor are the most carefully-executed contemporary statues worthy to
take a place beside the "Sheikh el Beled" or the "Cross-legged Scribe."
Portrait statues of private persons, especially those found at Thebes, are,
so far as I have seen, decidedly bad, the execution being rude and the
expression vulgar. The royal statues of this period, which are nearly all
in black or grey granite, have been for the most part usurped by kings of
later date. Ûsertesen III., whose head and feet are in the Louvre, was
appropriated by Amenhotep III., as the sphinx of the Louvre and the colossi
of Gizeh were appropriated by Rameses II. Many museums possess specimens of
supposed Ramesside Pharaohs which, upon more careful inspection, we are
compelled to ascribe to the Thirteenth or Fourteenth Dynasty. Those of
undisputed identity, such as the Sebekhotep III. of the Louvre, the
Mermashiû of Tanis, the Sebekemsaf of Gizeh, and the colossi of the Isle of
Argo, though very skilfully executed, are wanting in originality and
vigour. One would say, indeed, that the sculptors had purposely endeavoured
to turn them all out after the one smiling and commonplace pattern. Great
is the contrast when we turn from these giant dolls to the black granite
sphinxes discovered by Mariette at Tanis in 1861, and by him ascribed to
the Hyksos period. Here energy, at all events, is not lacking. Wiry and
compact, the lion body is shorter than in sphinxes of the usual type. The
head, instead of wearing the customary "klaft," or head-gear of folded
linen, is clothed with an ample mane, which also surrounds the face. The
eyes are small; the nose is aquiline and depressed at the tip; the
cheekbones are prominent; the lower lip slightly protrudes. The general
effect of the face is, in short, so unlike the types we are accustomed to
find in Egypt, that it has been accepted in proof of an Asiatic origin
(fig. 196). These sphinxes are unquestionably anterior to the Eighteenth
Dynasty, because one of the kings of Avaris, named Apepi, has cut his name
upon the shoulder of each. Arguing from this fact, it was, however, too
hastily concluded that they are works of the time of that prince. On a
closer examination, we see that they had already been dedicated to some
Pharaoh of a yet earlier period, and that Apepi had merely usurped them;
and M. Golenischeff has shown that they were made for Amenemhat III., of
the Twelfth Dynasty, and with his features. Those so-called Hyksos
monuments may be the products of a local school, the origin of which may
have been independent, and its traditions quite different from the
traditions of the Memphite workshops. But except at Abydos, El Kab, Asûan,
and some two or three other places, the provincial art of ancient Egypt is
so little known to us that I dare not lay too much stress upon this
hypothesis. Whatever the origin of the Tanite School, it continued to exist
long after the expulsion of the Hyksos invaders, since one of its best
examples, a group representing the Nile of the North and the Nile of the
South, bearing trays laden with flowers and fish, was consecrated by
Pisebkhanû of the Twenty-first Dynasty.

[Illustration: Fig. 197.--Bas-relief head of Seti I.]

[Illustration: Fig. 198.--The god Amen, and Horemheb.]

[Illustration: Fig. 199.--Head of a Queen, Eighteenth Dynasty.]

The first three dynasties of the New Empire[48] have bequeathed us more
monuments than all the others put together. Painted bas-reliefs, statues of
kings and private persons, colossi, sphinxes, may be counted by hundreds
between the mouths of the Nile and the fourth cataract. The old sacerdotal
cities, Memphis, Thebes, Abydos, are naturally the richest; but so great
was the impetus given to art, that even remote provincial towns, such as
Abû Simbel, Redesîyeh, and Mesheikh, have their _chefs-d'oeuvre_, like the
great cities. The official portraits of Amenhotep I. at Turin, of Thothmes
I. and Thothmes III. at the British Museum, at Karnak, at Turin, and at
Gizeh, are conceived in the style of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Dynasties,
and are deficient in originality; but the bas-reliefs in temples and tombs
show a marked advance upon those of the earlier ages. The modelling is
finer; the figures are more numerous and better grouped; the relief is
higher; the effects of perspective are more carefully worked out. The wall-
subjects of Deir el Baharî, the tableaux in the tombs of Hûi, of Rekhmara,
of Anna, of Khamha, and of twenty more at Thebes, are surprisingly rich,
brilliant, and varied. Awakening to a sense of the picturesque, artists
introduced into their compositions all those details of architecture, of
uneven ground, of foreign plants, and the like, which formerly they
neglected, or barely indicated. The taste for the colossal, which had
fallen somewhat into abeyance since the time of the Great Sphinx, came once
again to the surface, and was developed anew. Amenhotep III. was not
content with statues of twenty-five or thirty feet in height, such as were
in favour among his ancestors. Those which he erected in advance of his
memorial chapel on the left bank of the Nile in Western Thebes, one of
which is the Vocal Memnon of the classic writers, sit fifty feet high. Each
was carved from a single block of sandstone, and they are as elaborately
finished as though they were of ordinary size. The avenues of sphinxes
which this Pharaoh marshalled before the temples of Luxor and Karnak do not
come to an end at fifty or a hundred yards from the gateway, but are
prolonged for great distances. In one avenue, they have the human head upon
the lion's body; in another, they are fashioned in the semblance of
kneeling rams. Khûenaten, the revolutionary successor of Amenhotep III.,
far from discouraging this movement, did what he could to promote it.
Never, perhaps, were Egyptian sculptors more unrestricted than by him at
Tell el Amarna. Military reviews, chariot-driving, popular festivals, state
receptions, the distribution of honours and rewards by the king in person,
representations of palaces, villas, and gardens, were among the subjects
which they were permitted to treat; and these subjects differed in so many
respects from traditional routine that they could give free play to their
fancy and to their natural genius. The spirit and gusto with which they
took advantage of their opportunities would scarcely be believed by one who
had not seen their works at Tell el Amarna. Some of their bas-reliefs are
designed in almost correct perspective; and in all, the life and stir of
large crowds are rendered with irreproachable truth. The political and
religious reaction which followed this reign arrested the evolution of art,
and condemned sculptors and painters to return to the observance of
traditional rules. Their personal influence and their teaching continued,
however, to make themselves felt under Horemheb, under Seti I., and even
under Rameses II. If, during more than a century, Egyptian art remained
free, graceful, and refined, that improvement was due to the school of Tell
el Amarna. In no instance perhaps did it produce work more perfect than the
bas-reliefs of the temple of Abydos, or those of the tomb of Seti I. The
head of the conqueror (fig. 197), always studied _con amore_, is a marvel
of reserved and sensitive grace. Rameses II. charging the enemy at Abû
Simbel is as fine as the portraits of Seti I., though in another style. The
action of the arm which brandishes the lance is somewhat angular, but the
expression of strength and triumph which animates the whole person of the
warrior king, and the despairing resignation of the vanquished, compensate
for this one defect. The group of Horemheb and the god Amen (fig. 198), in
the Museum of Turin, is a little dry in treatment. The faces of both god
and king lack expression, and their bodies are heavy and ill-balanced. The
fine colossi in red granite which Horemheb placed against the uprights of
the inner door of his first pylon at Karnak, the bas-reliefs on the walls
of his speos at Silsilis, his own portrait and that of one of the ladies of
his family now in the museum of Gizeh, are, so to say, spotless and
faultless. The queen's face (fig. 199) is animated and intelligent; the
eyes are large and prominent; the mouth is wide, but well shaped. This head
is carved in hard limestone of a creamy tint which seems to soften the
somewhat satirical expression of her eyes and smile. The king (fig. 200) is
in black granite; and the sombre hue of the stone at once produces a
mournful impression upon the spectator. His youthful face is pervaded by an
air of melancholy, such as we rarely see depicted in portraits of Pharaohs
of the great period. The nose is straight and delicate, the eyes are long,
the lips are large, full, somewhat contracted at the corners, and strongly
defined at the edges. The chin is overweighted by the traditional false
beard. Every detail is treated with as much skill as if the sculptor were
dealing with a soft stone instead of with a material which resisted the
chisel. Such, indeed, is the mastery of the execution, that one forgets the
difficulties of the task in the excellence of the results.

[Illustration: Fig. 200.--Head of Horemheb.]

[Illustration: Fig. 201.--Colossal statue of Rameses II., Luxor.]

It is unfortunate that Egyptian artists never signed their works; for the
sculptor of this portrait of Horemheb deserves to be remembered. Like the
Eighteenth Dynasty, the Nineteenth Dynasty delighted in colossi. Those of
Rameses II. at Luxor measured from eighteen to twenty feet in height (fig.
201); the colossal Rameses of the Ramesseum sat sixty feet high; and that
of Tanis about seventy.[49] The colossi of Abû Simbel, without being of
quite such formidable proportions, face the river in imposing array. To say
that the decline of Egyptian art began with Rameses II. is a commonplace of
contemporary criticism; yet nothing is less true than an axiom of this
kind. Many statues and bas-reliefs executed during his reign are no doubt
inconceivably rude and ugly; but these are chiefly found in provincial
towns where the schools were indifferent, and where the artists had no
fine examples before them. At Thebes, at Memphis, at Abydos, at Tanis, in
those towns of the Delta where the court habitually resided, and even at
Abû Simbel and Beit el Wally, the sculptors of Rameses II. yield nothing in
point of excellence to those of Seti I. and Horemheb. The decadence did not
begin till after the reign of Merenptah. When civil war and foreign
invasion brought Egypt to the brink of destruction, the arts, like all
else, suffered and rapidly declined. It is sad to follow their downward
progress under the later Ramessides, whether in the wall-subjects of the
royal tombs, or in the bas-reliefs of the temple of Khonsû, or on the
columns of the hypostyle hall at Karnak. Wood carving maintained its level
during a somewhat longer period. The admirable statuettes of priests and
children at Turin date from the Twentieth Dynasty. The advent of Sheshonk
and the internecine strife of the provinces at length completed the ruin of
Thebes, and the school which had produced so many masterpieces perished
miserably.

[Illustration Fig. 202.--Queen Ameniritis.]

[Illustration: Fig. 203.--The goddess Thûeris. Saïte work.]

The Renaissance did not dawn till near the end of the Ethiopian Dynasty,
some three hundred years later. The over-praised statue of Queen
Ameniritis[50] (fig. 202) already manifests some noteworthy qualities. The
limbs, somewhat long and fragile, are delicately treated; but the head is
heavy, being over-weighted by the wig peculiar to goddesses. Psammetichus
I., when his victories had established him upon the throne, busied himself
in the restoration of the temples. Under his auspices, the valley of the
Nile became one vast studio of painting and sculpture. The art of engraving
hieroglyphs attained a high degree of excellence, fine statues and bas-
reliefs were everywhere multiplied, and a new school arose. A marvellous
command of material, a profound knowledge of detail, and a certain elegance
tempered by severity, are the leading characteristics of this new school.
The Memphites preferred limestone; the Thebans selected red or grey
granite; but the Saïtes especially attacked basalt, breccia, and
serpentine, and with these fine-grained and almost homogeneous substances,
they achieved extraordinary results. They seem to have sought difficulties
for the mere pleasure of triumphing over them; and we have proof of the way
in which artists of real merit bestowed years and years on the chasing of
sarcophagus lids and the carving of statues in blocks of the hardest
material. The Thûeris, and the four monuments from the tomb of
Psammetichus[51] in the Gizeh Museum, are the most remarkable objects
hitherto discovered in this class of work. Thûeris[52] (fig. 203) was the
especial protectress of maternity, and presided over childbirth. Her
portrait was discovered by some native sebakh diggers[53] in the midst of
the mounds of the ancient city of Thebes. She was found standing upright in
a little chapel of white limestone which had been dedicated to her by one
Pibesa, a priest, in the name of Queen Nitocris, daughter of Psammetichus
I. This charming hippopotamus, whose figure is perhaps more plump than
graceful, is a fine example of difficulties overcome; but I do not know
that she has any other merit. The group belonging to Psammetichus has at
all events some artistic value. It consists of four pieces of green basalt;
namely, a table of offerings, a statue of Osiris, a statue of Nephthys, and
a Hathor-cow supporting a statuette of the deceased (fig. 204). All four
are somewhat flaccid, somewhat artificial; but the faces of the divinities
and the deceased are not wanting in sweetness; the action of the cow is
good; and the little figure under her protection falls naturally into its
place. Certain other pieces, less known than these, are however far
superior. The Saïte style is easy of recognition. It lacks the breadth and
learning of the first Memphite school; it also lacks the grand, and
sometimes rude, manner of the great Theban school. The proportions of the
human body are reduced and elongated, and the limbs lose in vigour what
they gain in elegance. A noteworthy change in the choice of attitudes will
also be remarked. Orientals find repose in postures which would be
inexpressibly fatiguing to ourselves. For hours together they will kneel;
or sit tailor-wise, with the legs crossed and laid down flat to the ground;
or squat, sitting upon their heels, with no other support than is afforded
by that part of the sole of the foot which rests upon the ground; or they
will sit upon the floor with their legs close together, and their arms
crossed upon their knees. These four attitudes were customary among the
people from the time of the ancient empire.

[Illustration: Fig. 204.--Hathor-cow in green basalt. Saïte work.]

This we know from the bas-reliefs. But the Memphite sculptors, deeming the
two last ungraceful, excluded them from the domain of art, and rarely, if
ever, reproduced them. The "Cross-legged Scribe" of the Louvre and the
"Kneeling Scribe" of Gizeh show with what success they could employ the two
first. The third was neglected (doubtless for the same reason) by the
Theban sculptors. The fourth began to be currently adopted about the time
of the Eighteenth Dynasty.

[Illustration: Fig. 205.--Squatting statue of Pedishashi. Saïte work.]

It may be that this position was not in fashion among the moneyed classes,
which alone could afford to order statues; or it may be that the artists
themselves objected to an attitude which caused their sitters to look like
square parcels with a human head on the top. The sculptors of the Saïte
period did not inherit that repugnance. They have at all events combined
the action of the limbs in such wise as may least offend the eye, and the
position almost ceases to be ungraceful. The heads also are modelled to
such perfection that they make up for many shortcomings. That of Pedishashi
(fig. 205) has an expression of youth and intelligent gentleness such as we
seldom meet with from an Egyptian hand. Other heads, on the contrary, are
remarkable for their almost brutal frankness of treatment. In the small
head of a scribe (fig. 206), lately purchased for the Louvre, and in
another belonging to Prince Ibrahim at Cairo, the wrinkled brow, the
crow's-feet  at the corners of the eyes, the hard lines about the mouth,
and the knobs upon the skull, are brought out with scrupulous fidelity. The
Saïte school was, in fact, divided into two parties. One sought inspiration
in the past, and, by a return to the methods of the old Memphite school,
endeavoured to put fresh life into the effeminate style of the day. This it
accomplished, and so successfully, that its works are sometimes mistaken
for the best productions of the Fourth and Fifth Dynasties. The other,
without too openly departing from established tradition, preferred to study
from the life, and thus drew nearer to nature than in any previous age.
This school would, perhaps, have prevailed, had Egyptian art not been
directed into a new channel by the Macedonian conquest, and by centuries of
intercourse with the Greeks.

[Illustration: Fig. 206.--Head of a scribe. Saïte work.]

[Illustration: Fig. 207.--Colossus of Alexander II.]

The new departure was of slow development. Sculptors began by clothing the
successors of Alexander in Egyptian garb and transforming them into
Pharaohs, just as they had in olden time transformed the Hyksos and the
Persians. Works dating from the reigns of the first Ptolemies scarcely
differ from those of the best Saïte period, and it is only here and there
that we detect traces of Greek influence. Thus, the colossus of Alexander
II., at Gizeh (fig. 207), wears a flowing head-dress, from beneath which
his crisp curls have found their way. Soon, however, the sight of Greek
masterpieces led the Egyptians of Alexandria, of Memphis, and of the cities
of the Delta to modify their artistic methods. Then arose a mixed school,
which combined certain elements of the national art with certain other
elements borrowed from Hellenic art. The Alexandrian Isis of the Gizeh
Museum is clad as the Isis of Pharaonic times; but she has lost the old
slender shape and straitened bearing. A mutilated effigy of a Prince of
Siût, also at Gizeh, would almost pass for an indifferent Greek statue.

[Illustration: Fig. 208.--Statue of Hor, Graeco-Egyptian.]

[Illustration: Fig. 209.--Group from Naga.]

The most forcible work of this hybrid class which has come down to us is
the portrait-statue of one Hor (fig. 208), discovered in 1881 at the foot
of Kom ed Damas, the site of the tomb of Alexander. The head is good,
though in a somewhat dry style. The long, pinched nose, the close-set eyes,
the small mouth with drawn-in corners, the square chin,--every feature, in
short, contributes to give a hard and obstinate character to the face. The
hair is closely cropped, yet not so closely as to prevent it from dividing
naturally into thick, short curls. The body, clothed in the chlamys, is
awkwardly shapen, and too narrow for the head. One arm hangs pendent; the
other is brought round to the front; the feet are lost. All these monuments
are the results of few excavations; and I do not doubt that the soil of
Alexandria would yield many such, if it could be methodically explored. The
school which produced them continued to draw nearer and nearer to the
schools of Greece, and the stiff manner, which it never wholly lost, was
scarcely regarded as a defect at an epoch when certain sculptors in the
service of Rome especially affected the archaic style. I should not be
surprised if those statues of priests and priestesses wearing divine
insignia, with which Hadrian adorned the Egyptian rooms of his villa at
Tibur, might not be attributed to the artists of this hybrid school. In
those parts which were remote from the Delta, native art, being left to its
own resources, languished, and slowly perished. Nor was this because Greek
models, or even Greek artists, were lacking. In the Thebaid, in the Fayûm,
at Syene, I have both discovered and purchased statuettes and statues of
Hellenic style, and of correct and careful execution. One of these, from
Coptos, is apparently a miniature replica of a Venus analogous to the Venus
of Milo. But the provincial sculptors were too dull, or too ignorant, to
take such advantage of these models as was taken by their Alexandrian
brethren. When they sought to render the Greek suppleness of figure and
fulness of limb, they only succeeded in missing the rigid but learned
precision of their former masters. In place of the fine, delicate, low
relief of the old school, they adopted a relief which, though very
prominent, was soft, round, and feebly modelled. The eyes of their
personages have a foolish leer; the nostrils slant upwards; the corners of
the mouth, the chin, and indeed all the features, are drawn up as if
converging towards a central point, which is stationed in the middle of the
ear. Two schools, each independent of the other, have bequeathed their
works to us. The least known flourished in Ethiopia, at the court of the
half-civilised kings who resided at Meroë. A group brought from Naga in
1882, and now in the Gizeh collection, shows the work of this school during
the first century of our era (fig. 209). A god and a queen, standing side
by side, are roughly cut in a block of grey granite. The work is coarse and
heavy, but not without energy. Isolated and lost in the midst of savage
tribes, the school which produced it sank rapidly into barbarism, and
expired towards the end of the age of the Antonines. The Egyptian school,
sheltered by the power of Rome, survived a little longer. As sagacious as
the Ptolemies, the Caesars knew that by flattering the religious prejudices
of their Egyptian subjects they consolidated their own rule in the valley
of the Nile. At an enormous cost, they restored and rebuilt the temples of
the national gods, working after the old plans and in the old spirit of
Pharaonic times. The great earthquake of B.C. 22 had destroyed Thebes,
which now became a mere place of pilgrimage, whither devotees repaired to
listen to the voice of Memnon at the rising of Aurora. But at Denderah and
Ombos, Tiberius and Claudius finished the decoration of the great temples.
Caligula worked at Coptos, and the Antonines enriched Esneh and Philae. The
gangs of workmen employed in their names were still competent to cut
thousands of bas-reliefs according to the rules of the olden time. Their
work was feeble, ungraceful, absurd, inspired solely by routine; yet it was
founded on antique tradition--tradition enfeebled and degenerate, but still
alive. The troubles which convulsed the third century of our era, the
incursions of barbarians, the progress and triumph of Christianity, caused
the suspension of the latest works and the dispersion of the last
craftsmen. With them died all that yet survived of the national art.[54]


[42] The classic Syene, from all time the southernmost portion of Egypt
    proper. The Sixth Dynasty is called the Elephantine, from the island
    immediately facing Syene which was the traditional seat of the
    Dynasty, and on which the temples stood. The tombs of Elephantine were
    discovered by General Sir F. Grenfell, K.C.B., in 1885, in the
    neighbouring cliffs of the Libyan Desert: see foot-note p. 149.--
    A.B.E.

[43] For an explanation of the nature of the Double, see Chapter III., pp.
    111-112, 121 _et seq._

[44] Known as the "Scribe accroupi," literally the "Squatting Scribe"; but
    in English, squatting, as applied to Egyptian art, is taken to mean
    the attitude of sitting with the knees nearly touching the chin.
    --A.B.E.

[45] "The Sheikh of the Village." This statue was best known in England as
    the "Wooden Man of Bûlak."--A.B.E.

[46] The Greek Chephren.

[47] I venture to think that the heads of Rahotep and Nefert, engraved from
    a brilliant photograph in _A Thousand Miles up the Nile_, give a
    truer and more spirited idea of the originals than the present
    illustrations,--A.B.E.

[48] That is, the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties.
    --A.B.E.

[49] According to the measurements given by Mr. Petrie, who discovered the
    remains of the Tanite colossus, it must have stood ninety feet high
    without, and one hundred and twenty feet high with, its pedestal. See
    _Tanis_, Part I., by W.M.F. Petrie, published by the Egypt
    Exploration Fund, 1885.--A.B.E.

[50] Ameniritis, daughter of an Ethiopian king named Kashta, was the sister
    and successor of her brother Shabaka, and wife of Piankhi II., Twenty-
    fifth Dynasty. The statue is in alabaster.--A.B.E.

[51] A Memphite scribe of the Thirtieth Dynasty.--A.B.E.

[52] In Egyptian _Ta-ûrt_, or "the Great;" also called _Apet_.
    This goddess is always represented as a hippopotamus walking. She
    carries in each hand the emblem of protection, called "_Sa_." The
    statuette of the illustration is in green serpentine.--A.B.E.

[53] _Sebakh_, signifying "salt," or "saltpetre," is the general
    term for that saline dust which accumulates wherever there are mounds
    of brick or limestone ruins. This dust is much valued as a manure, or
    "top-dressing," and is so constantly dug out and carried away by the
    natives, that the mounds of ancient towns and villages are rapidly
    undergoing destruction in all parts of Egypt.--A.B.E.

[54] For an example of Graeco-Egyptian portrait painting, _tempo_
    Hadrian, see p. 291.



CHAPTER V.


_THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS._

I have treated briefly of the Noble Arts; it remains to say something of
the Industrial Arts. All classes of society in Egypt were, from an early
period, imbued with the love of luxury, and with a taste for the beautiful.
Living or dead, the Egyptian desired to have jewels and costly amulets upon
his person, and to be surrounded by choice furniture and elegant utensils.
The objects of his daily use must be distinguished, if not by richness of
material, at least by grace of form; and in order to satisfy his
requirements, the clay, the stone, the metals, the woods, and other
products of distant lands were laid under contribution.


I.--STONE, CLAY, AND GLASS.

[Illustration: Fig. 210.--The _Ta_, or girdle-buckle of Isis.]

[Illustration: Fig. 211.--Frog amulet.]

[Illustration: Fig. 212.--The _Ûat_, or lotus-column amulet.]

[Illustration: Fig. 213.--An _Ûta_, or sacred eye.]

[Illustration: Fig. 214.--A scarabaeus.]

It is impossible to pass through a gallery of Egyptian antiquities without
being surprised by the prodigious number of small objects in _pietra dura_
which have survived till the present time. As yet we have found neither the
diamond, the ruby, nor the sapphire; but with these exceptions, the domain
of the lapidary was almost as extensive as at the present day. That domain
included the amethyst, the emerald, the garnet, the aquamarine, the
chrysoprase, the innumerable varieties of agate and jasper, lapis lazuli,
felspar, obsidian; also various rocks, such as granite, serpentine, and
porphyry; certain fossils, as yellow amber and some kinds of turquoise;
organic remains, as coral, mother-of-pearl, and pearls; metallic ores and
carbonates, such as hematite and malachite, and the calaite, or Oriental
turquoise. These substances were for the most part cut in the shape of
round, square, oval, spindle-shaped, pear-shaped, or lozenge-shaped beads.
Strung and arranged row above row, these beads were made into necklaces,
and are picked up by myriads in the sands of the great cemeteries at
Memphis, Erment, Ekhmîm, and Abydos. The perfection with which many are
cut, the deftness with which they are pierced, and the beauty of the
polish, do honour to the craftsmen who made them. But their skill did not
end here. With the point, saw, drill, and grindstone, they fashioned these
materials into an infinity of shapes--hearts, human fingers, serpents,
animals, images of divinities. All these were amulets; and they were
probably less valued for the charm of the workmanship than for the
supernatural virtues which they were supposed to possess. The girdle-buckle
in carnelian (fig. 210) symbolised the blood of Isis, and washed away the
sins of the wearer. The frog (fig. 211) was emblematic of renewed birth.
The little lotus-flower column in green felspar (fig. 212) typified the
divine gift of eternal youth. The "Ûat," or sacred eye (fig. 213), tied to
the wrist or the arm by a slender string, protected against the evil eye,
against words spoken in envy or anger, and against the bites of serpents.
Commerce dispersed these objects throughout all parts of the ancient world,
and many of them, especially those which represented the sacred beetle,
were imitated abroad by the Phoenicians and Syrians, and by the craftsmen
of Greece, Asia Minor, Etruria, and Sardinia. This insect was called
_kheper_ in Egyptian, and its name was supposed to be derived from the root
_khepra_, "to become." By an obvious play upon words, the beetle was made
the emblem of terrestrial life, and of the successive "becomings" or
developments of man in the life to come. The scarabaeus amulet (fig. 214)
is therefore a symbol of duration, present or future; and to wear one was
to provide against annihilation. A thousand mystic meanings were evolved
from this first idea, each in some subtle sense connected with one or other
of the daily acts or usages of life, so that scarabaei were multiplied _ad
infinitum_. They are found in all materials and sizes; some having hawks'
heads, some with rams' heads, some with heads of men or bulls. Some are
wrought or inscribed on the underside; others are left flat and plain
underneath; and others again but vaguely recall the form of the insect, and
are called scarabaeoids. These amulets are pierced longwise, the hole being
large enough to admit the passage of a fine wire of bronze or silver, or of
a thread, for suspension. The larger sort were regarded as images of the
heart. These, having outspread wings attached, were fastened to the breast
of the mummy, and are inscribed on the underside with a prayer adjuring the
heart not to bear witness against the deceased at the day of judgment. In
order to be still more efficacious, some scenes of adoration were
occasionally added to the formula: _e.g._, the disc of the moon adorned by
two apes upon the shoulder; two squatting figures of Amen upon the wing-
sheaths; on the flat reverse, a representation of the boat of the Sun; and
below the boat, Osiris mummified, squatting between Isis and Nephthys, who
overshadow him with their wings. The small scarabs, having begun as
phylacteries, ended by becoming mere ornaments without any kind of
religious meaning, just as crosses are now worn without thought of
significance by the women of our own day. They were set as rings, as
necklace pendants, as earrings, and as bracelets. The underside is often
plain, but is more commonly ornamented with incised designs which involve
no kind of modelling. Relief-cutting, properly so called (as in cameo-
cutting), was unknown to Egyptian lapidaries before the Greek period.
Scarabaei and the subjects engraved on them have not as yet been fully
classified and catalogued.[55] The subjects consist of simple combinations
of lines; of scrolls; of interlacings without any precise signification; of
symbols to which the owner attached a mysterious meaning, unknown to
everyone but himself; of the names and titles of individuals; of royal
ovals, which are historically interesting; of good wishes; of pious
ejaculations; and of magic formulae. The earliest examples known date from
the Fourth Dynasty, and are small and fine. Sometimes Sixth Dynasty scarabs
are of obsidian and crystal, and early Middle Kingdom scarabs of amethyst,
emerald, and even garnet. From the time of the Eighteenth Dynasty scarabs
may be counted by millions, and the execution is more or less fine
according to the hardness of the stone. This holds good for amulets of all
kinds. The hippopotamus-heads, the hearts, the _Ba_ birds (p. 111), which
one picks up at Taûd, to the south of Thebes, are barely roughed out, the
amethyst and green felspar of which they are made having presented an
almost unconquerable resistance to the point, saw, drill, and wheel. The
belt-buckles, angles, and head-rests in red jasper, carnelian, and
hematite, are, on the contrary, finished to the minutest details,
notwithstanding that carnelian and red jasper are even harder than green
felspar. Lapis lazuli is insufficiently homogeneous, almost as hard as
felspar, and seems as if it were incapable of being finely worked. Yet the
Egyptians have used it for images of certain goddesses--Isis, Nephthys,
Neith, Sekhet,--which are marvels of delicate cutting. The modelling of the
forms is carried out as boldly as if the material were more trustworthy,
and the features lose none of their excellence if examined under a
magnifying glass. For the most part, however, a different treatment was
adopted. Instead of lavishing high finish upon the relief, it was obtained
in a more summary way, the details of individual parts being sacrificed to
the general effect. Those features of the face which project, and those
which retire, are strongly accentuated. The thickness of the neck, the
swell of the breast and shoulder, the slenderness of the waist, the fulness
of the hips, are all exaggerated. The feet and hands are also slightly
enlarged. This treatment is based upon a system, the results being boldly
and yet judiciously calculated. When the object has to be sculptured in
miniature, a mathematical reduction of the model is not so happy in its
effect as might be supposed. The head loses character; the neck looks too
weak; the bust is reduced to a cylinder with a slightly uneven surface; the
feet do not look strong enough to support the weight of the body; the
principal lines are not sufficiently distinct from the secondary lines. By
suppressing most of the accessory forms and developing those most essential
to the expression, the Egyptians steered clear of the danger of producing
insignificant statuettes. The eye instinctively tones down whatever is too
forcible, and supplies what is lacking. Thanks to these subtle devices of
the ancient craftsman, a tiny statuette of this or that divinity measuring
scarcely an inch and a quarter in height, has almost the breadth and
dignity of a colossus.

The earthly goods of the gods and of the dead were mostly in solid stone. I
have elsewhere described the little funerary obelisks, the altar bases, the
statues, and the tables of offerings found in tombs of the ancient empire.
These tables were made of alabaster and limestone during the Pyramid
period, of granite or red sandstone under the Theban kings, and of basalt
or serpentine from the time of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty. But the fashions
were not canonical, all stones being found at all periods. Some offering-
tables are mere flat discs, or discs very slightly hollowed. Others are
rectangular, and are sculptured in relief with a service of loaves, vases,
fruits, and quarters of beef and gazelle. In one instance--the offering-
table of Sitû--the libations, instead of running off, fell into a square
basin which is marked off in divisions, showing the height of the Nile at
the different seasons of the year in the reservoirs of Memphis; namely,
twenty-five cubits in summer during the inundation, twenty-three in autumn
and early winter, and twenty-two at the close of winter and in spring-time.
In these various patterns there was little beauty; yet one offering-table,
found at Sakkarah, is a real work of art. It is of alabaster. Two lions,
standing side by side, support a sloping, rectangular tablet, whence the
libation ran off by a small channel into a vase placed between the tails of
the lions. The alabaster geese found at Lisht are not without artistic
merit. They are cut length-wise down the middle, and hollowed out, in the
fashion of a box. Those which I have seen elsewhere, and, generally
speaking, all simulacra of offerings, as loaves, cakes, heads of oxen or
gazelles, bunches of black grapes, and the like, in carved and painted
limestone, are of doubtful taste and clumsy execution. They are not very
common, and I have met with them only in tombs of the Fifth and Twelfth
Dynasties. "Canopic" vases, on the contrary, were always carefully wrought.
They were generally made in two kinds of stone, limestone and alabaster;
but the heads which surmounted them were often of painted wood. The canopic
vases of Pepi I. are of alabaster; and those of a king buried in the
southernmost pyramid at Lisht are also of alabaster, as are the human heads
upon the lids. One, indeed, is of such fine execution that I can only
compare it with that of the statue of Khafra. The most ancient funerary
statuettes yet found--those, namely, of the Eleventh Dynasty--are of
alabaster, like the canopic vases; but from the time of the Thirteenth
Dynasty, they were cut in compact limestone. The workmanship is very
unequal in quality. Some are real _chefs-d'oeuvre_, and reproduce the
physiognomy of the deceased as faithfully as a portrait statue. Lastly,
there are the perfume vases, which complete the list of objects found in
temples and tombs. The names of these vases are far from being
satisfactorily established, and most of the special designations furnished
in the texts remain as yet without equivalents in our language. The greater
number were of alabaster, turned and polished. Some are heavy, and ugly
(fig. 215), while others are distinguished by an elegance and diversity of
form which do honour to the inventive talent of the craftsmen. Many are
spindle-shaped and pointed at the end (fig. 216), or round in the body,
narrow in the neck, and flat at the bottom (fig. 217).

[Illustration: Fig. 215.--Perfume vase, alabaster.]

[Illustration: Fig. 216.--Perfume vase, alabaster.]

[Illustration: Fig. 217.--Perfume vase, alabaster.]

They are unornamented, except perhaps by two lotus-bud handles, or two
lions' heads, or perhaps a little female head just at the rise of the neck
(fig. 218). The smallest of these vases were not intended for liquids, but
for pomades, medicinal ointments, and salves made with honey. Some of the
more important series comprise large-bodied flasks, with an upright
cylindrical neck and a flat cover (fig. 219). In these, the Egyptians kept
the antimony powder with which they darkened their eyes and eyebrows. The
Kohl-pot was a universal toilet requisite; perhaps the only one commonly
used by all classes of society. When designing it, the craftsman gave free
play to his fancy, borrowing forms of men, plants, and animals for its
adornment. Now it appears in the guise of a full-blown lotus; now it is a
hedgehog; a hawk; a monkey clasping a column to his breast, or climbing up
the side of a jar; a grotesque figure of the god Bes; a kneeling woman,
whose scooped-out body contained the powder; a young girl carrying a wine-
jar. Once started upon this path, the imagination of the artists knew no
limits. As for materials, everything was made to serve in turn--granite,
diorite, breccia, red jade, alabaster, and soft limestone, which lent
itself more readily to caprices of form; finally, a still more plastic and
facile substance--clay, painted and glazed.

[Ilustration: Fig. 218.--Perfume vase, alabaster.]

[Illustration: Fig. 219.--Vase for antimony powder.]

It was not for want of material that the art of modelling and baking clays
failed to be as fully developed in Egypt as in Greece, The valley of the
Nile is rich in a fine and ductile potter's clay, with which the happiest
results might have been achieved, had the native craftsman taken the
trouble to prepare it with due care. Metals and hard stone were, however,
always preferred for objects of luxury; the potter was fain, therefore, to
be content with supplying only the commonest needs of household and daily
life. He was wont to take whatever clay happened to be nearest to the place
where he was working, and this clay was habitually badly washed, badly
kneaded, and fashioned with the finger upon a primitive wheel worked by the
hand. The firing was equally careless. Some pieces were barely heated at
all, and melted it they came into contact with water, while others were as
hard as tiles. All tombs of the ancient empire contain vases of a red or
yellow ware, often mixed, like the clay of bricks, with finely-chopped
straw or weeds. These are mostly large solid jars with oval bodies, short
necks, and wide mouths, but having neither foot nor handles. With them are
also found pipkins and pots, in which to store the dead man's provisions;
bowls more or less shallow; and flat plates, such as are still used by the
fellahin. The poorer folk sometimes buried miniature table and kitchen
services with their dead, as being less costly than full-sized vessels. The
surface is seldom glazed, seldom smooth and lustrous; but is ordinarily
covered with a coat of whitish, unbaked paint, which scales off at a touch.
Upon this surface there is neither incised design, nor ornament in relief,
nor any kind of inscription, but merely some four or five parallel lines in
red, black, or yellow, round the neck.

[Illustration: Fig. 220.]

[Illustration: Fig. 221.]

[Illustration: Fig. 222.]

[Illustration: Fig. 223.]

The pottery of the earliest Theban dynasties which I have collected at El
Khozam and Gebeleyn is more carefully wrought than the pottery of the
Memphite period. It may be classified under two heads. The first comprises
plain, smooth-bodied vases, black below and dark red above. On examining
this ware where broken, we see that the colour was mixed with the clay
during the kneading, and that the two zones were separately prepared,
roughly joined, and then uniformly glazed. The second class comprises vases
of various and sometimes eccentric forms, moulded of red or tawny clay.
Some are large cylinders closed at one end; others are flat; others oblong
and boat-shaped; others, like cruets, joined together two and two, yet with
no channel of communication[56] (fig. 220). The ornamentation is carried
over the whole surface, and generally consists of straight parallel lines,
cross lines, zigzags, dotted lines, or small crosses and lines in
geometrical combination; all these patterns being in white when the ground
is red, or in reddish brown when the ground is yellow or whitish. Now and
then we find figures of men and animals interspersed among the geometrical
combinations. The drawing is rude, almost childish; and it is difficult to
tell whether the subjects represent herds of antelopes or scenes of
gazelle-hunting. The craftsmen who produced these rude attempts were
nevertheless contemporary with the artists who decorated the rock-cut tombs
at Beni Hasan. As regards the period of Egypt's great military conquests,
the Theban tombs of that age have supplied objects enough to stock a museum
of pottery; but unfortunately the types are very uninteresting. To begin
with, we find hand-made sepulchral statuettes modelled in summary fashion
from an oblong lump of clay. A pinch of the craftsman's fingers brought out
the nose; two tiny knobs and two little stumps, separately modelled and
stuck on, represented the eyes and arms. The better sort of figures were
pressed in moulds of baked clay, of which several specimens have been
found. They were generally moulded in one piece; then lightly touched up;
then baked; and lastly, on coming out of the oven, were painted red,
yellow, or white, and inscribed with the pen. Some are of very good style,
and almost equal those made in limestone. The _ûshabtiû_ of the scribe
Hori, and those of the priest Horûta (Saïte) found at Hawara, show what the
Egyptians could have achieved in this branch of the art if they had cared
to cultivate it. Funerary cones were objects purely devotional, and the
most consummate art could have done nothing to make them elegant. A
funerary cone consists of a long, conical mass of clay, stamped at the
larger end with a few rows of hieroglyphs stating the name, parentage, and
titles of the deceased, the whole surface being coated with a whitish wash.
These are simulacra of votive cakes intended for the eternal nourishment of
the Double. Many of the vases buried in tombs of this period are painted to
imitate alabaster, granite, basalt, bronze, and even gold; and were cheap
substitutes for those vases made in precious materials which wealthy
mourners were wont to lavish on their dead. Among those especially intended
to contain water or flowers, some are covered with designs drawn in red and
black (fig. 221), such as concentric lines and circles (fig. 222),
meanders, religious emblems (fig. 223), cross-lines resembling network,
festoons of flowers and buds, and long leafy stems carried downward from
the neck to the body of the vase, and upward from the body of the vase to
the neck. Those in the tomb of Sennetmû were decorated on one side with a
large necklace, or collar, like the collars found upon mummies, painted in
very bright colours to simulate natural flowers or enamels. Canopic vases
in baked clay, though rarely met with under the Eighteenth Dynasty, became
more and more common as the prosperity of Thebes declined. The heads upon
the lids are for the most part prettily turned, especially the human
heads.[57] Modelled with the hand, scooped out to diminish the weight, and
then slowly baked, each was finally painted with the colours especially
pertaining to the genius whose head was represented. Towards the time of
the Twentieth Dynasty, it became customary to enclose the bodies of sacred
animals in vases of this type. Those found near Ekhmîm contain jackals and
hawks; those of Sakkarah are devoted to serpents, eggs, and mummified rats;
those of Abydos hold the sacred ibis. These last are by far the finest. On
the body of the vase, the protecting goddess Khûit is depicted with
outspread wings, while Horus and Thoth are seen presenting the bandage and
the unguent vase; the whole subject being painted in blue and red upon a
white ground. From the time of the Greek domination, the national poverty
being always on the increase, baked clay was much used for coffins as well
as for canopic vases. In the Isthmus of Suez, at Ahnas el Medineh, in the
Fayûm, at Asûan, and in Nubia, we find whole cemeteries in which the
sarcophagi are made of baked clay. Some are like oblong boxes rounded at
each end, with a saddle-back lid. Some are in human form, but barbarous in
style, the heads being surmounted by a pudding-shaped imitation of the
ancient Egyptian head-dress, and the features indicated by two or three
strokes of the modelling tool or the thumb. Two little lumps of clay stuck
awkwardly upon the breast indicate the coffin of a woman. Even in these
last days of Egyptian civilisation, it was only the coarsest objects which
were left of the natural hue of the baked clay. As of old, the surfaces
were, as a rule, overlaid with a coat of colour, or with a richly gilded
glaze.

[Illustration: Fig. 224.--Glass-blowers from Twelfth
Dynasty tomb.]

[Illustration: Fig. 225.--Parti-coloured glass vase, inscribed Thothmes
III.]

[Illustration: Fig. 226.--Parti-coloured glass vase.]

[Illustration: Fig. 227.--Parti-coloured glass vase.]

[Illustration: Fig. 228.--Parti-coloured glass goblets of Nesikhonsû.]

Glass was known to the Egyptians from the remotest period, and glass-
blowing is represented in tombs which date from some thousands of years
before our era (fig. 224). The craftsman, seated before the furnace, takes
up a small quantity of the fused substance upon the end of his cane and
blows it circumspectly, taking care to keep it in contact with the flame,
so that it may not harden during the operation. Chemical analysis shows the
constituent parts of Egyptian glass to have been nearly identical with our
own; but it contains, besides silex, lime, alumina, and soda, a relatively
large proportion of extraneous substances, as copper, oxide of iron, and
oxide of manganese, which they apparently knew not how to eliminate. Hence
Egyptian glass is scarcely ever colourless, but inclines to an uncertain
shade of yellow or green. Some ill-made pieces are so utterly decomposed
that they flake away, or fall to iridescent dust, at the lightest touch.
Others have suffered little from time or damp, but are streaky and full of
bubbles. A few are, however, perfectly homogenous and limpid. Colourless
glass was not esteemed by the Egyptians as it is by ourselves; whether
opaque or transparent, they preferred it coloured. The dyes were obtained
by mixing metallic oxides with the ordinary ingredients; that is to say,
copper and cobalt for the blues, copperas for the greens, manganese for the
violets and browns, iron for the yellows, and lead or tin for the whites.
One variety of red contains 30 per cent of bronze, and becomes coated with
verdegris if exposed to damp. All this chemistry was empirical, and
acquired by instinct. Finding the necessary elements at hand, or being
supplied with them from a distance, they made use of them at hazard, and
without being too certain of obtaining the effects they sought. Many of
their most harmonious combinations were due to accident, and they could not
reproduce them at will. The masses which they obtained by these
unscientific means were nevertheless of very considerable dimensions. The
classic authors tell of stelae, sarcophagi, and columns made in one piece.
Ordinarily, however, glass was used only for small objects, and, above all,
for counterfeiting precious stones. However cheaply they may have been sold
in the Egyptian market, these small objects were not accessible to all the
world. The glass-workers imitated the emerald, jasper, lapis lazuli, and
carnelian to such perfection that even now we are sometimes embarrassed to
distinguish the real stones from the false. The glass was pressed into
moulds made of stone or limestone cut to the forms required, as beads,
discs, rings, pendants, rods, and plaques covered with figures of men and
animals, gods and goddesses. Eyes and eyebrows for the faces of statues in
stone or bronze were likewise made of glass, as also bracelets. Glass was
inserted into the hollows of incised hieroglyphs, and hieroglyphs were also
cut out in glass. In this manner, whole inscriptions were composed, and let
into wood, stone, or metal. The two mummy-cases which enclosed the body of
Netemt, mother of the Pharaoh Herhor Seamen, are decorated in this style.
Except the headdress of the effigy and some minor details, these cases are
gilded all over; the texts and the principal part of the ornamentation
being formed of glass enamels, which stand out in brilliant contrast with
the dead gold ground. Many Fayûm mummies were coated with plaster or
stucco, the texts and religious designs, which are generally painted, being
formed of glass enamels incrusted upon the surface of the plaster. Some of
the largest subjects are made of pieces of glass joined together and
retouched with the chisel, in imitation of bas-relief. Thus the face,
hands, and feet of the goddess Ma are done in turquoise blue, her headdress
in dark blue, her feather in alternate stripes of blue and yellow, and her
raiment in deep red. Upon a wooden shrine recently discovered in the
neighbourhood of Daphnae,[58] and upon a fragment of mummy-case in the
Museum of Turin, the hieroglyphic forms of many-coloured glass are inlaid
upon the sombre ground of the wood, the general effect being inconceivably
rich and brilliant. Glass filigrees, engraved glass, cut glass, soldered
glass, glass imitations of wood, of straw, and of string, were all known to
the Egyptians of old. I have under my hand at this present moment a square
rod formed of innumerable threads of coloured glass fused into one solid
body, which gives the royal oval of one of the Amenemhats at the part where
it is cut through. The design is carried through the whole length of the
rod, and wherever that rod may be cut, the royal oval reappears.[59] One
glass case in the Gizeh Museum is entirely stocked with small objects in
coloured glass. Here we see an ape on all fours, smelling some large fruit
which lies upon the ground; yonder, a woman's head, front face, upon a
white or green ground surrounded by a red border. Most of the plaques
represent only rosettes, stars, and single flowers or posies. One of the
smallest represents a black-and-white Apis walking, the work being so
delicate that it loses none of its effect under the magnifying glass. The
greater number of these objects date from, and after, the first Saïte
dynasty; but excavations in Thebes and Tell el Amarna have proved that the
manufacture of coloured glass prevailed in Egypt earlier than the tenth
century before our era. At Kûrnet Murraee and Sheikh Abd el Gûrneh, there
have been found, not only amulets for the use of the dead, such as
colonnettes, hearts, mystic eyes, hippopotami walking erect, and ducks in
pairs, done in parti-coloured pastes, blue, red, and yellow, but also vases
of a type which we have been accustomed to regard as of Phoenician and
Cypriote manufacture.[60] Here, for example, is a little aenochoe, of a
light blue semi-opaque glass (fig. 225); the inscription in the name of
Thothmes III., the ovals on the neck, and the palm-fronds on the body of
the vase being in yellow. Here again is a lenticular phial, three and a
quarter inches in height (fig. 226), the ground colour of a deep ocean
blue, admirably pure and intense, upon which a fern-leaf pattern in yellow
stands out both boldly and delicately. A yellow thread runs round the rim,
and two little handles of light green are attached to the neck. A miniature
amphora of the same height (fig. 227) is of a dark, semi-transparent olive
green. A zone of blue and yellow zigzags, bounded above and below by yellow
bands, encircles the body of the vase at the part of its largest
circumference. The handles are pale green, and the thread round the lip is
pale blue. Princess Nesikhonsû had beside her, in the vault at Deir el
Baharî, some glass goblets of similar work. Seven were in whole colours,
light green and blue; four were of black glass spotted with white; one only
was decorated with many-coloured fronds arranged in two rows (fig. 228).
The national glass works were therefore in full operation during the time
of the great Theban dynasties. Huge piles of scoriae mixed with slag yet
mark the spot where their furnaces were stationed at Tell el Amarna, the
Ramesseum, at El Kab, and at the Tell of Eshmûneyn.

[Illustration: Fig. 229.--Hippopotamus in blue glaze.]

[Illustration: Fig. 230.--Glazed ware from Thebes.]

[Illustration: Fig. 231.--Glazed ware from Thebes.]

The Egyptians also enamelled stone. One half at least of the scarabaei,
cylinders, and amulets contained in our museums are of limestone or schist,
covered with a coloured glaze. Doubtless the common clay seemed to them
inappropriate to this kind of decoration, for they substituted in its place
various sorts of earth--some white and sandy; another sort brown and fine,
which they obtained by the pulverisation of a particular kind of limestone
found in the neighbourhood of Keneh, Luxor, and Asûan; and a third sort,
reddish in tone, and mixed with powdered sandstone and brick-dust. These
various substances are known by the equally inexact names of Egyptian
porcelain and Egyptian faïence. The oldest specimens, which are hardly
glazed at all, are coated with an excessively thin slip. This vitreous
matter has, however, generally settled into the hollows of the hieroglyphs
or figures, where its lustre stands out in strong contrast with the dead
surface of the surrounding parts. The colour most frequently in use under
the ancient dynasties was green; but yellow, red, brown, violet, and blue
were not disdained.[61] Blue predominated in the Theban factories from the
earliest beginning of the Middle Empire. This blue was brilliant, yet
tender, in imitation of turquoise or lapis lazuli. The Gizeh Museum
formerly contained three hippopotamuses of this shade, discovered in the
tomb of an Entef[62] at Drah Abû'l Neggeh[63] One was lying down, the two
others were standing in the marshes, their bodies being covered by the
potter with pen-and-ink sketches of reeds and lotus plants, amid which
hover birds and butterflies (fig. 229). This was his naïve way of depicting
the animal amid his natural surroundings. The blue is splendid, and we must
overleap twenty centuries before we again find so pure a colour among the
funerary statuettes of Deir el Baharî. Green reappears under the Saïte
dynasties, but paler than that of more ancient times, and it prevailed in
the north of Egypt, at Memphis, Bubastis, and Sais, without entirely
banishing the blue. The other colours before mentioned were in current use
for not more than four or five centuries; that is to say, from the time of
Ahmes I. to the time of the Ramessides. It was then, and only then, that
_ûshabtiû_ of white or red glaze, rosettes and lotus flowers in yellow,
red, and violet, and parti-coloured kohl-pots abounded. The potters of the
time of Amenhotep III. affected greys and violets. The olive-shaped amulets
which are inscribed with the names of this Pharaoh and the princesses of
his family are decorated with pale blue hieroglyphs upon a delicate mauve
ground. The vase of Queen Tii in the Gizeh collection is of grey and blue,
with ornaments in two colours round the neck. The fabrication of many-
coloured enamels seems to have attained its greatest development under
Khûenaten; at all events, it was at Tell el Amarna that I found the
brightest and most delicately fashioned specimens, such as yellow, green,
and violet rings, blue and white fleurettes, fish, lutes, figs, and bunches
of grapes.[64] One little statuette of Horus has a red face and a blue
body; a ring bezel bears the name of a king in violet upon a ground of
light blue. However restricted the space, the various colours are laid in
with so sure a hand that they never run one into the other, but stand out
separately and vividly. A vase to contain antimony powder, chased and
mounted on a pierced stand, is glazed with reddish brown (fig. 230).
Another, in the shape of a mitred hawk, is blue picked out with black
spots. It belonged of old to Ahmes I. A third, hollowed out of the body of
an energetic little hedgehog, is of a changeable green (fig. 231). A
Pharaoh's head in dead blue wears a _klaft_[65] with dark-blue stripes.

[Illustration: Fig. 232.]

Fine as these pieces are, the _chef-d'oeuvre_ of the series is a statuette
of one Ptahmes, first Prophet of Amen, now in the Gizeh Museum. The
hieroglyphic inscriptions as well as the details of the mummy bandages are
chased in relief upon a white ground of admirable smoothness afterwards
filled in with enamel. The face and hands are of turquoise blue; the head-
dress is yellow, with violet stripes; the hieroglyphic characters of the
inscription, and the vulture with outspread wings upon the breast of the
figure, are also violet. The whole is delicate, brilliant, and harmonious;
not a flaw mars the purity of the contours or the clearness of the lines.

[Illustration: Fig. 233.--Interior decoration of cup, Eighteenth Dynasty.]

[Illustration: Fig. 234.--Lenticular vase, glazed ware, Saïte.]

[Illustration: Fig. 235.--Chamber decorated with tiles in step pyramid of
Sakkarah.]

Glazed pottery was common from the earliest times. Cups with a foot (fig.
232), blue bowls, rounded at the bottom and decorated in black ink with
mystic eyes, lotus flowers, fishes (fig. 233), and palm-leaves, date, as a
rule, from the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, or Twentieth Dynasties. Lenticular
ampullae coated with a greenish glaze, flanked by two crouching monkeys for
handles, decorated along the edge with pearl or egg-shaped ornaments, and
round the body with elaborate collars (fig. 234), belong almost without
exception to the reigns of Apries and Amasis.[66] Sistrum handles, saucers,
drinking-cups in the form of a half-blown lotus, plates, dishes--in short,
all vessels in common use--were required to be not only easy to keep clean,
but pleasant to look upon. Did they carry their taste for enamelled ware so
far as to cover the walls of their houses with glazed tiles? Upon this
point we can pronounce neither affirmatively nor negatively; the few
examples of this kind of decoration which we possess being all from royal
buildings. Upon a yellow brick, we have the family name and _Ka_ name of
Pepi I.; upon a green brick, the name of Rameses III.; upon certain red and
white fragments, the names of Seti I. and Sheshonk.

[Illustration: Fig. 236.--Tile from step pyramid of Sakkarah.]

Up to the beginning of the present century, one of the chambers in the step
pyramid at Sakkarah yet retained its mural decoration of glazed ware (fig.
235). For three-fourths of the wall-surface it was covered with green
tiles, oblong in shape, flat at the back, and slightly convex on the face
(fig. 236). A square tenon, pierced through with a hole large enough to
receive a wooden rod, served to fix them together in horizontal pyramid of
rows.[67] The three rows which frame in the doorway are inscribed with the
titles of an unclassed Pharaoh belonging to one of the first Memphite
dynasties. The hieroglyphs are relieved in blue, red, green, and yellow,
upon a tawny ground. Twenty centuries later, Rameses III. originated a new
style at Tell el Yahûdeh. This time the question of ornamentation
concerned, not a single chamber, but a whole temple. The mass of the
building was of limestone and alabaster; but the pictorial subjects,
instead of being sculptured according to custom, were of a kind of mosaic
made with almost equal parts of stone tesserae and glazed ware.

[Illustration: Fig. 237.--Tile inlay, Tell el Yahûdeh.]

[Illustration: Fig. 238.--Tile inlay, Tell el Yahûdeh.]

[Illustration: Fig. 239.--Inlaid tiles, Tell el Yahûdeh.]

The most frequent item in the scheme of decoration was a roundel moulded of
a sandy frit coated with blue or grey slip, upon which is a cream-coloured
rosette (fig. 237). Some of these rosettes are framed in geometrical
designs (fig. 238) or spider-web patterns; some represent open flowers. The
central boss is in relief; the petals and tracery are encrusted in the
mass. These roundels, which are of various diameters ranging from three-
eighths of an inch to four inches, were fixed to the walls by means of a
very fine cement. They were used to form many different designs, as
scrolls, foliage, and parallel fillets, such as may be seen on the foot of
an altar and the base of a column preserved in the Gizeh Museum. The royal
ovals were mostly in one piece; so also were the figures. The details,
either incised or modelled upon the clay before firing, were afterwards
painted with such colours as might be suitable. The lotus flowers and
leaves which were carried along the bottom of the walls or the length of
the cornices, were, on the contrary, made up of independent pieces; each
colour being a separate morsel cut to fit exactly into the pieces by which
it was surrounded (fig. 239). This temple was rifled at the beginning of
the present century, and some figures of prisoners brought thence have been
in the Louvre collection ever since the time of Champollion. All that
remained of the building and its decoration was demolished a few years ago
by certain dealers in antiquities, and the _débris_ are now dispersed in
all directions. Mariette, though with great difficulty, recovered some of
the more important fragments, such as the name of Rameses III., which dates
the building; some borderings of lotus flowers and birds with human hands
(fig. 240); and some heads of Asiatics and negro prisoners (fig. 241).[68]
The destruction of this monument is the more grievous because the Egyptians
cannot have constructed many after the same type. Glazed bricks, painted
tiles, and enamelled mosaics are readily injured; and in the judgment of a
people enamoured of stability and eternity, that would be the gravest of
radical defects.

[Illustration: Fig. 240.--Relief tile, Tell el Yahûdeh.]

[Illustration: Fig. 241.--Relief tile, Tell el Yahûdeh.]


[55] Works on scarabaei are the Palin collection, published in 1828; Mr.
    Loftie's charming _Essay of Scarabs_, which is in fact a
    catalogue of his own specimens, admirably illustrated from drawings by
    Mr. W.M.F. Petrie; and Mr. Petrie's _Historical Scarabs_,
    published 1889.--A.B.E.

[56] These twin vases are still made at Asûan. I bought a small specimen
    there in 1874.--A.B.E.

[57] The sepulchral vases commonly called "canopic" were four in number,
    and contained the embalmed viscera of the mummy. The lids of these
    vases were fashioned to represent the heads of the four genii of
    Amenti, Hapi, Tûatmûtf, Kebhsennef, and Amset; i.e. the
    Ape-head, the Jackal-head, the Hawk-head, and the human head.--A.B.E.

[58] The remains of this shrine, together with many hundreds of beautiful
    glass hieroglyphs, figures, emblems, etc., for inlaying, besides
    moulds and other items of the glassworker's stock, were discovered by
    Mr. F. Ll. Griffith at Tell Gemayemi, about equidistant from the
    mounds of Tanis and Daphnae (Sân and Defenneh) in March 1886. For a
    fuller account see Mr. Griffith's report, "_The Antiquities of Tell
    el Yahudîyeh," in Seventh Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund_.
    --A.B.E.

[59] Some of these beautiful rods were also found at Tell Gemayemi by Mr.
    F. Ll. Griffith, and in such sound condition that it was possible to
    cut them in thin slices, for distribution among various museums.--
    A.B.E.

[60] That is, of the kind known as the "false murrhine."--A.B.E.

[61] The yellows and browns are frequently altered greens.--A.B.E.

[62] One of the Eleventh Dynasty kings.

[63] There is a fine specimen at the Louvre, and another in the museum at
    Leydeu.--A.B.E.

[64] For an account of every stage and detail in the glass and glaze
    manufactures of Tell el Amarna, see W.M.F. Petrie's _Tell el
    Amarna_.

[65] _Klaft, i.e._, a headdress of folded linen. The beautiful
    little head here referred to is in the Gizeh Museum, and is a portrait
    of the Pharaoh Necho.--A.B.E.

[66] _Apries_, in Egyptian "Uahabra," the biblical "Hophra;"
    _Amasis_, Ahmes II.; both of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty.--A.B.E.

[67] Some specimens of these tiles may be seen in the Egyptian department
    at the British Museum.--A.B.E.



2.--WOOD, IVORY, LEATHER, AND TEXTILE FABRICS.

[Illustration: Fig. 242.--Spoon.]

Objects in ivory, bone, and horn are among the rarities of our museums; but
we must not for this reason conclude that the Egyptians did not make ample
use of those substances. Horn is perishable, and is eagerly devoured by
certain insects, which rapidly destroy it. Bone and ivory soon deteriorate
and become friable. The elephant was known to the Egyptians from the
remotest period. They may, perhaps, have found it inhabiting the Thebaid
when first they established themselves in that part of the Nile Valley, for
as early as the Fifth Dynasty we find the pictured form of the elephant in
use as the hieroglyphic name of the island of Elephantine. Ivory in tusks
and half tusks was imported into Egypt from the regions of the Upper Nile.
It was sometimes dyed green or red, but was more generally left of its
natural colour. It was largely employed by cabinet makers for inlaying
furniture, as chairs, bedsteads, and coffers. Combs, dice, hair-pins,
toilette ornaments, delicately wrought spoons (fig. 242), Kohl bottles
hollowed out of a miniature column surmounted by a capital, incense-burners
in the shape of a hand supporting a bronze cup in which the perfumes were
burned, and boomerangs engraved with figures of gods and fantastic animals,
were also made of ivory. Some of these objects are works of fine art; as
for instance at Gizeh, a poignard-handle in the form of a lion; the plaques
in bas-relief which adorn the draught-box of one Tûaï, who lived towards
the end of the Seventeenth Dynasty; a Fifth Dynasty figure, unfortunately
mutilated, which yet retains traces of rose colour; and a miniature statue
of Abi, who died at the time of the Thirteenth Dynasty. This little
personage, perched on the top of a lotus-flower column, looks straight
before him with a majestic air which contrasts somewhat comically with the
size and prominence of his ears. The modelling of the figure is broad and
spirited, and will bear comparison with good Italian ivories of the
Renaissance period.

[Illustration: Fig. 243.--Wooden statuette of officer, Eighteenth Dynasty.]

[Illustration: Fig. 244.--Wooden statuette of priest, Eighteenth Dynasty.]

[Illustration: Fig. 245.--Wooden statuette of the Lady Naï.]

Egypt produces few trees, and of these few the greater number are useless
to the sculptor. The two which most abound--namely, the date palm and the
dôm palm--are of too coarse a fibre for carving, and are too unequal in
texture. Some varieties of the sycamore and acacia are the only trees of
which the grain is sufficiently fine and manageable to be wrought with the
chisel. Wood was, nevertheless, a favourite material for cheap and rapid
work. It was even employed at times for subjects of importance, such as Ka
statues; and the Wooden Man of Gizeh shows with what boldness and amplitude
of style it could be treated. But the blocks and beams which the Egyptians
had at command were seldom large enough for a statue. The Wooden Man
himself, though but half life-size, consists of a number of pieces held
together by square pegs. Hence, wood-carvers were wont to treat their
subjects upon such a scale as admitted of their being cut in one block, and
the statues of olden time became statuettes under the Theban dynasties. Art
lost nothing by the reduction, and more than one of these little figures is
comparable to the finest works of the ancient empire. The best, perhaps, is
at the Turin Museum, and dates from the Twentieth Dynasty. It represents a
young girl whose only garment is a slender girdle. She is of that
indefinite age when the undeveloped form is almost as much like that of a
boy as of a girl. The expression of the head is gentle, yet saucy. It is,
in fact, across thirty centuries of time, a portrait of one of those
graceful little maidens of Elephantine, who, without immodesty or
embarrassment, walk unclothed in sight of strangers. Three little wooden
men in the Gizeh Museum are probably contemporaries of the Turin figure.
They wear full dress, as, indeed, they should, for one was a king's
favourite named Hori, and surnamed Ra. They are walking with calm and
measured tread, the bust thrown forward, and the head high. The expression
upon their faces is knowing, and somewhat sly. An officer who has retired
on half-pay at the Louvre (fig. 243) wears an undress uniform of the time
of Amenhotep III.; that is to say, a small wig, a close-fitting vest with
short sleeves, and a kilt drawn tightly over the hips, reaching scarcely
half-way down the thigh, and trimmed in front with a piece of puffing
plaited longwise. His companion is a priest (fig. 244), who wears his hair
in rows of little curls one above the other, and is clad in a long
petticoat falling below the calf of the leg and spreading out in front in a
kind of plaited apron. He holds a sacred standard consisting of a stout
staff surmounted by a ram's head crowned with the solar disc. Both officer
and priest are painted red brown, with the exception of the hair, which is
black; the cornea of the eyes, which is white; and the standard, which is
yellow. Curiously enough, the little lady Naï, who inhabits the same glass
case, is also painted reddish brown, instead of buff, which was the
canonical colour for women (fig. 245). She is taken in a close-fitting
garment trimmed down the front with a band of white embroidery. Round her
neck she wears a necklace consisting of a triple row of gold pendants. Two
golden bracelets adorn her wrists, and on her head she carries a wig with
long curls. The right arm hangs by her side, the hand holding some object
now lost, which was probably a mirror. The left arm is raised, and with the
left hand she presses a lotus lily to her breast. The body is easy and well
formed, the figure indicates youth, the face is open, smiling, pleasant,
and somewhat plebeian. To modify the unwieldy mass of the headdress was
beyond the skill of the artist, but the bust is delicately and elegantly
modelled, the clinging garment gives discreet emphasis to the shape, and
the action of the hand which holds the flower is rendered with grace and
naturalness. All these are portraits, and as the sitters were not persons
of august rank, we may conclude that they did not employ the most
fashionable artists. They, doubtless, had recourse to more unpretending
craftsmen; but that such craftsmen were thus highly trained in knowledge of
form and accuracy of execution, shows how strongly even the artisan was
influenced by the great school of sculpture which then flourished at
Thebes.

This influence becomes even more apparent when we study the knick-knacks of
the toilet table, and such small objects as, properly speaking, come under
the head of furniture. To pass in review the hundred and one little
articles of female ornament or luxury to which the fancy of the designer
gave all kinds of ingenious and novel forms, would be no light task. The
handles of mirrors, for instance, generally represented a stem of lotus or
papyrus surmounted by a full-blown flower, from the midst of which rose a
disk of polished metal. For this design is sometimes substituted the figure
of a young girl, either nude, or clad in a close-fitting garment, who holds
the mirror on her head. The tops of hair-pins were carved in the semblance
of a coiled serpent, or of the head of a jackal, a dog, or a hawk. The pin-
cushion in which they are placed is a hedgehog or a tortoise, with holes
pierced in a formal pattern upon the back. The head-rests, which served for
pillows, were decorated with bas-reliefs of subjects derived from the myths
of Bes and Sekhet, the grimacing features of the former deity being carved
on the ends or on the base. But it is in the carving of perfume-spoons and
kohl-bottles that the inventive skill of the craftsman is most brilliantly
displayed.

[Illustration: Fig. 246.--Spoon.]

[Illustration: Fig. 247.--Spoon.]

[Illustration: Fib. 248.--Spoon.]

[Illustration: Fig. 249.--Spoon.]

[Illustration: Fig. 250.--Spoon.]

[Illustration: Fig. 251.--Spoon.]

[Illustration: Fig. 252.--Spoon.]

[Illustration: Fig. 253.--Spoon.]

Not to soil their fingers the Egyptians made use of spoons for essences,
pomades, and the variously-coloured preparations with which both men and
women stained their cheeks, lips, eyelids, nails, and palms. The designer
generally borrowed his subjects from the fauna or flora of the Nile valley.
A little case at Gizeh is carved in the shape of a couchant calf, the body
being hollowed out, and the head and back forming a removable lid. A spoon
in the same collection represents a dog running away with an enormous fish
in his mouth (fig. 246), the body of the fish forming the bowl of the
spoon. Another shows a cartouche springing from a full-blown lotus;
another, a lotus fruit laid upon a bouquet of flowers (fig. 247); and here
is a simple triangular bowl, the handle decorated with a stem and two buds
(fig. 248). The most elaborate specimens combine these subjects with the
human figure. A young girl, clad in a mere girdle, is represented in the
act of swimming (fig. 249). Her head is well lifted above the water, and
her outstretched arms support a duck, the body of which is hollowed out,
while the wings, being movable, serve as a cover. We have also a young girl
in the Louvre collection, but she stands in a maze of lotus plants (fig.
250), and is in the act of gathering a bud. A bunch of stems, from which
emerge two full-blown blossoms, unites the handle to the bowl of the spoon,
which is in reverse position, the larger end being turned outwards and the
point inwards. Elsewhere, a young girl (fig. 251) playing upon a long-
necked lute as she trips along, is framed in by two flowering stems.
Sometimes the fair musician is standing upright in a tiny skiff (fig. 252);
and sometimes a girl bearing offerings is substituted for the lute player.
Another example represents a slave toiling under the weight of an enormous
sack. The age and physiognomy of each of these personages is clearly
indicated. The lotus gatherer is of good birth, as may be seen by her
carefully plaited hair and tunic. The Theban ladies wore long robes; but
this damsel has gathered up her skirts that she may thread her way among
the reeds without wetting her garments. The two musicians and the swimming
girl belong, on the contrary, to an inferior, or servile, class. Two of
them wear only a girdle, and the third has a short garment negligently
fastened. The bearer of offerings (fig. 253) wears the long pendent tresses
distinctive of childhood, and is one of those slender, growing girls of the
fellahîn class whom one sees in such numbers on the banks of the Nile. Her
lack of clothing is, however, no evidence of want of birth, for not even
the children of nobility were wont to put on the garments of their sex
before the period of adolescence. Lastly, the slave (fig. 254), with his
thick lips, his high shoulders, his flat nose, his heavy, animal jaw, his
low brow, and his bare, conical head, is evidently a caricature of some
foreign prisoner. The dogged sullenness with which he trudges under his
burden is admirably caught, while the angularities of the body, the type of
the head, and the general arrangement of the parts, remind one of the
terra-cotta grotesques of Asia Minor. In these subjects, all the minor
details, the fruits, the flowers, the various kinds of birds, are rendered
with much truth and cleverness. Of the three ducks which are tied by the
feet and slung over the arms of the girl bearing offerings, two are
resigned to their fate, and hang swinging with open eyes and outstretched
necks; but the third flaps her wings and lifts her head protestingly. The
two small water-fowl perched upon the lotus flowers listen placidly to the
lute-player's music, their beaks resting on their crops. They have learned
by experience not to put themselves out of the way for a song, and they
know that there is nothing to fear from a young girl, unless she is armed.
They are put to flight in the bas-reliefs by the mere sight of a bow and
arrows, just as a company of rooks is put to flight nowadays by the sight
of a gun. The Egyptians were especially familiar with the ways of animals
and birds, and reproduced them with marvellous exactness. The habit of
minutely observing minor facts became instinctive, and it informed their
most trifling works with that air of reality which strikes us so forcibly
at the present day.

[Illustration: Fig. 254.--Spoon.]

Household furniture was no more abundant in ancient Egypt than it is in the
Egypt of to-day. In the time of the Twelfth Dynasty an ordinary house
contained no bedsteads, but low frameworks like the Nubian _angareb_; or
mats rolled up by day on which the owners lay down at night in their
clothes, pillowing their heads on earthenware, stone, or wooden head-rests.
There were also two or three simple stone seats, some wooden chairs or
stools with carved legs, chests and boxes of various sizes for clothes and
tools, and a few common vessels of pottery or bronze. For making fire there
were fire-sticks, and the bow-drill for using them (figs. 255 and 181);
children's toys were even then found in great variety though of somewhat
quaint construction. There were dolls with wigs and movable limbs, made in
stone, pottery, and wood (fig. 256); figures of men, and animals, and
terra-cotta boats, balls of wood and stuffed leather, whip-tops, and tip-
cats (fig. 257).

[Illustration: Fig. 255.--Fire-sticks, bow, and unfinished drill-stock,
Twelfth Dynasty; _Illahûn, Kahun, and Gurob,_ W.M.F. Petrie, Plate VII., p.
11.]

[Illustration: Fig. 256.--Remains of two Twelfth Dynasty dolls; _Kahun,
Gurob and Hawara,_ W.M.F. Petrie, Plate VIII. p. 30.]

[Illustration: Fig. 257.--Tops, tip-cat, and a terra-cotta toy boat,
Twelfth Dynasty; _Kahun, Gurob, and Hawara,_ W.M.F. Petrie, Plates VIII.,
IX., p. 30.]

[Illustration: Fig. 258.--Chest]

[Illustration: Fig. 259.--Chest.]

[Illustration: Fig. 260.--Chest.]

The art of the cabinet-maker was nevertheless carried to a high degree of
perfection, from the time of the ancient dynasties. Planks were dressed
down with the adze, mortised, glued, joined together by means of pegs cut
in hard wood, or acacia thorns (never by metal nails), polished, and
finally covered with paintings. Chests generally stand upon four straight
legs, and are occasionally thus raised to some height from the ground. The
lid is flat, or rounded according to a special curvature (fig. 258) much in
favour among the Egyptians of all periods. Sometimes, though rarely, it is
gable-shaped, like our house-roofs (fig. 259). Generally speaking, the lid
lifts off bodily; but it often turns upon a peg inserted in one of the
uprights. Sometimes, also, it turns upon wooden pivots (fig. 260). The
panels, which are large and admirably suited for decorative art, are
enriched with paintings, or inlaid with ivory, silver, precious woods, or
enamelled plaques. It may be that we are scarcely in a position justly to
appraise the skill of Egyptian cabinet-makers, or the variety of designs
produced at various periods. Nearly all the furniture which has come down
to our day has been found in tombs, and, being destined for burial in the
sepulchre, may either be of a character exclusively destined for the use of
the mummy, or possibly a cheap imitation of a more precious class of
goods.

The mummy was, in fact, the cabinet-maker's best customer. In other lands,
man took but a few objects with him into the next world; but the defunct
Egyptian required nothing short of a complete outfit. The mummy-case alone
was an actual monument, in the construction of which a whole squad of
workmen was employed (fig. 261). The styles of mummy-cases varied from
period to period. Under the Memphite and first Theban empires, we find only
rectangular chests in sycamore wood, flat at top and bottom, and made of
many pieces joined together by wooden pins. The pattern is not elegant, but
the decoration is very curious. The lid has no cornice. Outside, it is
inscribed down the middle with a long column of hieroglyphs, sometimes
merely written in ink, sometimes laid on in colour, sometimes carved in
hollowed-out signs filled in with some kind of bluish paste. The
inscription records only the name and titles of the deceased, accompanied
now and then by a short form of prayer in his favour. The inside is covered
with a thick coat of stucco or whitewash.

[Illustration: Fig. 261.--Construction of a mummy-case, wall scene,
Eighteenth Dynasty.]

[Illustration: Fig. 262.--Mask of Twenty-first Dynasty coffin of Rameses
II.]

[Illustration: Fig. 263.--Mummy-case of Queen Ahmesnefertari.]

Upon this surface, the seventeenth chapter of _The Book of the Dead _was
generally written in red and black inks, and in fine cursive hieroglyphs.
The body of the chest is made with three horizontal planks for the bottom,
and eight vertical planks, placed two and two, for the four sides. The
outside is sometimes decorated with long strips of various colours ending
in interlaced lotus-leaves, such as are seen on stone sarcophagi. More
frequently, it is ornamented on the left side with two wide-open eyes and
two monumental doors, and on the right with three doors exactly like those
seen in contemporary catacombs. The sarcophagus is in truth the house of
the deceased; and, being his house, its four walls were bound to contain an
epitome of the prayers and _tableaux_ which covered the walls of his tomb.
The necessary formulae and pictured scenes were, therefore, reproduced
inside, nearly in the same order in which they appear in the mastabas. Each
side is divided in three registers, each register containing a dedication
in the name of the deceased, or representations of objects belonging to
him, or such texts from the Ritual as need to be repeated for his benefit.
Skilfully composed, and painted upon a background made to imitate some
precious wood, the whole forms a boldly-designed and harmoniously-coloured
picture. The cabinet-maker's share of the work was the lightest, and the
long boxes in which the dead of the earliest period were buried made no
great demand upon his skill. This, however, was not the case when in later
times the sarcophagus came to be fashioned in the likeness of the human
body. Of this style we have two leading types. In the most ancient, the
mummy serves as the model for his case. His outstretched feet and legs are
in one. The form of the knee, the swell of the calf, the contours of the
thigh and the trunk, are summarily indicated, and are, as it were, vaguely
modelled under the wood. The head, apparently the only living part of this
inert body, is wrought out in the round. The dead man is in this wise
imprisoned in a kind of statue of himself; and this statue is so well
balanced that it can stand on its feet if required, as upon a pedestal. In
the other type of sarcophagus, the deceased lies at full length upon his
tomb, and his figure, sculptured in the round, serves as the lid of his
mummy-case. On his head is seen the ponderous wig of the period. A white
linen vest and a long petticoat cover his chest and legs. His feet are shod
with elegant sandals. His arms lie straight along his sides, or are folded
upon his breast, the hands grasping various emblems, as the _Ankh_, the
girdle-buckle, the _Tat_;[69] or, as in the case of the wife of Sennetmû at
Gizeh, a garland of ivy. This mummiform type of sarcophagus is rarely met
with under the Memphite dynasties, though that of Menkara, the Mycerinus of
the Greeks, affords a memorable example. Under the Eleventh Dynasty, the
mummy-case is frequently but a hollowed tree-trunk, roughly sculptured
outside, with a head at one end and feet at the other. The face is daubed
with bright colours, yellow, red, and green; the wig and headdress are
striped with black and blue, and an elaborate collar is depicted on the
breast. The rest of the case is either covered with the long, gilded wings
of Isis and Nephthys, or with a uniform tint of white or yellow, and
sparsely decorated with symbolic figures, or columns of hieroglyphs painted
blue and black. Among the sarcophagi belonging to kings of the Seventeenth
Dynasty which I recovered from Deir el Baharî, the most highly finished
belonged to this type, and were only remarkable for the really
extraordinary skill with which the craftsman had reproduced the features of
the deceased sovereigns. The mask of Ahmes I., that of Amenhotep I., and
that of Thothmes II., are masterpieces in their way. The mask of Rameses
II. shows no sign of paint, except a black line which accentuates the form
of the eye. The face is doubtless modelled in the likeness of the Pharaoh
Herhor, who restored the funerary outfit of his puissant ancestor, and it
will almost bear comparison with the best works of contemporary sculpture
(fig. 262). Two mummy-cases found in the same place--namely, those of Queen
Ahmesnefertari and her daughter, Aahhotep II.--are of gigantic size, and
measure more than ten and a half feet in height (fig. 263). Standing
upright, they might almost be taken for two of the caryatid statues from
the first court at Medinet Habû, though on a smaller scale. The bodies are
represented as bandaged, and but vaguely indicate the contours of the human
form. The shoulders and bust of each are covered with a kind of network in
relief, every mesh standing out in blue upon a yellow ground. The hands
emerge from this mantle, are crossed upon the breast, and grasp the _Ankh_,
or Tau-cross, symbolic of eternal life. The heads are portraits. The faces
are round, the eyes large, the expression mild and characterless. Each is
crowned with the flat-topped cap and lofty plumes of Amen or Maut. We
cannot but wonder for what reason these huge receptacles were made. The two
queens were small of stature, and their mummies--which were well-nigh lost
in the cases--had to be packed round with an immense quantity of rags, to
prevent them from shifting, and becoming injured. Apart from their abnormal
size, these cases are characterised by the same simplicity which
distinguishes other mummy-cases of royal or private persons of the same
period. Towards the middle of the Nineteenth Dynasty, the fashion changed.
The single mummy-case, soberly decorated, was superseded by two, three, and
even four cases, fitting the one into the other, and covered with paintings
and inscriptions. Sometimes the outer receptacle is a sarcophagus with
convex lid and square ears, upon which the deceased is pictured over and
over again upon a white ground, in adoration before the gods of the Osirian
cycle. When, however, it is shaped in human form, it retains somewhat of
the old simplicity. The face is painted; a collar is represented on the
chest, a band of hieroglyphs extends down the whole length of the body to
the feet, and the rest is in one uniform tone of black, brown, or dark
yellow. The inner cases were extravagantly rich, the hands and faces being
red, rose-coloured, or gilded; the jewellery painted, or sometimes imitated
by means of small morsels of enamel encrusted in the wood-work; the
surfaces frequently covered with many-coloured scenes and legends, and the
whole heightened by means of the yellow varnish already mentioned. The
lavish ornamentation of this period is in striking contrast with the
sobriety of earlier times; but in order to grasp the reason of this
change, one must go to Thebes, and visit the actual sepulchres of the dead.
The kings and private persons of the great conquering dynasties[70] devoted
their energies, and all the means at their disposal, to the excavation of
catacombs. The walls of those catacombs were covered with sculptures and
paintings. The sarcophagus was cut in one enormous block of granite or
alabaster, and admirably wrought. It was therefore of little moment if the
wooden coffin in which the mummy reposed were very simply decorated. But
the Egyptians of the decadence, and their rulers, had not the wealth of
Egypt and the spoils of neighbouring countries at command. They were poor;
and the slenderness of their resources debarred them from great
undertakings. They for the most part gave up the preparation of magnificent
tombs, and employed such wealth as remained to them in the fabrication of
fine mummy-cases carved in sycamore wood. The beauty of their coffins,
therefore, but affords an additional proof of their weakness and poverty.
When for a few centuries the Saïte princes had succeeded in re-establishing
the prosperity of the country, stone sarcophagi came once more into
requisition, and the wooden coffin reverted to somewhat of the simplicity
of the great period. But this Renaissance was not destined to last. The
Macedonian conquest brought back the same revolution in funerary fashions
which followed the fall of the Ramessides, and double and triple mummy
cases, over-painted and over-gilded, were again in demand. If the
craftsmen of Graeco-Roman time who attired the dead of Ekhmîm for their
last resting places were less skilful than those of earlier date, their bad
taste was, at all events, not surpassed by the Theban coffin-makers who
lived and worked under the latest princes of the royal line of Rameses.

[Illustration: Fig. 264.--Panel portrait from the Graeco-Roman Cemetery at
Hawara, now in the National Gallery, London. (_Hawara, Biahmu, and
Arsinoe_, W.M.F. Petrie, Plate X., page 10.)]

A series of Graeco-Roman examples from the Fayûm exhibit the stages by
which portraiture in the flat there replaced the modelled mask, until
towards the middle of the second century A.D. it became customary to
bandage over the face of the mummy a panel-portrait of the dead, as he was
in life (fig. 264).

The remainder of the funerary outfit supplied the cabinet-maker with as
much work as the coffin-maker. Boxes of various shapes and sizes were
required for the wardrobe of the mummy, for his viscera, and for his
funerary statuettes. He must also have tables for his meals; stools,
chairs, a bed to lie upon, a boat and sledge to convey him to the tomb, and
sometimes even a war-chariot and a carriage in which to take the air.[71]
The boxes for canopic vases, funerary statuettes, and libation-vases, are
divided in several compartments. A couchant jackal is sometimes placed on
the top, and serves for a handle by which to take off the lid. Each box was
provided with its own little sledge, upon which it was drawn in the funeral
procession on the day of burial. Beds are not very uncommon. Many are
identical in structure with the Nubian _angarebs_, and consist merely of
some coarse fabric, or of interlaced strips of leather, stretched on a
plain wooden frame. Few exceed fifty-six inches in length; the sleeper,
therefore, could never lie outstretched, but must perforce assume a
doubled-up position. The frame is generally horizontal, but sometimes it
slopes slightly downwards from the head to the foot. It was often raised to
a considerable height above the level of the floor, and a stool, or a
little portable set of steps, was used in mounting it. These details were
known to us by the wall-paintings only until I myself discovered two
perfect specimens in 1884 and 1885; one at Thebes, in a tomb of the
Thirteenth Dynasty, and the other at Ekhmîm, in the Graeco-Roman
necropolis. In the former, two accommodating lions have elongated their
bodies to form the framework, their heads doing duty for the head of the
bed, and their tails being curled up under the feet of the sleeper.

[Illustration: Fig. 265.--Carved and painted mummy canopy.]

[Illustration: Fig. 266.--Canopied mummy-couch, Graeco-Roman.]

[Illustration: Fig. 267.--Mummy-sledge and canopy.]

[Illustration: Fig. 268.--Inlaid-chair, Eleventh Dynasty.]

The bed is surmounted by a kind of canopy, under which the mummy lay in
state. Rhind had already found a similar canopy, which is now in the Museum
of Edinburgh[72] (fig. 265). In shape it is a temple, the rounded roof
being supported by elegant colonnettes of painted wood. A doorway guarded
by serpents is supposed to give access to the miniature edifice. Three
winged discs, each larger than the one below it, adorn three superimposed
cornices above the door, the whole frontage being surmounted by a row of
erect uraei, crowned with the solar disc. The canopy belonging to the
Thirteenth Dynasty bed is much more simple, being a mere balustrade in cut
and painted wood, in imitation of the water-plant pattern with which temple
walls were decorated; the whole is crowned with an ordinary cornice. In the
bed of Graeco-Roman date (fig. 266), carved and painted figures of the
goddess Ma, sitting with her feather on her knee, are substituted for the
customary balustrades. Isis and Nephthys stand with their winged arms
outstretched at the head and foot. The roof is open, save for a row of
vultures hovering above the mummy, which is wept over by two kneeling
statuettes of Isis and Nephthys, one at each end. The sledges upon which
mummies were dragged to the sepulchre were also furnished with canopies,
but in a totally different style. The sledge canopy is a panelled shrine,
like those which I discovered in 1886, in the tomb of Sennetmû at Kûrnet
Murraee. If light was admitted, it came through a square opening, showing
the head of the mummy within. Wilkinson gives an illustration of a sledge
canopy of this kind, from the wall paintings of a Theban tomb (fig. 267).
The panels were always made to slide. As soon as the mummy was laid upon
his sledge, the panels were closed, the corniced roof placed over all, and
the whole closed in. With regard to chairs, many of those in the Louvre and
the British Museum were made about the time of the Eleventh Dynasty. These
are not the least beautiful specimens which have come down to us, one in
particular (fig. 268) having preserved an extraordinary brilliancy of
colour. The framework, formerly fitted with a seat of strong netting, was
originally supported on four legs with lions' feet. The back is ornamented
with two lotus flowers, and with a row of lozenges inlaid in ivory and
ebony upon a red ground. Stools of similar workmanship (fig. 269), and
folding stools, the feet of which are in the form of a goose's head, may be
seen in all museums. Pharaohs and persons of high rank affected more
elaborate designs. Their seats were sometimes raised very high, the arms
being carved to resemble running lions, and the lower supports being
prisoners of war, bound back to back (fig. 270). A foot-board in front
served as a step to mount by, and as a foot-stool for the sitter. Up to the
present time, we have found no specimens of this kind of seat.[73]

[Illustration: Fig. 269.--Inlaid stool, Eleventh Dynasty.]

[Illustration: Fig. 270.--Royal throne-chair, wall-painting Rameses III.]

[Illustration: Fig. 271.--Women weaving. From wall-scene in tomb of
Khnûmhotep, Beni Hasan, Twelfth Dynasty.]

We learn from the tomb paintings that netted or cane-bottomed chairs were
covered with stuffed seats and richly worked cushions. These cushions and
stuffed seats have perished, but it is to be concluded that they were
covered with tapestry. Tapestry was undoubtedly known to the Egyptians, and
a bas-relief subject at Beni Hasan (fig. 271)[74] shows the process of
weaving. The frame, which is of the simplest structure, resembles that now
in use among the weavers of Ekhmîm. It is horizontal, and is formed of two
slender cylinders, or rather of two rods, about fifty-four inches apart,
each held in place by two large pegs driven into the ground about three
feet distant from each other. The warps of the chain were strongly
fastened, then rolled round the top cylinder till they were stretched
sufficiently tight. Mill sticks placed at certain distances facilitated the
insertion of the needles which carried the thread. As in the Gobelins
factory, the work was begun from the bottom. The texture was regulated and
equalised by means of a coarse comb, and was rolled upon the lower cylinder
as it increased in length. Hangings and carpets were woven in this manner;
some with figures, others with geometrical designs, zigzags, and chequers
(fig. 272). A careful examination of the monuments has, however, convinced
me that most of the subjects hitherto supposed to represent examples of
tapestry represent, in fact, examples of cut and painted leather. The
leather-worker's craft flourished in ancient Egypt. Few museums are without
a pair of leather sandals, or a specimen of mummy braces with ends of
stamped leather bearing the effigy of a god, a Pharaoh, a hieroglyphic
legend, a rosette, or perhaps all combined. These little relics are not
older than the time of the priest-kings, or the earlier Bubastites. It is
to the same period that we must attribute the great cut-leather canopy in
the Gizeh Museum. The catafalque upon which the mummy was laid when
transported from the mortuary establishment to the tomb, was frequently
adorned with a covering made of stuff or soft leather. Sometimes the
sidepieces hung down, and sometimes they were drawn aside with bands, like
curtains, and showed the coffin.

[Illustration: Fig. 272.--Man weaving hangings, or carpet. From Beni Hasan,
Twelfth Dynasty.]

[Illustration: Fig. 273.--Border pattern of cut leather canopy of
Isiemkheb, Twenty-first Dynasty.]

The canopy of Deir el Baharî was made for the Princess Isiemkheb, daughter
of the High Priest Masahirti, wife of the High Priest Menkheperra, and
mother of the High Priest Pinotem III. The centrepiece, in shape an oblong
square, is divided into three bands of sky-blue leather, now faded to
pearl-grey. The two side-pieces are sprinkled with yellow stars. Upon the
middle piece are rows of vultures, whose outspread wings protect the mummy.
Four other pieces covered with red and green chequers are attached to the
ends and sides. The longer pieces which hung over the sides are united to
the centre-piece by an ornamental bordering. On the right, scarabaei with
extended wings alternate with the cartouches of King Pinotem II., and are
surmounted by a lance-head frieze. On the left side, the pattern is more
complicated (fig. 273). In the centre we see a bunch of lotus lilies
flanked by royal cartouches. Next come two antelopes, each kneeling upon a
basket; then two bouquets of papyrus; then two more scarabaei, similar to
those upon the other border. The lance-head frieze finishes it above, as on
the opposite side. The technical process is very curious. The hieroglyphs
and figures were cut out from large pieces of leather; then, under the open
spaces thus left, were sewn thongs of leather of whatever colour was
required for those ornaments or hieroglyphs. Finally, in order to hide the
patchwork effect presented at the back, the whole was lined with long
strips of white, or light yellow, leather. Despite the difficulties of
treatment which this work presented, the result is most remarkable.[75] The
outlines of the gazelles, scarabaei, and flowers are as clean-cut and as
elegant as if drawn with the pen upon a wall-surface or a page of papyrus.
The choice of subjects is happy, and the colours employed are both lively
and harmonious.

[Illustration: Fig. 274.--Bark with cut leather sail; wall-painting tomb of
Rameses III.]

The craftsmen who designed and executed the canopy of Isiemkheb had
profited by a long experience of this system of decoration, and of the kind
of patterns suitable to the material. For my own part, I have not the
slightest doubt that the cushions of chairs and royal couches, and the
sails of funeral and sacred boats used for the transport of mummies and
divine images, were most frequently made in leather-work. The chequer-
patterned sail represented in one of the boat subjects painted on the wall
of a chamber in the tomb of Rameses III. (fig. 274), might be mistaken for
one of the side pieces of the canopy at Gizeh. The vultures and fantastic
birds depicted upon the sails of another boat (fig. 275) are neither more
strange nor more difficult to make in cut leather than the vultures and
gazelles of Isiemkheb.

[Illustration: Fig. 275.--Bark with cut leather sail; wall-painting tomb of
Rameses III.]

We have it upon the authority of ancient writers that the Egyptians of
olden time embroidered as skilfully as those of the Middle Ages. The
surcoats given by Amasis, one to the Lacedaemonians, and the other to the
temple of Athena at Lindos, were of linen embroidered with figures of
animals in gold thread and purple, each thread consisting of three hundred
and sixty-five distinct filaments. To go back to a still earlier period,
the monumental tableaux show portraits of the Pharaohs wearing garments
with borders, either woven or embroidered, or done in _appliqué_ work. The
most simple patterns consist of one or more stripes of brilliant colour
parallel with the edge of the material. Elsewhere we see palm patterns, or
rows of discs and points, leaf-patterns, meanders, and even, here and
there, figures of men, gods, or animals, worked most probably with the
needle. None of the textile materials yet found upon royal mummies are thus
decorated; we are therefore unable to pronounce upon the quality of this
work, or the method employed in its production. Once only, upon the body of
one of the Deir el Baharî princesses, did I find a royal cartouche
embroidered in pale rose-colour. The Egyptians of the best periods seem to
have attached special value to plain stuffs, and especially to white ones.
These they wove with marvellous skill, and upon looms in every respect
identical with those used in tapestry work. Those portions of the winding
sheet of Thothmes III. which enfolded the royal hands and arms, are as fine
as the finest India muslin, and as fairly merit the name of "woven air" as
the gauzes of the island of Cos. This, of course, is a mere question of
manufacture, apart from the domain of art. Embroideries and tapestries
were not commonly used in Egypt till about the end of the Persian period,
or the beginning of the period of Greek rule. Alexandria became partly
peopled by Phoenician, Syrian, and Jewish colonists, who brought with them
the methods of manufacture peculiar to their own countries, and founded
workshops which soon developed into flourishing establishments. It is to
the Alexandrians that Pliny ascribes the invention of weaving with several
warps, thus producing the stuff called brocades (_polymita_); and in the
time of the first Caesars, it was a recognised fact that "the needle of
Babylon was henceforth surpassed by the comb of the Nile." The Alexandrian
tapestries were not made after exclusively geometrical designs, like the
products of the old Egyptian looms; but, according to the testimony of the
ancients, were enriched with figures of animals, and even of men. Of the
masterpieces which adorned the palaces of the Ptolemies no specimens
remain. Many fragments which may be attributed to the later Roman time
have, however, been found in Egypt, such as the piece with the boy and
goose described by Wilkinson, and a piece representing marine divinities
bought by myself at Coptos.[76] The numerous embroidered winding sheets
with woven borders which have recently been discovered near Ekhmîm, and in
the Fayûm, are nearly all from Coptic tombs, and are more nearly akin to
Byzantine art than to the art of Egypt.


[68] We have a considerable number of specimens of these borderings,
    cartouches, and painted tiles representing foreign prisoners, in the
    British Museum; but the finest examples of the latter are in the
    Ambras Collection, Vienna. For a highly interesting and scholarly
    description of the remains found at Tell el Yahûdeh in 1870, see
    Professor Hayter Lewis's paper in vol. iii. of the _Transactions_
    of the Biblical Archaeological Society.--A.B.E.

[69] The _Tat_ amulet was the emblem of stability.--A.B.E.

[70] That is, the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties.

[71] There is a fine specimen of one of these sledges in the Leyden Museum,
    and the Florentine Museum contains a celebrated Egyptian war-chariot
    in fine preservation.--A.B.E.

[72] See the coloured frontispiece to _Thebes; its Tombs and their
    Tenants_, by A.H. Rhind. 1862.--A.B.E.

[73] Since the publication of this work in the original French, a very
    splendid specimen of a royal Egyptian chair of state, the property of
    Jesse Haworth, Esq., was placed on view at the Manchester Jubilee
    Exhibition. It is made of dark wood, apparently rosewood; the legs
    being shaped like bull's legs, having silver hoofs, and a solid gold
    cobra snake twining round each leg. The arm-pieces are of lightwood
    with cobra snakes carved upon the flat in low relief, each snake
    covered with hundreds of small silver annulets, to represent the
    markings of the reptile. This chair, dated by a fragment of a royal
    cartouche, belonged to Queen Hatshepsût, of the Eighteenth Dynasty. It
    is now in the British Museum.--A.B.E.

[74] In this cut, as well as in the next, the loom is represented as if
    upright; but it is supposed to be extended on the ground.--A.B.E.

[75] For a chromolithographic reproduction of this work as a whole, with
    drawings of the separate parts, facsimiles of the inscriptions, etc.,
    see _The Funeral Tent of an Egyptian Queen_, by H. Villiers
    Stuart.--A.B.E.

[76] An unusually fine specimen of carpet, or tapestry work from Ekhmîm,
    representing Cupids rowing in papyrus skiffs, landscapes, etc., has
    recently been presented to the British Museum by the Rev. G.J.
    Chester. The tapestry found at Ekhmîm is, however, mostly of the
    Christian period, and this specimen probably dates from about A.D. 700
    or A.D. 600.--A.B.E.



3.--METALS.

The Egyptians classified metals under two heads--namely, the noble metals,
as gold, electrum, and silver; and the base metals, as copper, iron, lead,
and, at a later period, tin. The two lists are divided by the mention of
certain kinds of precious stones, such as lapis lazuli and malachite.

Iron was reserved for weapons of war, and tools, in use for hard
substances, such as sculptors' and masons' chisels, axe and adze heads,
knife-blades, and saws. Lead was comparatively useless, but was sometimes
used for inlaying temple-doors, coffers, and furniture. Also small
statuettes of gods were occasionally made in this metal, especially those
of Osiris and Anubis. Copper was too yielding to be available for objects
in current use; bronze, therefore, was the favourite metal of the
Egyptians. Though often affirmed, it is not true that they succeeded in
tempering bronze so that it became as hard as iron or steel; but by varying
the constituents and their relative proportions, they were able to give it
a variety of very different qualities. Most of the objects hitherto
analysed have yielded precisely the same quantities of copper and tin
commonly used by the bronze founders of the present day. Those analysed by
Vauquelin in 1825 contained 84 per cent. of copper 14 per cent. of tin, and
1 per cent. of iron and other substances. A chisel brought from Egypt by
Sir Gardner Wilkinson contained only from 5 to 9 per cent. of tin, 1 per
cent. of iron, and 94 of copper. Certain fragments of statuettes and
mirrors more recently subjected to analysis have yielded a notable quantity
of gold and silver, thus corresponding with the bronzes of Corinth. Other
specimens resemble brass, both in their colour and substance. Many of the
best Egyptian bronzes offer a surprising resistance to damp, and oxidise
with difficulty. While yet hot from the mould, they were rubbed with some
kind of resinous varnish which filled up the pores and deposited an
unalterable patina upon the surface. Each kind of bronze had its special
use. The ordinary bronze was employed for weapons and common amulets; the
brazen alloys served for household utensils; the bronzes mixed with gold
and silver were destined only for mirrors, costly weapons, and statuettes
of value. In none of the tomb-paintings which I have seen is there any
representation of bronze-founding or bronze-working; but this omission is
easily supplemented by the objects themselves. Tools, arms, rings, and
cheap vases were sometimes forged, and sometimes cast whole in moulds of
hard clay or stone. Works of art were cast in one or several pieces
according to circumstances; the parts were then united, soldered, and
retouched with the burin. The method most frequently employed was to
prepare a core of mixed clay and charcoal, or sand, which roughly
reproduced the modelling of the mould into which it was introduced. The
layer of metal between this core and the mould was often so thin that it
would have yielded to any moderate pressure, had they not taken the
precaution to consolidate it by having the core for a support.

[Illustration: Fig. 276.--Bronze jug.]

[Illustration: Fig. 277.--Same jug seen from above.]

Domestic utensils and small household instruments were mostly made in
bronze. Such objects are exhibited by thousands in our museums, and
frequently figure in bas-reliefs and mural paintings. Art and trade were
not incompatible in Egypt; and even the coppersmith sought to give elegance
of form, and to add ornaments in a good style, to the humblest of his
works. The saucepan in which the cook of Rameses III. concocted his
masterpieces is supported on lions' feet. Here is a hot-water jug which
looks as if it were precisely like its modern successors (fig. 276); but on
a closer examination we shall find that the handle is a full-blown lotus,
the petals, which are bent over at an angle to the stalk, resting against
the edge of the neck (fig. 277). The handles of knives and spoons are
almost always in the form of a duck's or goose's neck, slightly curved. The
bowl is sometimes fashioned like an animal--as, for instance, a gazelle
ready bound for the sacrifice (fig. 278). On the hilt of a sabre we find a
little crouching jackal; and the larger limb of a pair of scissors in the
Gizeh Museum is made in the likeness of an Asiatic captive, his arms tied
behind his back. A lotus leaf forms the disk of a mirror, and its stem is
the handle. One perfume box is a fish, another is a bird, another is a
grotesque deity. The lustration vases, or _situlae_, carried by priests and
priestesses for the purpose of sprinkling either the faithful, or the
ground traversed by religious processions, merit the special consideration
of connoisseurs. They are ovoid or pointed at the bottom, and decorated
with subjects either chased or in relief. These sometimes represent
deities, each in a separate frame, and sometimes scenes of worship. The
work is generally very minute.

[Illustration: Fig. 278.--Spoon (or lamp?).]

[Illustration: Fig. 279.--Bronze statuette of the Lady Takûshet.]

[Illustration: Fig. 280.--Bronze statuette of Horus.]

[Illustration: Fig. 281.--Bronze statuette of one Mosû.]

Bronze came into use for statuary purposes from a very early period; but
time unfortunately has preserved none of those idols which peopled the
temples of the ancient empire. Whatsoever may be said to the contrary, we
possess no bronze statuettes of any period anterior to the expulsion of the
Hyksos. Some Theban figures date quite certainly from the Eighteenth and
Nineteenth Dynasties. The chased lion's head found with the jewels of Queen
Aahhotep, the Harpocrates of Gizeh inscribed with the names of Kames and
Ahmes I., and several statuettes of Amen, said to have been discovered at
Medinet Habû and Sheikh Abd el Gûrneh, are of that period. Our most
important bronzes belong, however, to the Twenty-second Dynasty, or, later
still, to the time of the Saïte Pharaohs. Many are not older than the first
Ptolemies. A fragment found in the ruins of Tanis and now in the
possession of Count Stroganoff, formed part of a votive statue dedicated by
King Pisebkhanû. It was originally two-thirds the size of life, and is the
largest specimen known. A portrait statuette of the Lady Takûshet, given to
the Museum of Athens by M. Demetrio, the four statuettes from the Posno
collection now at the Louvre, and the kneeling genius of Gizeh, are all
from the site of Bubastis, and date probably from the years which
immediately preceded the accession of Psammetichus I. The Lady Takûshet is
standing, the left foot advanced, the right arm hanging down, the left
raised and brought close to the body (fig. 279). She wears a short robe
embroidered with religious subjects, and has bracelets on her arms and
wrists. Upon her head she has a wig with flat curls, row above row. The
details both of her robe and jewels are engraved in incised lines upon the
surface of the bronze, and inlaid with silver threads. The face is
evidently a portrait, and represents a woman of mature age. The form,
according to the traditions of Egyptian art, is that of a younger woman,
slender, firm, and supple. The copper in this bronze is largely intermixed
with gold, thus producing a chastened lustre which is admirably suited to
the richness of the embroidered garment. The kneeling genius of Gizeh is as
rude and repellent as the Lady Takûshet is delicate and harmonious. He has
a hawk's head, and he worships the sun, as is the duty of the Heliopolitan
genii. His right arm is uplifted, his left is pressed to his breast. The
style of the whole is dry, and the granulated surface of the skin adds to
the hard effect of the figure. The action, however, is energetic and
correct, and the bird's head is adjusted with surprising skill to the man's
neck and shoulders. The same qualities and the same faults distinguish the
Horus of the Posno collection (fig. 280). Standing, he uplifted a libation
vase; now lost, and poured the contents upon a king who once stood face to
face with him. This roughness of treatment is less apparent in the other
three Posno figures; above all in that which bears the name of Mosû
engraved over the place of the heart (fig. 281). Like the Horus, this Mosû
stands upright, his left foot advanced, and his left arm pendent. His right
hand is raised, as grasping the wand of office. The trunk is naked, and
round his loins he wears a striped cloth with a squared end falling in
front. His head is clad in a short wig covered with short curls piled one
above the other. The ear is round and large. The eyes are well opened, and
were originally of silver; but have been stolen by some Arab. The features
have a remarkable expression of pride and dignity. After these, what can be
said for the thousands of statuettes of Osiris, of Isis, of Nephthys, of
Horus, of Nefertûm, which have been found in the sands and ruins of
Sakkarah, Bubastis, and other cities of the Delta? Many are, without doubt,
charming objects for glass-cases, and are to be admired for perfection of
casting and delicacy of execution; but the greater number are mere
articles of commerce, made upon the same pattern, and perhaps in the self-
same moulds, century after century, for the delight of devotees and
pilgrims. They are rounded, vulgar, destitute of originality, and have no
more distinction than the thousands of coloured statuettes of saints and
Virgins which stock the shelves of our modern dealers in pious wares. An
exception must, however, be made in favour of the images of animals, such
as rams, sphinxes, and lions, which to the last retained a more pronounced
stamp of individuality. The Egyptians had a special predilection for the
feline race. They have represented the lion in every attitude--giving chase
to the antelope; springing upon the hunter; wounded, and turning to bite
his wound; couchant, and disdainfully calm--and no people have depicted him
with a more thorough knowledge of his habits, or with so intense a
vitality. Several gods and goddesses, as Shû, Anhûr, Bast, Sekhet, Tefnût,
have the form of the lion or of the cat; and inasmuch as the worship of
these deities was more popular in the Delta than elsewhere, so there never
passes a year when from amid the ruins of Bubastis, Tanis, Mendes, or some
less famous city, there is not dug up a store of little figures of lions
and lionesses, or of men and women with lions' heads, or cats' heads. The
cats of Bubastis and the lions of Tell es Seba crowd our museums. The lions
of Horbeit may be reckoned among the _chefs-d'oeuvre_ of Egyptian statuary.
Upon one of the largest among them is inscribed the name of Apries (fig.
282); but if even this evidence were lacking, the style of the piece would
compel us to attribute it to the Saïte period. It formed part of the
ornamentation of a temple or naos door; and the other side was either built
into a wall or imbedded in a piece of wood. The lion is caught in a trap,
or, perhaps, lying down in an oblong cage, with only his head and fore feet
outside. The lines of the body are simple and full of power; the expression
of the face is calm and strong. In breadth and majesty he almost equals the
fine limestone lions of Amenhotep III.

[Illustration: Fig. 282.--Bronze lion from Horbeit, Saïte.]

[Illustration: Fig. 283.--Gold worker.]

The idea of inlaying gold and other precious metals upon the surface of
bronze, stone, or wood was already ancient in Egypt in the time of Khûfû.
The gold is often amalgamated with pure silver. When amalgamated to the
extent of 20 per cent, it changes its name, and is called electrum
(_asimû_). This electrum is of a fine light-yellow colour. It pales as the
proportion of silver becomes larger, and at 60 per cent. it is nearly
white. The silver came chiefly from Asia, in rings, sheets, and bricks of
standard weight. The gold and electrum came partly from Syria in bricks and
rings; and partly from the Soudan in nuggets and gold-dust. The processes
of refining and alloying are figured on certain monuments of the early
dynasties. In a bas-relief at Sakkarah, we see the weighed gold entrusted
to the craftsman for working; in another example (at Beni Hasan) the
washing and melting down of the ore is represented; and again at Thebes,
the goldsmith is depicted seated in front of his crucible, holding the
blow-pipe to his lips with the left hand, and grasping his pincers with the
right, thus fanning the flame and at the same time making ready to seize
the ingot (fig. 283). The Egyptians struck neither coins nor medals. With
these exceptions, they made the same use of the precious metals as we do
ourselves. We gild the crosses and cupolas of our churches; they covered
the doors of their temples, the lower part of their wall-surfaces, certain
bas-reliefs, pyramidions of obelisks, and even whole obelisks, with plates
of gold. The obelisks of Queen Hatshepsût at Karnak were coated with
electrum. "They were visible from both banks of the Nile, and when the sun
rose between them as he came up from the heavenly horizon, they flooded the
two Egypts with their dazzling rays."[77] These plates of metal were forged
with hammer and anvil. For smaller objects, they made use of little pellets
beaten flat between two pieces of parchment. In the Museum of the Louvre we
have a gilder's book, and the gold-leaf which it contains is as thin as
the gold-leaf used by the German goldsmiths of the past century. Gold was
applied to bronze surfaces by means of an ammoniacal solvent. If the object
to be gilt were a wooden statuette, the workman began by sticking a piece
of fine linen all over the surface, or by covering it with a very thin coat
of plaster; upon this he laid his gold or silver leaf. It was thus that
wooden statuettes of Thoth, Horus, and Nefertûm were gilded, from the time
of Khûfû. The temple of Isis, the "Lady of the Pyramid," contained a dozen
such images; and this temple was not one of the largest in the Memphite
necropolis. There would seem to have been hundreds of gilded statues in the
Theban temples, at all events in the time of the victorious dynasties of
the new empire; and as regards wealth, the Ptolemaic sanctuaries were in no
wise inferior to those of the Theban period.

Bronze and gilded wood were not always good enough for the gods of Egypt.
They exacted pure gold, and their worshippers gave them as much of it as
possible. Entire statues of the precious metals were dedicated by the kings
of the ancient and middle empires; and the Pharaohs of the Eighteenth and
Nineteenth Dynasties, who drew at will upon the treasures of Asia,
transcended all that had been done by their predecessors. Even in times of
decadence, the feudal lords kept up the traditions of the past, and, like
Prince Mentûemhat, replaced the images of gold and silver which had been
carried off from Karnak by the generals of Sardanapalus at the time of the
Assyrian invasions. The quantity of metal thus consecrated to the service
of the gods must have been considerable, If many figures were less than an
inch in height, many others measured three cubits, or more. Some were of
gold, some of silver; others were part gold and part silver. There were
even some which combined gold with sculptured ivory, ebony, and precious
stones, thus closely resembling the chryselephantine statues of the Greeks.
Aided by the bas-relief subjects of Karnak, Medinet Habû, and Denderah, as
well as by the statues in wood and limestone which have come down to our
day, we can tell exactly what they were like. However the material might
vary, the style was always the same. Nothing is more perishable than works
of this description. They are foredoomed to destruction by the mere value
of the materials in which they are made. What civil war and foreign
invasion had spared, and what had chanced to escape the rapacity of Roman
princes and governors, fell a prey to Christian iconoclasm. A few tiny
statuettes buried as amulets upon the bodies of mummies, a few domestic
divinities buried in the ruins of private houses, a few ex-votos forgotten,
perchance, in some dark corner of a fallen sanctuary, have escaped till the
present day. The Ptah and Amen of Queen Aahhotep, another golden Amen also
at Gizeh, and the silver vulture found in 1885 at Medinet Habû, are the
only pieces of this kind which can be attributed with certainty to the
great period of Egyptian art. The remainder are of Saïte or Ptolemaic work,
and are remarkable only for the perfection with which they are wrought. The
gold and silver vessels used in the service of the temples, and in the
houses of private persons, shared the fate of the statues. At the beginning
of the present century, the Louvre acquired some flat-bottomed cups which
Thothmes III. presented as the reward of valour to one of his generals
named Tahûti. The silver cup is much mutilated, but the golden cup is
intact and elegantly designed (fig. 284). The upright sides are adorned
with a hieroglyphic legend. A central rosette is engraved at the bottom.
Six fish are represented in the act of swimming round the rosette; and
these again are surrounded by a border of lotus-bells united by a curved
line. The five vases of Thmûis, in the Gizeh Museum, are of silver. They
formed part of the treasure of the temple, and had been buried in a hiding-
place, where they remained till our own day. We have no indication of their
probable age; but whether they belong to the Greek or the Theban period,
the workmanship is purely Egyptian. Of one vessel, only the cover is left,
the handle being formed of two flowers upon one stem. The others are
perfect, and are decorated in _repoussé_ work with lotus-lilies in bud and
blossom (fig. 285).

[Illustration: Fig. 284.--Golden cup of General Tahûti, Eighteenth
Dynasty.]

[Illustration: Fig. 285.--Silver vase of Thmûis.]

The form is simple and elegant, the ornamentation sober and delicate; the
relief low. One is, however, surrounded by a row of ovoid bosses (fig.
286), which project in high relief, and somewhat alter the shape of the
body of the vase. These are interesting specimens; but they are so few in
number that, were it not for the wall-paintings, we should have but a very
imperfect idea of the skill of the Egyptian goldsmiths.

[Illustration: Fig. 286.--Silver vase of Thmûis.]

[Illustration: Fig. 287.--Ornamental basket in precious metal. From wall-
painting, Twentieth Dynasty.]

[Illustration: Fig. 288.--Crater of precious metal, borne by slaves. Wall-
painting, Eighteenth Dynasty.]

[Illustration: Fig. 289.--Hydria of precious metal. Wall-painting,
Eighteenth Dynasty.]

[Illustration: Fig. 290.--Enamelled cruet. Wall-painting, Eighteenth
Dynasty.]

[Illustration: Fig. 291.--Enamelled cruet. Wall-painting, Eighteenth
Dynasty.]

[Illustration: Fig. 292.--Gold centre-piece of Amenhotep III. Wall-
painting, Eighteenth Dynasty.]

The Pharaohs had not our commercial resources, and could not circulate the
gold and silver tribute-offerings of conquered nations in the form of coin.
When the gods had received their share of the booty, there was no
alternative but to melt the rest down into ingots, fashion it into personal
ornaments, or convert it into gold and silver plate. What was true of the
kings held good also for their subjects. For the space of at least six or
eight centuries, dating from the time of Ahmes I., the taste for plate was
carried to excess. Every good house was not only stocked with all that was
needful for the service of the table, such as cups, goblets, plates, ewers,
and ornamental baskets chased with figures of fantastic animals (fig. 287);
but also with large ornamental vases which were dressed with flowers, and
displayed to visitors on gala days. Some of these vases were of
extraordinary richness. Here, for instance, is a crater, the handles
modelled as two papyrus buds, and the foot as a full-blown papyrus. Two
Asiatic slaves in sumptuous garments are represented in the act of
upheaving it with all their strength (fig. 288). Here, again, is a kind of
hydria with a lid in the form of an inverted lotus flanked by the heads of
two gazelles (fig. 289). The heads and necks of two horses, bridled and
fully caparisoned, stand back to back on either side of the foot of the
vase. The body is divided into a series of horizontal zones, the middle
zone being in the likeness of a marshland, with an antelope coursing at
full speed among the reeds. Two enamelled cruets (fig. 290) have
elaborately wrought lids, one fashioned as the head of a plumed eagle, and
the other as the head of the god Bes flanked by two vipers (fig. 291). But
foremost among them all is a golden centrepiece offered by a viceroy of
Ethiopia to Amenhotep III. The design reproduces one of the most popular
subjects connected with the foreign conquests of Egypt (fig. 292). Men and
apes are seen gathering fruits in a forest of dôm palms. Two natives, each
with a single feather on his head and a striped kilt about his loins, lead
tame giraffes with halters. Others, apparently of the same nationality,
kneel with upraised hands, as if begging for quarter. Two negro prisoners
lying face downwards upon the ground, lift their heads with difficulty. A
large vase with a short foot and a lofty cone-shaped cover stands amid the
trees.[78] The craftsmen who made this piece evidently valued elegance and
beauty less than richness. They cared little for the heavy effect and bad
taste of the whole, provided only that they were praised for their skill,
and for the quantity of metal which they had succeeded in using. Other
vases of the same type, pictured in a scene of presentations to Rameses II.
in the great temple of Abû Simbel, vary the subject by showing buffaloes
running in and out among the trees, in place of led giraffes. These were
costly playthings wrought in gold, such as the Byzantine emperors of the
ninth century accumulated in their palace of Magnaura, and which they
exhibited on state occasions in order to impress foreigners with a profound
sense of their riches and power. When a victorious Pharaoh returned from a
distant campaign, the vessels of gold and silver which formed part of his
booty figured in the triumphal procession, together with his train of
foreign captives. Vases in daily use were of slighter make and less
encumbered with inconvenient ornaments. The two leopards which serve as
handles to a crater of the time of Thothmes III. (fig. 293) are not well
proportioned, neither do they combine agreeably with the curves of the
vase; but the accompanying cup (fig. 294), and a cruet belonging to the
same service (fig. 295), are very happily conceived, and have much purity
of form. These vessels of engraved and _repoussé_ gold and silver, some
representing hunting scenes and incidents of battle, were imitated by
Phoenician craftsmen, and, being exported to Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy,
carried Egyptian patterns and subjects into distant lands. The passion for
precious metals was pushed to such extremes under the reigns of the
Ramessides that it was no longer enough to use them only at table.

[Illustration: Fig. 293.--Crater of precious metal. Wall-painting,
Eighteenth Dynasty.]

[Illustration: Fig. 294.--Cup of precious metal. Wall-painting, Eighteenth
Dynasty.]

[Illustration: Fig. 295.--Cruet of precious metal. Wall-painting,
Eighteenth Dynasty.]

Rameses II. and Rameses III. had thrones of gold--not merely of wood
plated with gold, but made of the solid metal and set with precious stones.
These things were too valuable to escape destruction, and were the first to
disappear. Their artistic value, however, by no means equalled their
intrinsic value, and the loss is not one for which we need be inconsolable.

[Illustration: Fig. 296.--Bezel signet-ring.]

[Illustration: Fig. 297.--Gold _cloisonné_ pectoral bearing cartouche of
Ûsertesen III. From Dahshûr, found 1894, and now in the Gizeh Museum.]

Orientals, men and women alike, are great lovers of jewellery. The
Egyptians were no exception to this rule. Not satisfied to adorn themselves
when living with a profusion of trinkets, they loaded the arms, the
fingers, the neck, the ears, the brow, and the ankles of their dead with
more or less costly ornaments. The quantity thus buried in tombs was so
considerable that even now, after thirty centuries of active search, we
find from time to time mummies which are, so to say, cuirassed in gold.
Much of this funerary jewellery was made merely for show on the day of the
funeral, and betrays its purpose by the slightness of the workmanship. The
favourite jewels of the deceased person were, nevertheless, frequently
buried with him, and the style and finish of these leave nothing to be
desired. Chains and rings have come down to us in large numbers, as indeed
might be expected. The ring, in fact, was not a simple ornament, but an
actual necessary. Official documents were not signed, but sealed; and the
seal was good in law. Every Egyptian, therefore, had his seal, which he
kept about his person, ready for use if required. The poor man's seal was a
simple copper or silver ring; the ring of the rich man was a more or less
elaborate jewel covered with chasing and relief work. The bezel was
movable, and turned upon a pivot. It was frequently set with some kind of
stone engraved with the owner's emblem or device; as, for example, a
scorpion (fig. 296), a lion, a hawk, or a cynocephalous ape. As in the eyes
of her husband his ring was the one essential ornament, so was her necklace
in the estimation of the Egyptian lady. I have seen a chain in silver which
measured sixty-three inches in length. Others, on the contrary, do not
exceed two, or two and a half inches. They are of all sizes and patterns,
some consisting of two or three twists, some of large links, some of small
links, some massive and heavy, others as light and flexible as the finest
Venetian filigree. The humblest peasant girl, as well as the lady of
highest rank, might have her necklet; and the woman must be poor indeed
whose little store comprised no other ornament. No mere catalogue of
bracelets, diadems, collarettes, or insignia of nobility could give an idea
of the number and variety of jewels known to us by pictured representations
or existing specimens. Pectorals of gold _cloisonné_ work inlaid with
vitreous paste or precious stones, and which bear the cartouches of
Amenemhat II., Ûsertesen II., and Ûsertesen III. (fig. 297), exhibit a
marvellous precision of taste, lightness of touch, and dexterity of fine
workmanship. So fresh and delicate are they we forget that the royal ladies
to whom they belonged have been dead, and their bodies stiffened and
disfigured into mummies, for nearly five thousand years. At Berlin may be
seen the _parure_ of an Ethiopian Candace; at the Louvre we have the jewels
of Prince Psar; at Gizeh are preserved the ornaments of Queen Aahhotep.
Aahhotep was the wife of Kames, a king of the Seventeenth Dynasty, and she
was probably the mother of Ahmes I., first king of the Eighteenth Dynasty.
Her mummy had been stolen by one of the robber bands which infested the
Theban necropolis towards the close of the Twentieth Dynasty. They buried
the royal corpse till such time as they might have leisure to despoil it in
safety; and they were most likely seized and executed before they could
carry that pretty little project into effect. The secret of their hiding-
place perished with them, till discovered in 1860 by some Arab diggers.
Most of the objects which this queen took with her into the next world were
exclusively women's gear; as a fan-handle plated with gold, a bronze-gilt
mirror mounted upon an ebony handle enriched with a lotus in chased gold
(fig. 298). Her bracelets are of various types. Some are anklets and
armlets, and consist merely of plain gold rings, both solid and hollow,
bordered with plaited chainwork in imitation of filigree. Others are for
wearing on the wrist, like the bracelets of modern ladies, and are made of
small beads in gold, lapis lazuli, carnelian, and green felspar. These are
strung on gold wire in a chequer pattern, each square divided diagonally in
halves of different colours. Two gold plates, very lightly engraved with
the cartouches of Ahmes I., are connected by means of a gold pin, and form
the fastening. A fine bracelet in the form of two semicircles joined by a
hinge (fig. 299), also bears the name of Ahmes I. The make of this jewel
reminds us of _cloisonné_ enamels. Ahmes kneels in the presence of the god
Seb and his acolytes, the genii of Sop and Khonû.

[Illustration: Fig. 298.--Mirror of Queen Aahhotep.]

[Illustration: Fig. 299.--Bracelet of Queen Aahhotep, bearing cartouche of
King Ahmes I.]

[Illustration: Fig. 300.--Bracelet of Queen Aahhotep.]

[Illustration: Fig. 301.--Diadem of Queen Aahhotep.]

[Illustration: Fig. 302.--Gold "Ûsekh" of Queen Aahhotep.]

[Illustration: Fig. 303.--Pectoral of Queen Aahhotep, bearing cartouche of
King Ahmes I.]

[Illustration: Fig. 304.--Poignard of Queen Aahhotep, bearing cartouche of
King Ahmes.]

[Illustration: Fig. 305.--Poignard of Queen Aahhotep, bearing cartouche of
King Ahmes.]

[Illustration: Fig. 306.--Funerary battle-axe of Queen Aahhotep, bearing
cartouche of King Ahmes I.]

[Illustration: Fig. 307.--Funerary bark of Queen Aahhotep.]

[Illustration: Fig. 308.--Ring of Rameses II.]

[Illustration: Fig. 309.--Bracelet of Prince Psar.]

The figures and hieroglyphs are cut out in solid gold, delicately engraved
with the burin, and stand in relief upon a ground-surface filled in with
pieces of blue paste and lapis lazuli artistically cut. A bracelet of more
complicated workmanship, though of inferior execution, was found on the
wrist of the queen (fig. 300). It is of massive gold, and consists of three
parallel bands set with turquoises. On the front a vulture is represented
with outspread wings, the feathers composed of green enamel, lapis lazuli,
and carnelian, set in "cloisons" of gold. The hair of the mummy was drawn
through a massive gold diadem, scarcely as large as a bracelet. The name of
Ahmes is incrusted in blue paste upon an oblong plaque in the centre,
flanked at each side by two little sphinxes which seem as if in the act of
keeping watch over the inscription (fig. 301). Round her neck was a large
flexible gold chain, finished at each end by a goose's head reversed. These
heads could be linked one in the other, when the chain needed to be
fastened. The scarabaeus pendant to this chain is incrusted upon the
shoulder and wing-sheaths with blue glass paste rayed with gold, the legs
and body being in massive gold. The royal _parure_ was completed by a large
collar of the kind known as the _Ûsekh_ (fig. 302). It is finished at each
end with a golden hawk's head inlaid with blue enamel, and consists of rows
of scrolls, four-petalled fleurettes, hawks, vultures, winged uraei,
crouching jackals, and figures of antelopes pursued by tigers. The whole of
these ornaments are of gold _repoussé_ work, and they were sewn upon the
royal winding sheet by means of a small ring soldered to the back of each.
Upon the breast, below this collar, hung a square jewel of the kind known
as "pectoral ornaments" (fig. 303). The general form is that of a naos, or
shrine. Ahmes stands upright in a papyrus-bark, between Amen and Ra, who
pour the water of purification upon his head and body. Two hawks hover to
right and left of the king, above the heads of the gods. The figures are
outlined in _cloisons_ of gold, and these were filled in with little
plaques of precious stones and enamel, many of which have fallen out. The
effect of this piece is somewhat heavy, and if considered apart from the
rest of the _parure_, its purpose might seem somewhat obscure. In order to
form a correct judgment, we have, however, to remember in what fashion the
women of ancient Egypt were clad. They wore a kind of smock of semi-
transparent material, which came very little higher than the waist. The
chest and bosom, neck and shoulders, were bare; and the one garment was
kept in place by only a slender pair of braces. The rich clothed these
uncovered parts with jewellery. The Ûsekh collar half hid the shoulders and
chest. The pectoral masked the hollow between the breasts. Sometimes even
the breasts were covered with two golden cups, either painted or enamelled.
Besides the jewels found upon the mummy of Queen Aahhotep, a number of arms
and amulets were heaped inside her coffin; namely, three massive gold flies
hanging from a slender chain; nine small hatchets, three of gold and six of
silver; a golden lion's head of very minute workmanship; a wooden sceptre
set in gold spirals; two anklets; and two poignards. One of these poignards
(fig. 304) has a golden sheath and a wooden hilt inlaid with triangular
mosaics of carnelian, lapis lazuli, felspar, and gold. Four female heads in
gold _repoussé_ form the pommel; and a bull's head reversed covers the
junction of blade and hilt. The edges of the blade are of massive gold; the
centre of black bronze damascened with gold. On one side is the solar
cartouche of Ahmes, below which a lion pursues a bull, the remaining space
being filled in with four grasshoppers in a row. On the other side we have
the family name of Ahmes and a series of full-blown flowers issuing one
from another and diminishing towards the point. A poignard found at Mycenae
by Dr. Schliemann is similarly decorated; the Phoenicians, who were
industrious copyists of Egyptian models, probably introduced this pattern
into Greece. The second poignard is of a make not uncommon to this day in
Persia and India (fig. 305). The blade is of yellowish bronze fixed into a
disk-shaped hilt of silver. When wielded, this lenticular[79] disk fits to
the hollow of the hand, the blade coming between the first and second
fingers. Of what use, it may be asked, were all these weapons to a woman--
and a dead woman? To this we may reply that the other world was peopled
with foes--Typhonian genii, serpents, gigantic scorpions, tortoises,
monsters of every description--against which it was incessantly needful to
do battle. The poignards placed inside the coffin for the self-defence of
the soul were useful only for fighting at close quarters; certain weapons
of a projectile kind were therefore added, such as bows and arrows,
boomerangs made in hard wood, and a battle-axe. The handle of this axe is
fashioned of cedar-wood covered with sheet gold (fig. 306). The legend of
Ahmes is inlaid thereon in characters of lapis lazuli, carnelian,
turquoise, and green felspar. The blade is fixed in a cleft of the wood,
and held in place by a plait-work of gold wire. It is of black bronze,
formerly gilt. On one side, it is ornamented with lotus flowers upon a gold
ground; on the other, Ahmes is represented in the act of slaying a
barbarian, whom he grasps by the hair of the head. Beneath this group,
Mentû, the Egyptian war-god, is symbolised by a griffin with the head of an
eagle. In addition to all these objects, there were two small boats, one in
gold and one in silver, emblematic of the bark in which the mummy must
cross the river to her last home, and of that other bark in which she
would ultimately navigate the waters of the West, in company with the
immortal gods. When found, the silver boat rested upon a wooden truck with
four bronze wheels; but as it was in a very dilapidated state, it has been
dismounted and replaced by the golden boat (fig. 307). The hull is long and
slight, the prow and stem are elevated, and terminate in gracefully-curved
papyrus blossoms. Two little platforms surrounded by balustrades on a
panelled ground are at the prow and on the poop, like quarter-decks. The
pilot stands upon the one, and the steersman before the other, with a large
oar in his hand. This oar takes the place of the modern helm. Twelve
boatmen in solid silver are rowing under the orders of these two officers;
Kames himself being seated in the centre, hatchet and sceptre in hand. Such
were some of the objects buried with one single mummy; and I have even now
enumerated only the most remarkable among them. The technical processes
throughout are irreproachable, and the correct taste of the craftsman is in
no wise inferior to his dexterity of hand. Having arrived at the perfection
displayed in the _parure_ of Aahhotep, the goldsmith's art did not long
maintain so high a level. The fashions changed, and jewellery became
heavier in design. The ring of Rameses II., with his horses standing upon
the bezel (fig. 308), and the bracelet of Prince Psar, with his griffins
and lotus flowers in _cloisonné_ enamel (fig. 309), both in the Louvre, are
less happily conceived than the bracelets of Ahmes. The craftsmen who made
these ornaments were doubtless as skilful as the craftsmen of the time of
Queen Aahhotep, but they had less taste and less invention. Rameses II. was
condemned either to forego the pleasure of wearing his ring, or to see his
little horses damaged and broken off by the least accident. Already
noticeable in the time of the Nineteenth Dynasty, this decadence becomes
more marked as we approach the Christian era. The earrings of Rameses IX.
in the Gizeh Museum are an ungraceful assemblage of filigree disks, short
chains, and pendent uraei, such as no human ear could have carried without
being torn, or pulled out of shape. They were attached to each side of the
wig upon the head of the mummy. The bracelets of the High Priest Pinotem
III., found upon his mummy, are mere round rings of gold incrusted with
pieces of coloured glass and carnelian, like those still made by the
Soudanese blacks. The Greek invasion began by modifying the style of
Egyptian gold-work, and ended by gradually substituting Greek types for
native types. The jewels of an Ethiopian queen, purchased from Ferlini by
the Berlin Museum, contained not only some ornaments which might readily
have been attributed to Pharaonic times, but others of a mixed style in
which Hellenic influences are distinctly traceable. The treasure discovered
at Zagazig in 1878, at Keneh in 1881, and at Damanhûr in 1882, consisted of
objects having nothing whatever in common with Egyptian traditions. They
comprise hairpins supporting statuettes of Venus, zone-buckles, agraffes
for fastening the peplum, rings and bracelets set with cameos, and caskets
ornamented at the four corners with little Ionic columns. The old patterns,
however, were still in request in remote provincial places, and village
goldsmiths adhered "indifferent well" to the antique traditions of their
craft. Their city brethren had meanwhile no skill to do aught but make
clumsy copies of Greek and Roman originals.

In this rapid sketch of the industrial arts there are many lacunae. When
referring to examples, I have perforce limited myself to such as are
contained in the best-known collections. How many more might not be
discovered if one had leisure to visit provincial museums, and trace what
the hazard of sales may have dispersed through private collections! The
variety of small monuments due to the industry of ancient Egypt is
infinite, and a methodical study of those monuments has yet to be made. It
is a task which promises many surprises to whomsoever shall undertake it.


[77] From the inscription upon the obelisk of Hatshepsût which is still
    erect at Karnak. For a translation in full see _Records of the
    Past_, vol. xii., p. 131, _et seqq._--A.B.E.

[78] Mr. Petrie suggests that this curious central object may be a royal
    umbrella with flaps of ox-hide and tiger-skin.--A.B.E.

[79] That is, lentil-shaped, or a double convex.--A.B.E.



NOTES TO FIRST ENGLISH EDITION.

_For the following notes, to which reference numbers will be found in the
text, I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. W.M. Flinders Petrie, author of_
"The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh" (Field & Tuer), "Tanis" (_Egypt
Exploration Fund_), "Naukratis" (_Egypt Exploration Fund), etc., etc._

A.B.E.

(1) More striking than these are the towns of Tell Atrib, Kom Baglieh, Kom
Abû Billû, and Tell Nebesheh, the houses of which may be traced without any
special excavations.

(2) There is much skill needed in mixing the mud and sand in such
proportions as to dry properly; when rightly adjusted there is no cracking
in drying, and the grains of sand prevent the mud from being washed away in
the rains.

(3) In the Delta, at least, the sizes of bricks from the Twenty-first
Dynasty down to Arab times decrease very regularly; under the Twenty-first
Dynasty they are about 18 x 9 x 5 inches; early in the Twenty-sixth, 16-1/2
x 8-1/4 x 5; later 15 x 7-1/2; in early Ptolemaic times, 14 x 7; in Roman
times, 12 x 6, in Byzantine times, 10 x 5; and Arab bricks are 8 x 4, and
continue so very generally to our times. The thickness is always least
certain, as it depends on the amount placed in the mould, but the length
and breadth may in most cases be accepted as a very useful chronological
scale.

(4) They are found of Ramesside age at Nebesheh and Defenneh; even there
they are rare, and these are the only cases I have yet seen in Egypt
earlier than about the third century A.D.

(5) This system was sometimes used to raise a fort above the plain, as at
Defenneh; or the chambers formed store-rooms, as at the fort at Naukratis.

(6) In the fine early work at Gizeh they sawed the paving blocks of basalt,
and then ground only just the edges flat, while all the inside of the joint
was picked rough to hold the mortar.

(7) A usual plan in early times was to dress the joint faces of the block
in the quarry, leaving its outer face with a rough excess of a few inches;
the excess still remains on the granite casing of the pyramid of Menkara,
and the result of dressing it away may be seen in the corners of the
granite temple at Gizeh.

(8) Otherwise called the Granite Temple of Gizeh, or Temple of Khafra, as
its connection with the Sphinx is much disputed, while it is in direct
communication with the temple of the pyramid of Khafra, by a causeway in
line with the entrance passage.

(9) The casing of the open air court on the top of it was of fine
limestone; only a few blocks of this remain. For full plan and measurements
see _Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh_.

(10) One of the air slits, or ventilators, remains complete, opening to the
upper court, from the top of the niche chamber.

(11) Below these lines, there is often a scene of offering at the bottom of
the Obelisk.

(12) _Mastaba_ is the Arabic name for a bench or platform, and was applied
by the natives to such tombs on account of the resemblance in shape.

(13) In the few cases where the top remains perfect at Gizeh, the side ends
in a parabolic curve which turns over into the top surface without any
cornice or moulding; the tops of walls in the courts of mastabas are
similar.

(14) Another view is that they are derived from the cumulative mastabas,
such as the so-called step pyramid of Sakkarah.

(15) In the later pyramids; but the Gizeh pyramids are entirely built of
Tûrah limestone.

(16) Still more conclusive is the fact that in the greatest of the pyramids
the passages are such that it would have been impossible to build it by
successive coats of enlargement.

(17) In only one case (that of Menkara) has a pyramid been clearly
enlarged, and that was done at one step and not by many stages.

(18) The earliest--at Gizeh--are very accurate.

(19) These slabs of pavement do not extend beneath the pyramid, but only
around it.

(20) Only fragments of the finest limestone casing have been found; the
variety of colour was probably due to weathering.

(21) This would be impossible with the exquisitely fine joints of the
masonry; a temporary staging of stone built up over part of the finished
face would easily allow of raising the stones.

(22) There is no evidence that the facing block which covered the granite
plugs was of granite; it was more probably of limestone.

(23) The entrance to the upper passages was never forced from the entrance
passage, but was accidentally found by the Arabs, after they had forced a
long tunnel in the masonry, being in ignorance of the real entrance, which
was probably concealed by a hinging block of stone.

(24) Or rather it rose at an angle of 23-1/2°, like the descent of the
entrance passage, thus making angles of 47° and 133° with it.

(25) This gallery has obtained a great reputation for the fineness of its
joints, perhaps because they are coarse enough to be easily seen; but some
joints of the entrance passage, and the joints in the queen's chamber, are
hardly visible with the closest inspection.

(26) The only signs of portcullises are those in the vestibule or
antechamber.

(27) No traces of three of the portcullises remain, if they ever existed,
and the other never could reach the floor or interrupt the passage, so its
use is enigmatical.

(28) There is some evidence that the pyramid was opened in the early days,
perhaps before the middle kingdom.

(29) Two rows of beams which rest on the side wall as corbels or
cantilevers, only touching at the top, without necessarily any thrust. Such
at least is the case in the queen's chamber, and in the pyramid of Pepi,
where such a roof is used.

(30) The end walls have sunk throughout a considerable amount, and the side
walls have separated; thus all the beams of the upper chambers have been
dragged, and every beam of the roof of the chamber is broken through. This
is probably the result of earthquakes.

(31) This only covered the lower sixteen courses; the larger part above it
was of limestone.

(32) Similar finished faces may be seen as far in as near the middle of the
mass. This is not a true pyramid in form, but a cumulative mastaba, the
faces of which are at the mastaba angle (75°), and the successive
enlargements of which are shown by numerous finished facings now within the
masonry. The step form is the result of carrying upwards the mastaba form,
at the same time that it was enlarged outwards.

(33) Not in all cases apparently, for the hieroglyphs on the passage of
Pepi's pyramid are not injured, as they would be if plugs had been
withdrawn.

(34) Pepi's roof is formed by a row of large beams which rested
independently on the side walls as corbels or cantilevers (see Note 29).

(35) The mastaba angle is 75°, and the pyramid angle 50° to 55°.

(36) Its present appearance is an accident of its demolition; it was
originally, like the "step-pyramid" of Sakkarah, a cumulative mastaba, as
is shown by the remains of the lower steps still in the mounds at its base,
and by the mediaeval description of it.



INDEX


Aahhotep, 157, 323-30.
Aahhotep II., 288-9.
Aalû, fields of, 163-4, 167.
Abacus, 52-4, 58, 61, 116.
Abi, 273.
Abû Roash, 113, 134.
Abû Simbel
    (see TEMPLES, etc.).
Abûsîr, 114, 131, 134, 138, 140.
Abydos
    (see FORTRESSES, TEMPLES, TOMBS, etc.).
Acacia, 203, 274.
Adze, of iron, 283, 304.
Affi
    (see TOMB).
Agate, 247.
Ahmes I., 267, 307, 317, 323, 324, 325, 326, 327, 328, 329.
Ahmes II., 269 and note.
    (see AMASIS).
Ahmesnefertari, 288-9.
Ahnas el Medineh, 259.
Aï, 15, 155, 158.
Aimadûa
    (see TOMB).
Akhonûti, 16.
Alabaster, 6, 42, 47, 65, 128, 141, 166, 169, 180, 252, 253-4.
Albumen, 203.
Alexander, his tomb, 242.
Alexander II., colossus of, 241.
Alexandria, 52, 241, 243, 303.
Alumina, 260.
Amasis, 269 and note, 302
    (see AHMES II.).
Amber, 247.
Ambras Collection, in Vienna, 272 (note).
Amen
    (see GODS).
Amen Ra
    (see GODS).
Amenemhat II., 76, 322.
Amenemhat III., 76, 143, 228
    (see MOERIS).
Amenhotep I., 157, 229, 287.
Amenhotep II., 53.
Amenhotep III., 67, 69, 76, 77, 80, 103, 147, 158, 179, 226, 229, 230, 266,
        275, 312, 318.
    (see MEMNON).
Ameni
    (see TOMB).
Ameni Entef Amenemhat, 107.
Ameniritis, 235 and note.
Amethyst, 246, 250.
Amphorae 35, 36, 127, 264.
Ampullae, 269.
Amset, genius, 258 (note).
Amulets, materials and forms of, 100, 167, 246-50, 259, 265, 286.
Ancient Empire,--
  art of
    (see BAS-RELIEF, SCULPTURE, and STATUE).
  domestic architecture of, 19.
  fortress of, 27.
  tombs of
    (see MASTABAS and PYRAMIDS).
Andro-sphinx, 89, 228-9.
Angareb, or Nubian bed, 281, 292.
Anhûr
    (see GODS).
Ankh, 286, 288.
Ankhnesraneferab, sarcophagus of, 165 (note).
Anklets, 321.
Anna
    (see TOMB).
Antelopes, 176, 299, 326.
Antimony, 254, 267
    (see KOHL).
Antonines, 244, 245.
Antoninus Pius, his chapel at Philae, 100.
Anubis
    (see GODS).
Anvil, 313.
Apapi, the serpent, 164.
Ape, 171, 176, 199, 254, 269, 322.
Apepi, King of Avaris, 228.
Apet
    (see GODDESSES, TAÛRT, THÛERIS).
Apis
    (see GODS).
Apries, 269 and note, 311
    (see HOPHRA and UAHABRA).
Aquamarine, the, 246.
Arabs,--
  their destructive conquest, 134.
  their name for table of offerings, 107.
Archers, 29, 184.
Architecture,--
  military, 24-34.
  of private dwellings, 1-20.
  of public works, 34-45.
  temples, 46-110.
  tombs, 111-168.
    (see MASTABAS, PYRAMIDS, etc.).
Architraves, 46, 52, 53, 54, 63, 65, 93.
Argo, colossi of, 227.
Arms, 157, 166.
  battle-axe, 329.
  boomerangs, 273, 329.
  bows and arrows, 184, 329.
  bronze, 305.
  lance, 232.
  poignards, 273, 327-8.
Arsenic, sulphuret of, orpiment, 203.
Ascalon, 31.
Asia, 91, 312.
Asia Minor, 248, 280, 320.
Asimû
    (see ELECTRUM).
Ass, in drawings, 171, 175.
Assyria, invasion of Egypt by, 314.
Astronomical tables, 92-4, 164.
Asûan, 45, 53, 67, 148-50, 209 and note, 226, 228, 256 (note),
        259, 265.
    (see SYENE and TOMBS).
Athena, 302.
Athens, bronze of the Lady Takûshet at, 308.
Ati, pyramid of, 142.
Avaris, 228.
Avenue of Sphinxes, 67.
  at Karnak, 87, 88-9, 230.
Axe,--
  battle, 327, 329.
  iron, 304.
  stone, 201.
Axûm, obelisk at, 106.

Ba, or Bi, the soul, 111, 112.
  abode of the, 128.
  abode of the, its decoration, 142, 156-7, 162-5.
  following the sun at night, 159.
  statuettes to serve as body for, 167.
  transmigration of, 164.
Bab el Mandeb, 109 (note).
Ba-en-pet, 196 and note.
    (see IRON).
Bakenrenf
    (see TOMB).
Bakhtan, stela of, 109 and note.
Bari, or boat of the Sun, 108.
Barks, sacred and funerary, 66, 77, 95, 108, 159, 164, 166, 249, 301,
        329-30.
Basalt, 42, 127, 169, 196, 236, 237, 252.
Basilisk, 201
    (see URAEUS.)
Bas-relief,--
  Abû Simbel, 229.
  Egyptian forms of, 197-9.
  gems, 249.
  gilded, 313.
  ivory, 273.
  models for study of, 197.
  New Empire, 228-9.
  painting of, 205-6.
  preparation of walls for, 192-3.
  Roman period, 245.
  sketches for, 193-5.
  speos of Horemheb, 232.
  Tell el Amarna, 231.
  Temple of Abydos, 232.
  Tomb of Seti I., 232.
    (See PAINTING, SCULPTURE, and WALL-SCENES.)
Bast
    (see GODDESSES).
Bastions, 28, 29, 32.
Battlements, 14, 24, 25, 32, 50.
Beads, 168, 247, 261, 324.
Beams, 6, 30.
  of stone, 140.
Beard,--
  false, of statue of Horemheb, 233.
  of sphinx, 208.
Bedawîn, 20, 42, 101.
Beds, 281, 292.
  funerary, 292-4.
Beer, at funerary feast, 180.
Beetles
    (see SCARABAEI).
Begig, obelisk of, 105.
Beit el Wally
    (see TEMPLES and HEMI-SPEOS).
Beni Hasan
    (see TOMBS).
Beni Sûef, 38.
Berlin Museum, parure of jewels at, 322.
Bersheh
    (see TOMBS).
Bes
    (see GODS).
Bezel, of rings, 321-2, 331.
Bi
    (see BA).
Bird, human-handed, 91.
Birket el Kûrûn, lake of, 38, 39.
Blocks, building,--
  dressing, 47, Notes 6 and 7.
  in pyramids, 132, Note 15, 139, Note 33.
  raising, 49.
  sizes, 49.
  working, 49, Note 7.
Boats, toy, 282.
  transport by, 45, 132.
    (See BARKS.)
Bonding, 48-9.
Bone, work in, 272-3.
Book of Knowing that which is in Hades, 172.
Book of Ritual of Burial, 157.
Book of Ritual of Embalmment, 157.
Book of the Dead, 129, 157, 165, 172-5, 205, 284-5.
Book of the Opening of the Mouth, 165.
Bowls, of blue glazed pottery, 268.
Bracelets, 249, 276, 308, 324-5, 331, 332.
Braces, 298, 327.
Bread,--
  making of, depicted in tombs, etc., 124, 127, 224.
  offerings of, 166.
Breccia, 42, 236, 254.
Bricks,--
  baked, 4.
  for pyramids, 132.
  glazed, 4, 270, Note 4.
  in civil and military architecture, 46.
  making of, 3-4, Notes 2 and 3.
  of mud and straw, 3, 114.
  sun-dried, 3, 21, 113-14, 145.
  without straw, 113, 145.
Brickwork,--
  civil and military architecture, 46.
  dikes, 38.
  domestic architecture, 3,5-6.
  enclosure walls of temples, 67, 87.
  foundations, 48.
  mastabas, 113, 114.
  panels, 22.
  pyramid-mastabas, 145-6.
  undulating courses, 22, 27.
Bridge of Zarû, 35.
Bridges, rarity of, 35.
British Museum, 171, 270 (note), 272 (note), 295, 303.
Brocade (polymita), 303.
Bronze, 105, 195, 196, 248, 260, 261, 304 _et seq._, 328.
Bronzes, 307-12.
Brush, hair, 203.
  reed, 170, 171.
Bubastis, 1, 52, 58, 88, 266, 308, 310
    (see TELL BASTA).
Bubastites
    (see DYNASTY XXII.).
"Bûlak, Wooden Man of," 214 (note).
    (see RAEMKA and SHEIKH EL BELED).
Bull, 199.
    (see GODS, APIS).
Burin, 305, 325.

Cabinet-making, 124. 273. 282 _et seq._
Caesars
    (see ROMAN PERIOD).
Calaite, 247.
Caligula, 245.
Cameos, 332.
Canaanites, 31.
Canal of Zarû, 35.
Canals, 37, 45.
Canopic vases, 167, 252-3, 258-9, 292.
Canopy, funerary, 293-5, 299-301.
Capitals
    (see COLUMNS and PILLARS).
Caricatures, 171-2.
Carnelian, 247, 250, 324, 325, 328.
Cartonnage, 167.
Cartouches, 4, 48, 61, 250, 262, 271, 278, 299, 302, 322, 323, 324, 326,
        328, 329.
Caryatid statues, 288.
Casing stones, 47, 65, Notes 7 and 9, 132, Note 15, 134, Note 20, 138,
        Note 32.
Cat, 171, 172, 311.
Cattle, 13, 25, 155.
Cedar wood, 329.
Ceiling decoration, 18-9, 92, 94, 141, 163-4.
Cella, 58.
Cellars, 35, 36.
Cement, 52, 192, 194.
Census, 155.
Ceremonies, religious, performed by king, 95-7, 101-3.
Chains, 155, 325-6.
  measuring, 155.
Chairs, 179, 281, 295-6.
Champollion, 26, 55, 271.
Chapel,--
  furniture of, 166.
  of mastabas, 116 _et pas._
  of pyramids, 131 _et pas._, 144.
  painting and sculpture in, 121 _et seq._, 141-2.
  reception room of Ka, 118 _et seq._
    (See ABÛSÎR, ABYDOS, AMENHOTEP, AMENI, APIS, DAHSHÛR, GIZEH, GÛRNEH,
    KHNÛMHOTEP, MEDINET HABÛ, MEROË, RAMESSEUM, THÛERIS.)
Chariots, 183, 292.
Chenoboscion, 45 (note).
    (see KASR ES SAÎD).
Cheops
    (see KHÛFÛ).
Chephren
    (see KHAFRA).
Chester, the Rev. G.J., 303 (note).
Chests, 281, 283.
Chisels, 45, 195, 214, 304.

Chlamys, 242.
Chrysoprase, 246.
Cinnabar, 203.
Cisterns, 41.
Claudius, 245.
Clay, potter's, of Nile valley, 254-5.
    (see BRICKS, POTTERY).
Clerestory, 71.
Coffins, 157, 259
    (see MUMMY-CASES and SARCOPHAGI).
Coins and medals, no Egyptian, 313.
Collar, Order of the Golden, 155.
Colonnade, 17, 48, 67-8, 75, 79.
Colossi, 83, 103, 106, 202, 226-30, 232, 241.
Columns, monolithic, and built in courses, 52.
  campaniform, 56-9.
  Hathor-headed, 61-2.
  lotus-bud, 59-61.
  types of, 55.
Concrete, 128.
Cones, funerary, 166, 257.
Contra Esneh, 57.
Contra Latopolis, 61.
    (see EL KAB).
Copper, 35, 105, 203, 304, 305, 321.
Coptic embroidery, 303 and note.
Coptos (Koft), 1, 243, 245, 303.
Coral, 247.
"Corbelling," 51, 52.
Corn, 36-7, 97.
Cornice, 9, 15, 24, 50, 53, 61, 148.
Cos, 302.
Courtyard,--
  of houses, 9, 16.
  of temples, 67, 144.
Covering walls, 25, 29, 30, 32.
Cramps, metal, 48.
Crane, machine, 49,
Crio-sphinx, 88, 89.
Crocodile, 171, 189.
Cruets, 318, 320.
Crypts, of temples, 75, 84.
Crystals, 250.
Cups,--
  of glazed pottery, 268.
  of gold and silver, 316-17.
Curtain wall, 30.
Curve, favourite ancient Egyptian, 283.
Cylinders, of enamelled stone, 265.
Cynocephali, 164, 167, 199, 322.
Cyprus, supposed glass of, 263.

Dahshûr, 113, 114, 131, 134, 142, 323.
Dakkeh, 2.
Damanhûr, 332.
Dams,--
  embanked, 38.
  of stone, 40-1.
Dancers, 177, 178.
Daphnae, 36 and note
    (see TAHPANHES and TELL DEFENNEH).
Dapûr, 30, 31.
Date palms, 15, 274.
Decani, 93.
Decoration, subjects of, 11, 12, 18-20, 21-2.
  geometrical, 19, 256, 258, 295, 298.
    (See COLUMNS, PAINTING, SCULPTURE.)
Deir el Baharî, 51, 53, 61, 83, 85 and note, 109 (note), 180, 229, 264,
                266, 287, 299, 302.
Deir el Gebrawî
    (see TOMBS).
Deirel Medineh
    (see TEMPLES).
Delta, the, 4, 31, 37, 209, 235, 241, 243, 310, 311.
Denderah
    (see TEMPLES).
Derr, 84.
Deveria, T., 196 (note).
Dice, of ivory, 273.
Die, of column, 57.
Dike,--
  of Kosheish, 38.
  Wady Garraweh, 40.
  Wady Genneh, 41.
Diorite, 42, 169, 196, 224, 254.
Disc, winged, 294.
Dolls, 282.
Dôm palms, 15, 274, 318.
Door, 9, 25, 68, 104, 135, 150, 151, 160, 285.
  false, for KA, 115, 119-21, 125, 130, 141.
Door-jambs, 26, 46, 47, 116, 119, 151.
Double, the
    (see KA).
Dovetails, 48.
Drah Abû'l Neggeh, 147, 158, 266.
Draught-box, 273.
Drawing, 169-70.
  conventional system of, 175-9.
  teaching of, 169-70.
  want of perspective in, 182-91.
    (See PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.)
Dress, 219, 274-6, 327.
  articles of,--
    braces, 298, 327.
    girdle, 178, 274, 278.
    head-dress, 241, 276, 286.
    kilt, 201, 275.
    klaft, 227, 267.
    petticoat, 276, 286.
    robe, embroidered, 308.
    sandals, 168, 286, 298.
    surcoat, 302.
    tunic, 225, 279.
    vest, 275, 286.
    wig, 236, 275, 286, 308, 310.
Drill, 195, 247, 250, 282.
Duality, 96-7.
Ducks, 15, 20, 306.
Dümichen, 109 (note).
Dwarf, statue of, 224-6.
Dynasty III. (Memphite),--
  possible wood panels of, 210.
Dynasty IV. (Memphite),--
  decoration, 89-90.
  funerary temples, 64 and note, 66.
  mastabas of, 117, 118, 124, 125, 126, 128.
  obelisks, 104.
  pigments, 202 (note).
  pyramids, 134-7, 140.
  sarcophagus, 19, 20, 21.
  scarabaei, 250.
  statuary, 214.
Dynasty V. (Memphite),--
  Abydos, 22.
  elephants, 273.
  flesh tints, 204.
  ivory statuette, 273.
  mastabas, 117, 119, 120, 122.
  models of offerings, 252.
  monuments, 208-9.
  painters' palettes, 202.
  panels, carved wood, 210.
  pyramids, 139-40.
  tables of offerings, 107.
Dynasty VI. (Elephantine),--
  in Abydos, Asûan, the Delta, Hermopolis, Thebes, 209 and note.
  bricks, 113.
  flesh tints, 204.
  fortress, 2.
  mastabas, 157.
  pyramids, 140, 142.
  scarabaei, 250.
  tomb-paintings, 21.
  tombs, 128, 129, 130, 149 (note), 155, 204, 209 (note).
Dynasty XI. (Theban),--
  blue glaze, 265-6.
  canopic vases, 167.
  chairs, 295.
  fortress, 23.
  funerary statuettes, 253.
  mummy-cases, 286.
  statuary, 226.
  tombs, 147.

Dynasty XII. (Theban),--
  blue glaze, 266.
  fortress, 23, 28.
  houses, 7, 8, 12, 281-2.
  jewellery 322, 323
    (see KAHÛN).
  Karnak, 76.
  models of offerings, 252.
  pyramids 132, 142, 143.
  statuary, 228, 229.
  temples, 66.
  tombs 149 (note), 156
    (see BENI HASAN).
Dynasty XIII. (Theban),--
  funerary couch, 293-4.
  Karnak, 76.
  statuary, 226-7, 229, 273-4.
  statuettes, 233, 273.
Dynasty XIV. (Xoïte),--
  Karnak, 76.
  statuary, 226-7.
Dynasty XVII. (Theban),--
  draught-box, 273.
  jewellery, 323 _et seq_.
  sarcophagi, 287.
Dynasty XVIII. (Theban),--
  in Abydos, 22.
  blue glaze, 268.
  Book of the Dead, 173.
  bronzes, 307.
  canopic vases, 258.
  chair, 296-7 (note).
  colossi, 229-30.
  domestic architecture, 14 _et seq_.
  gold and silver plate, 316, 318, 319, 320.
  gold and silver statues, 314-15.
  jewellery, 323 _et seq_.
  Karnak, 76-7.
  in Memphis, 88.
  mummy-cases, 288-9.
  painters' palettes, 202.
  scarabaei, 250.
  sculpture, 229-31.
  Speos-sanctuaries, 82, 83, 85.
  stelae, 45.
  in Thebes, 88-9.
  tomb-paintings, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17.
  tombs, 155 _et seq_.
  wars, 31.
Dynasty XIX. (Theban),--
  blue glaze of, 268.
  bronzes, 307.
  colossi, 234.
  domestic architecture, 19.
  flesh tints, 205.
  fortifications, 31, 34.
  gold and silver plate, 317, 321.
  gold and silver statues, 314.
  jewellery, 331.
  Karnak, 78.
  mummy-cases, 289.
  tombs, 158 _et pas_.
Dynasty XX. (Theban),--
  blue glaze, 268.
  canopic vases, 258.
  domestic architecture, 19.
  fortresses 33
    (see MEDINET HABÛ).
  gold and silver plate, 317.
  jewellery, 332.
  leather-work, 300, 301.
  sketches, 171.
  stela of Bakhtan, 109 (note).
  temple of Khonsû, 70-2.
  tiles (Tell el Yahûdeh), 270-2.
  tomb-paintings, 20.
  tomb-robberies, 323.
  tombs, 158 _et pas_..
  varnish, 203-4.
  wood-carving, 235, 274.
Dynasty XXI. (Priest-kings),--
  papyri, 174.
  sculpture, 228.
  tomb 158 (tomb of Herhor).
Dynasty XXII. (Bubastite),--
  bronzes, 307.
  leather-work, 299, 300.
  Karnak, 79.
Dynasty XXV. (Ethiopian),--
  art, 235.
  Karnak, 79.
Dynasty XXVI. (Saïte),--
  ampullae, 268, 269.
  bronzes, 307, 311-12.
  glass, 263.
  gold statuettes, 315.
  Renaissance, 235 _et seq._
  sculpture, 236 _et seq._
  table of offerings, 252.
  tombs, 165.
Dynasty XXXI. (Persian),--
  tapestry, 303.

Earrings, 331, 332.
Earthquake,--
  building to resist, 22.
  of B.C. 27, at Karnak, 79.
  of B.C. 22, at Thebes, 244.
Ebony, 295, 323.
Edfû
    (see TEMPLES).
Edinburgh Museum, funerary canopy in, 293-4.
Eggs, 259.
Egypt Exploration Fund,--
  at Bersheh, 148 (note).
  at Bubastis, 52 (note).
  at Daphnae, 36 (note).
  at Deir el Baharî, 83, 85.
  at Pithom, 36 (note).
  at Tanis, 104 (note).
  at Tell Gemayemi, 200 (note), 262 (note).
Ekhmîm, 14, 247, 259, 291, 293, 297, 303 and note.
El Agandiyeh, 1.
El Hibeh, 2, 33.
  at Beni Hasan, 148 (note).
El Kab, 2, 20, 26, 27, 54, 69, 88, 228, 265
    (see CONTRA LATOPOLIS).
El Khozam, 256.
Electrum, 304, 312, 313.
Elephant, 273.
Elephantine, 148, 209 (note), 273, 275.
    (see TEMPLES).
Embroidery, 276, 302, 303, 308.
Emerald, 41, 246, 250.
Enamel, 265-72.
  in jewellery, 289, 322, 325, 327.
Erman, on Stela of Bakhtan, 109 (note).
Erment, 247.
Esneh, 92, 144, 245.
Ethiopia, 106, 318.
Ethiopian Dynasty
    (see DYNASTY XXV.).
Etruria, imitated scarabs of, 248.
Eye,--
  as amulet, 247-8.
  in decoration, 268.
  on sarcophagi, 285.
  sacred, 168.
    (See ÛTA).
Eyes of statues, 261, 310.

Fan, 323.
Fayûm, the, 19, 38, 39, 66, 105, 134, 243, 259, 261, 304.
Feast,--
  funerary, 118, 123, 125, 166.
  funerary of Horemheb, 179-80.
Feasts, 118.
Felspar, 247, 250, 324, 328, 329.
Ferry, 34.
Feshn, 33.
Figs, 267.
Fires, 2, 12.
Fire-sticks, 282.
Fish,--
  in decoration, 268, 278, 316.
  in enamel, 267.
  offerings of, 228.
Florence Museum, Egyptian war-chariot in, 292 (note).
Flowers
    (see LOTUS),--
  in temples, 67.
  offerings of, 180, 228.
Fords, 34.
Fortresses, 20-34.
  of Abydos, 20-6.
  of El Kab, 20, 27.
  of Kom el Ahmar, 25, 26.
  of Kûmmeh, 28-9.
  of Semneh, 28-30.
Foundations, 47, 48.
Frieze, 97.
Frog, as amulet, 247.
Frontier, 28, 31, 36-7.
Furnaces, glass, 259, 260.
Furniture, 281-4.
  ancient Egyptian love of beautiful, 246.
  funerary, 128, 166-8, 251 _et seq._, 292 _et seq._
  funerary, of poor, 167-8, 255.

Galleries,--
  in houses, 17.
Garden, of private house, 13, 14, 15.
Garnet, 246.
  scarabaei of, 250.
Gazelle, 123, 128, 153, 171, 176, 180, 252.
Gebel Abûfeydeh, 44, 45.
Gebel Barkal
    (see TEMPLES).
Gebel Sheikh Herideh, 45.
Gebel Silsileh
    (see TEMPLES).
Gebeleyn, 33, 256.
Geese, 15, 19, 166, 171, 177, 296, 306.
Genii, 159, 164, 258 (note).
  of On, Sop, and Khonû, 96, 324.
Gerf Husein, 85.
Girgeh, 14, 38.
Gizeh
    (see PYRAMIDS, TEMPLES, TOMBS).
Gizeh, Museum, 4, 106, 107, 171, 174, 195, 214, 216-26, 227, 229, 232-3,
        237, 239, 241, 242, 244, 262, 265, 267, 268, 271, 273, 274, 275,
        278, 286, 298, 301, 306, 307, 308, 309, 315, 316, 323-30, 331.
Glass, 259-65.
  factories, at El Kab, the Ramesseum, Tell el Amarna, Tell Eshmûneyn, 265.
  factory at Tell Gemayemi, 262 (note).
Glazed stone and ware, 165-72
    (see POTTERY).
Goat, 176.
Gods,--
  Amen, 33, 97, 101, 104, 105, 109, 171, 231, 232, 249, 268, 289, 307, 315,
        327.
  Amen Ra, 96.
  Anhûr, 311.
  Anubis, 168, 304.
  Apis, 147, 263.
  Bes, 53, 57, 254, 277, 318.
  Harpocrates, 307.
  Hor (Horus), 96, 105.
  Horus (Hor), 64, 96, 105, 207, 259, 267, 309-10, 314.
  Khonsû, 60, 64, 70, 72, 74, 75, 97, 109 and note, 235.
  Mentû, 97, 329.
  Min, 118.
  Nefertûm, 310, 314.
  Osiris, 20, 53, 54, 95, 142, 168, 189, 237, 249, 304.
  Ptah, 168, 315.
  Ra, 208, 327.
  Ra Harmakhis, 105.
  Seb, 324.
  Set (Typhon), 96, 196.
  Shû, 311.
  Thoth, 96, 118, 167, 259, 314.
  Tûm, 105.
Goddesses,--
  Apet, 237 (note).
  Bast, 168, 311.
  Hathor, 53, 54, 55, 61, 62, 69, 70, 82, 83, 97, 168, 237.
  Isis, 95, 241, 247, 249, 250, 287, 294, 310, 314.
  Khûit, 259.
  Ma, 262, 294.
  Maut, 97, 289.
  Neith, 250.
  Nekheb, 92.
  Nephthys, 237, 249, 250, 287, 294, 310.
  Pakhet, 42, 82.
  Sekhet, 250, 277, 311.
  Sothis, 118.
  Taûrt, 237 (note).
  Tefnût, 311.
  Thûeris, 237.
  Ûati, 92.
Gold, 11, 304, 312-21.
Goldsmith, 313.
Golenischeff, 228.
Gouge, 195.
Granaries, 1, 10, 36.
Granite, 6, 47, 66, 76, 103, 132, 136, 137, 169,196, 197, 199, 214, 247,
        254, 290.
  black, 42, 165, 233.
  grey, 41, 236, 244.
  red, 42, 52, 65, 77, 107, 127, 165, 232, 236.
Grapes, models, 166, 267.
Greeks,--
  Egyptian fortification in time of, 34.
  Egyptian patterns among, 320.
  their imitation scarabs, 248.
  their influence on astronomical tables, 93.
  their influence on columns, 56.
  their influence on jewellery, 332.
  their influence on sculpture, 241-4.
  their peripteral temples, 69.
  their similar system of building construction, 48.
  their theory of mounds, 5.
    (See PTOLEMAIC PERIOD.)
Grenfell, Major-General Sir F., 149 (note), and 209 (note).
Greyhound, in drawings, 176.
Griffith, F. Ll., 200 (note), 262 (note).
Grindstone, 247.
Gum tragacanth, 203.
Gûrneh, 60.
Gypsum, 203.

Hadrian, 243, 245 (note).
Hairpins, 277.
Hammamat, valley of, 41.
Hammer, 195, 313.
Hapi, genius, 258 (note).
Hapizefa
    (see TOMB).
Harpocrates
    (see GODS).
Hatasû
    (see HATSHEPSÛT).
Hathor
    (see GODDESSES).
Hatshepsût (Hatasû), 42, 77, 85, 104, 105, 109 and note, 296 (note), 313
                     and note.
Hawara, 257, 291.
Hawk, 254, 259, 267, 322, 326.
Haworth, Mr. Jesse, 296 (note).
Headrest, 128, 166, 277.
Hedgehog, 254, 267.
Hekalli, 144.
Heliopolis, 26, 32, 103, 104, 309.
Helwân, dam at baths of, 40.
Hematite, 247, 250.
Hemi-speos,--
  Beit el Wally, 84, 205 (note), 235.
  Deir el Baharî, 83, 85.
  Derr, 84.
  Gerf Husein, 85.
  Wady Sabûah, 85.
Herhor, 158, 261, 288.
Hermopolis, 209.
Herodotus, 38, 39-40, 88, 195.
Hesî, 210.
Hieroglyphs, 55, 60, 180, 236, 257, 261-2 and note, 268, 270, 284, 285,
        289, 300, 316, 325.
Hippopotamus, 189, 236.
Hittites, 31, 185.
    (see KHETA).
Honey, 203, 254.
Hophra, the biblical, 269.
Hor Horus
    (see GODS).
Hor, portrait statue of one, 242.
Horbeit, 311, 312.
Horemheb, 50, 52, 53, 82, 155, 158, 179-80, 205, 231, 232, 233.
Horhotep
    (see TOMB).
Hori Ra, wooden statuette of, 275.
Hori, scribe, ûshabtiû of, 257.
Horn, objects in, 272.
Horse, date of introduction of, 153-4.
Horshesû, 64 and note. 207.
Horus
    (see GODS).
Horûta, 257.
Houses, 1-20.
Hûi
    (see TOMB).
Hûnefer, his papyrus, 173-4.
Huts, 20, 8.
Hyksos sphinxes
    (see PERIOD).
Hypostyle hall, 72, 74, 76, 89, 92, 102, 106.
  Abû Simbel, 84.
  Abydos, 60, 85-6.
  Gûrneh, 60.
  Kalaat Addah, 82.
  Karnak, 34 (note), 46, 57, 60, 62-3,76, 78, 79, 100.
  temple of Khonsû, 71.
  Medinet Habû, 60.
  Ramesseum, 57, 60.

Ibis, 259.
Ibrahim, Prince, 240.
Illahûn, 39, 143.
Incense, 95, 126, 273.
Ink, black, 4, 170, 193, 285.
  red, 44, 170, 171, 193, 285.
Inscriptions, absence of in Temple of Sphinx, 66.
  obelisk, 313 and note.
  pyramid of Ûnas, 163.
  sarcophagi, 127, 157, 165.
  tombs, 141-2, 151, 155-6.
    (See HIEROGLYPHS).
Iron, 195-7, 304.
Irrigation, 35, 37-41.
Isiemkheb, 180, 299-300.
Isis
    (see GODDESSES).
Italy, Egyptian patterns in, 320.
Ivory, 272, 273-4, 283.

Jade, 254.
Jasper, 247, 250.
Jewellery, 249, 321-33.
Jews, 303.
Jomard, 55.

Kaâpir
    (see TOMB).
Kadesh (Qodshû), 31, 101, 185, 187.
Kahûn, Twelfth Dynasty Town, 1, 6 (note), 7, 282.
Kalaat Addah
    (see TEMPLES).
Kalabsheh
    (see TEMPLES).
Kames, 323, 330.
Ka, or Double, 111, 112, 118, 130, 141-2, 156-7, 162, 163, 165-7, 212-14,
        257.
Ka-name of Pepi I, 270.
Karnak
    (see TEMPLES).
Kashta, 235 (note).
Kasr es Saîd
    (see CHENOBOSCION).
Kebhsennef, 258 (note).
Keneh, 265, 332.
Khabiûsokari
    (see TOMB).
Khafra (Chephren), 89, 133, 137, 134, 214, 217-18, 224, 253.
Khamha
    (see TOMB).
Kheper, or Khepra
    (see SCARABAEI).
Kheta, 101, 185, 187-8.
Khetî
    (see TOMB).
Khmûnû, 148.
Khnûmhotep
    (see TOMB).
Khonsû
    (see GODS).
Khonû, 96, 324.
Khû, the, 111, 112.
Khûenaten (Amenhotep IV.), 15, 155, 230.
Khûfû (Cheops), 133, 134-7, 206, 312, 314.
Khûfû Poskhû, 20, 22.
Khûit
    (see GODDESSES).
Klaft, 227, 306.
Knives, 304, 306.
Koft, I
    (see COPTOS).
Kohl (antimony, collyrium), 254, 266, 273.
Kom ed Damas, 242.
Kom el Ahmar, 2, 25, 26.
Kom es Sultan, 21, 23, 27.
Kom Ombo
    (see OMBOS and TEMPLES).
Kosheish, 38.
Kûmmeh, 28.
Kûrnet Murraee, 263, 294.

Labyrinth, the, 59.
Lake Moeris, 38-40.
Lakes, sacred, 77.
Lamp, 19, 307 (?).
Lapis-lazuli, 203, 247, 250, 304, 324, 325, 328, 329.
Lasso, 95.
Lattice, 11.
Lead, 304.
Leather, 292, 298-301.
Léfébure, M, 161.
Leopard, 176.
Lewis, Prof. Hayter, 272 (note).
Leyden Museum, 266 (note), 292 (note).
Libations
    (see OFFERINGS).
Libyan cliffs and plateau, 39, 113, 207, 209 (note).
Libyans, 21, 207, 209 (note).
Limestone, 42, 47, 65, 76, 107, 113, 127, 132, 135, 138, 139, 140, 147,
        148, 166, 169, 192, 195, 200, 224, 232, 236, 252, 253, 254, 265,
        312.
Linant, M, 39.
Lindos, 302.
Linen, 130, 286, 302, 314.
Lintels, 9, 26, 46, 47, 150, 151.
Lion, 171, 176, 199, 293, 295, 322.
Lisht, 89, 134, 252.
Loftie, the Rev. W.J., 201 (note). 249 (note).
Looms, 297, 298.
Lotus, 34 (note), 57, 58, 60-61, 62, 64, 116, 180, 247, 254, 266, 268, 269,
        271, 273, 277, 278, 279, 281, 299, 316.
Louvre Museum, 208, 214, 215, 224, 226, 227, 239, 240, 266 (note), 271,
        275, 278, 295, 308, 313, 316, 322, 331.
Luxor
    (see TEMPLES).

Ma
    (see GODDESSES).
Magdilû,
    (see MIGDOLS).
Magnaura, 320.
Maillet, M., 64.
Malachite, 247, 304.
Mallet, 45, 197, 202.
Manfalût, 144.
Manna
    (see TOMB).
Mariette, 64 (note), 129, 210, 227, 271.
Masahirti, 299.
Masonry, 48, 49.
Massarah, 43.
Mastabas, 113-31, Notes 12-14.
    (see TOMB and TOMBS).
Masts, 72, 103.
Maut
    (see GODDESSES).
Mechanical appliances,--
  crane, 49.
  pivots, 283.
  rollers, 45.
  wedges, 45.
Medamot
    (see TEMPLES).
Medinet el Fayûm, 39.
Medinet Habû
    (see TEMPLES).
Medûm, 38 (note), 131, 143, 144, 202 (note).
Memnon, 103, 230, 245.
    (see AMENHOTEP III.).
Memphis, 1, 6, 32, 38, 43, 47, 52, 58, 88, 113, 132, 147, 156,
        157, 162, 165, 209, 226, 228, 235, 241, 252.
Mena, 38, 64, 206.
Mendes, 311.
Menkara (Mycerinus), 128 (note), 134, 137, 286 (Notes 7, 17, 31).
Menkaûhor, 224.
Menkheperra, 299.
Menshîyeh, 107.
Mentû
    (see GODS).
Mentûemhat, 314.
Merenptah, 235.
Merenra, 133, 140.
Meresankhû, 144.
Mermashiû, 227.
Meroë, 144, 244.
Merom, 31.
Merrûka, stela of, 120.
Mesheikh, 69, 229.
Metals, ancient Egyptian classification of, 304.
Migdols, 31-3
    (see MAGDILÛ).
Milk, offerings of, 95.
Min (Khem)
    (see GODS).
Minieh, 148.
Mining, 35, 41.
Mirrors, 277, 306, 323, 324.
Moats of Canaanite cities, 31.
Moeris, 38-9
    (see AMENEMHAT III.).
Moeris, Lake, 38-40.
Mohammeriyeh, 144.
Mokattam, 136.
Mortar, 48, 114.
Mosû, 310.
Mounds, 1, 5-6.
Mummies,--
  animals and eggs, 259.
  beds and canopies for, 292-5.
  boats for transport of, 301.
  burial of, 112, 127-8, 153, 154, 167-8, 173.
  "eternal house" of, 112.
  furniture for, 284, 292 _et seq._
    (see FURNITURE).
  jewellery for, 321.
    (see JEWELLERY).
  models of, 166.
  panoply of, 167
    (see AMULETS).
  sledges for, 292.
Mummy,--
  Aahhotep, 157, 323.
  Amenhotep I., 157.
  Menkara, 137.
  Pinotem III., 332.
  Sekenenra, 157.
  Thothmes III., 157.
Mummy-cases, 259, 261-2, 284-92.
Murrhine, false, 263 (note)
Musical instruments, 166.
  lute, 180, 267, 279.
  sistrum, 95.
  tambourine, 95.
  trumpet, 182.
Mycerinus, 286
    (see MENKARA).

Naga, group from, 244.
Naï, 276.
Naos, 61, 108, 312, 326.
    (see SHRINE).
Napata, 144.
Naville, M., 36 and note, 52 (note).
Necho, 267 and note.
Necklace, 249, 276, 322, 325.
    (see ÛSEKH).
Nectenebo, 62.
Neferhotep
    (see TOMB).
Nefert, 219-20.
Nefertari, 84.
Nefertûm
    (see GODS).
Negadeh
    (see TOMBS).
Negroes, 41, 91.
Neith
    (see GODDESSES).
Nekheb
    (see GODDESSES).
Nemhotep, dwarf, 225.
Nenka
    (see TOMB).
Nephthys
    (see GODDESSES).
Nesikhonsû, 264.
Net, 95.
Netemt, 261.
New York Museum, 172.
Niche of tombs, origin of, 152
    (see DOOR, SERDAB, and STELA).
Nile, 34, 38, 39, 45, 48, 252, 254, 273.
Niles, the (deities), 91, 92, 228.
Nitocris, daughter of Psammetichus I., 237.
Nomes, represented, 91-2.
Nubia, 28, 47, 66, 82, 259.
Nûrri
    (see PYRAMIDS).

Oasis, the, 20.
Obelisk, 45, 67, 103-6, 313.
  Axûm, 106.
  Begig, 105.
  Fourth Dynasty, 104.
  Hatshepsût, 104, 106, 313 and note.
  Heliopolis, 104.
  Luxor, 104.
  Tanis, 104.
Obsidian, 247, 250.
Ocean, celestial, 93.
Ochre, 203.
OEnochoe, glass, 263.
Offerings,--
  corn, 97.
  milk, 95.
  oil, 95.
  wine, 95, 97.
    (See FEAST, LIBATIONS, TABLES OF OFFERINGS.)
Oil, 95.
Ombos, 26, 36, 58, 88, 92, 245,
    (see KOM OMBO and TEMPLES).
On, genius of, 96.
Osiris
    (see GODS).
Ostraka, 36.
Ostrakon, caricature, 172.
Oxen, 123, 128, 153, 175, 182.


Pahûrnefer, 214.
Painting, 192-3, 202-6, 292-3.
    (see DRAWING, PERSPECTIVE, WALL-SCENES).
Pakhet
    (see GODDESSES).
Palestrina, mosaic, 189-92.
Palette,--
  painter's, 202.
  scribe's, 128, 166, 170.
Palm capital, 58.
Palms, for roofing, 2, 11
    (see DATE and DÔM PALMS).
Papyri, 64 (note), 160, 167, 170, 171, 172-5, 205.
    (see BOOK).
Papyrus, 57, 190, 327.
Pavilion,--
  of private house, 17.
  of Medinet Habû, 32.
  of Nectenebo, Philae, 62.
Pearl, mother-of-, 247.
Pearls, 247.
Pectoral, 322, 323, 326, 327.
Pedishashi, 239, 240.
Pegs, 283.
Pen, 175, 215.
Pepi I., 140, 253, 270.
Pepi II., 133, 140, 142.
Perfumes, 67, 128, 157, 180.
Period,--
  Hyksos, 227-8, 307.
  Persian, 174, 303.
  Ptolemaic, 56, 58, 61, 66, 69-70, 72, 79, 90, 93, 98, 175, 208, 241-3,
        249, 290, 303, 315, 332.
  Roman, 58, 66, 90, 98, 173, 208, 243-5.
  Theban, second, 19 and note.

Peristyle, 67, 74, 83, 84, 106
    (see PROCESSIONAL HALL).
Perspective, 177-92.
Pestle and mortar, 170.
Petamenoph
    (see TOMB).
Petrie, W.M.F., 7, 10, 12, 45, 64-5, 104, 113, 131, 197, 200, 202, 249,
        267, 282, 291, 334 _et seq._
Pharaoh, 66, 67, 95-7, 98, 101-3.
Philae
    (see TEMPLES).
Phoenicians, 248, 263, 303, 320.
Piankhi I., 34.
Piankhi II., 235 (note).
Pibesa, 237.
Pigments, 202-3.
Pillars, 52, 53-5, 65, 68, 116, 149, 151.
Pincushion, 277.
Pinotem II., 299.
Pinotem III., 299, 332.
Pisebkhanû, 228.
Pithom, i, 36 and note.
Plate, 315-20
    (see GOLD and SILVER).
Pliny, 303.
Pohûnika
    (see TOMB).
Poignards, 327, 328.
Point, 47 (note), 6, 195, 197, 201, 247, 250.
Polymita, 303.
Ponds, 8, 15, 186.
Porch, 13
    (see PORTICO).
Porphyry, 42, 247.
Portcullis, in pyramids, 136, Notes 26, 27, 137, 139.
Portico, 13, 16, 51, 54, 57, 60, 67, 116, 149, 150, 152, 206.
Portrait, panel-painting, 291-2.
    (see BAS-RELIEF, MUMMY-CASES, and STATUES).
Posno collection, 308.
Pottery, 166,254-9.
    (see GLAZED WARE and VASES).
Priests
    (see PHARAOH and others).
Prisse, M., 193.
Processional Hall (promenoir), 53, 58 and note, 60, 77
    (see PERISTYLE).
Pronaos, 70, 74-5.
Psammetichus I., 236.
Psammetichus, scribe, 237 and note.
Psar, 322, 331.
Ptah
    (see GODS).
Ptahhotep
    (see TOMB).
Ptahmes, 208.
Pûnt, Land of, 109 and note.
Pylons, 13, 16, 49, 50, 67, 77, 78, 79, 80, 85, 87, 100-1, 186-8, 189, 232.

Pyramid of,--
  Amenemhat III. (Hawara), 143.
  Ati, 142.
  Khafra (Second Pyramid of Gizeh), 133, 134, 137.
  Khûfû (Great Pyramid of Gizeh), 133, 134-7.
  Menkara (Third Pyramid of Gizeh), 134, 137.
  Merenra, 133, 140.
  Pepi I., 140.
  Pepi II., 133, 140, 142.
  Sakkarah, Step, or Great, 138-9, Note 32.
  Sneferû (Medûm), 132,143-4.
  Teti, 140.
  Ûnas, 133, 138, 139-40.
  Ûsertesen I., 143.
  Ûsertesen II. (Illahûn), 143.

Pyramidion, 105, 147.
Pyramid-mastaba tombs, 145-8,
Pyramids, 131-45, and Notes, pp, 334-7.
  Abûsîr, 131, 134, 138, 140.
  Abydos (Hekalli), 144.
  Dahshûr, 131, 134, 142.
  Esneh (Mohammeriyeh), 144.
  Ethiopia (Meroë, Napata, Nûrri), 144.
  Fayûm (Hawara and Illahûn), 134, 143.
  Gizeh, 131, 133-7, 140.
  Lisht, 134, 142.
  Manfalût, 144.
  Sakkarah, 133, 134, 137, 138-42.
Qodshû, 31.
    (see KADESÛ).
Quarries, 35, 41-5, 132.

Ra
    (see GODS).
Ra Harmakhis
    (see GODS).
Raemka, 220
    (see SHEIKH EL BELED).
Rahotep, 214, 219.
Ram, 88, 89, 199.
Rameses I., 78, 158.
Rameses II. (Sesostris), 47, 52, 78, 80, 84, 86, 101, 103, 158, 188, 202,
        226, 231, 232, 234, 235, 287-8, 321, 331.
Rameses III., 4, 32-3, 87, 101, 184, 194, 195, 270, 272, 301, 306, 321.
Rameses IV., 160.
Rameses IX., 331.
Ramesseum, the, 36, 37, 47, 57, 60, 62, 72, 92, 100, 103, 159, 187, 234,
        265.
Ramessides, the, 1, 23, 109, 153, 168, 235, 266, 290, 320.
Ramparts, 24, 30, 33, 87.
Ranefer, 214, 218.
Rats, 171, 259.
Red Sea, emerald mines, 41.
Redesîyeh, 229.
Reed brush, 171.
Reeds, 180, 266.
Rekhmara
    (see TOMB).
Renaissance, 175, 235-40, 290.
Repoussé work
    (see GOLD, JEWELLERY, SILVER).
Reservoir, 38-41, 252
    (see DAMS, DIKES, IRRIGATION).
Rhind, A.H., 293 and note.
Rings, 267, 305, 321-2, 331.
Roads, 30, 34, 35, 41.
Rock-cut temples and tombs
    (see SPEOS and TOMBS).
Roofs, 2, 9, 10, 11, 32, 51, 90.
Rougé, M. le Vicomte de, 109 (note).

_Sa_, amulet, 237 (note).
Sabûah, Wady
    (see TEMPLES).
Sacrifices, 95, 97.
    (see FEAST and OFFERINGS).
Sails of leather-work, 301.
Sais, 26, 266.
Sakkarah, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 126, 129, 130 (note), 133,
        134, 137, 138, 140, 144, 158, 189, 197, 204, 217, 221, 226, 252,
        259, 269, 270, 310, 313.
    (see PYRAMIDS and TOMBS).
Sân, 1, 26.
    (see TANIS).
Sanctuaries
    (see SPEOS and TEMPLES).
Sanctuary, the essential part of a temple, 66-7.
Sandals, 168, 286, 298.
Sandstone, 6, 43, 47, 67, 76, 87, 103, 169, 199, 202, 230, 252.
Sapping, 23, 25.
Sarcophagi, 42, 127, 129, 132, 137, 140, 157, 160.
    (see MUMMY-CASES).
Sarcophagus of,--
  Aahhotep II., 288-9.
  Ahmes I., 287.
  Ahmesnefertari, 288-9.
  Amenhotep I., 287.
  Khûfû, 136.
  Khûfû Poskhû, 20, 22.
  Menkara, 128 (note), 137.
  Rameses II., 287, 288.
  Seti I., 161, 165 (note).
  Thothmes II., 287.
    (See MUMMY-CASES.)
Sardanapalus, 314.
Sardinia, 248.
Saucepan of Rameses III., 306.
Saw, 247, 250.
Scaling, as a mode of attack, 23, 25.
Scarabaei, 248-50.
  funerary, 168, 265, 325-6.
Scarabaeoids, 248.
Schist, 265.
Schliemann, Dr., 328.
Schweinfurth, Dr., 40.
Scissors, of bronze, 306.
Scorpion, 322, 329.
Scribe,--
  cross-legged, 214-17.
  kneeling, 214, 222-3, 239.
Sculpture,--
  absence of, in chapel of Pyramid of Medûm, 144.
  absence of, in Temple of Sphinx, 66.
  Greek influence on, 240-3.
  Hyksos, school of, 227-8.
  mastabas, 119 _et seq._, 130.
  Memphite school of, 209-25.
  methods of, 200-2.
  New Empire school of, 228, 235.
  provincial schools of, 228.
  pylons, 186-8.
  pyramids, 137.
  Renaissance school of, 235-40.
  Theban (first) school of, 226.
  XIII. and XIV. dynasties, 226-7.
    (See BAS-RELIEF and STATUES.)
Seals, 321-2.
Seb
    (see GODS).
Sebâkh diggers, 237 and note.
Sebekemsaf, 202, 227.
Sebekhotep III., 227.
Sekenenra, 157.
Sekhet
    (see GODDESSES).
Selle
    (see ZARÛ).
Semneh, 20, 28-9, 50.
Sennetmû, mummy-case of wife of, 286.
    (see TOMB).
Sepa, 208.
Serdab, 126-7, 129, 139, 152, 166, 167.
Serpentine, 169, 195, 236, 247, 252.
Serpents, 141, 159, 164, 259, 329.
    (see APAPI).
Sesebeh
    (see TEMPLES).
Sesostris, 5.
    (see RAMESES II.).
Set
    (see GODS).
Seti I., King, 34 (note), 42, 47, 48, 49, 51, 78, 85, 101, 107, 158, 161,
        162, 163, 195, 231, 232, 235, 270.
Shabaka, 235 (note).
Sharonah
    (see TEMPLES).
Sheikh Abd el Gûrneh,--
  bronzes from, 307.
  enamels from, 263.
Sheikh el Beled, statue of, 214 and note, 220-1, 224, 226
    (see RAEMKA).
Sheikh Saîd, 148.
Sheshonk, 33, 235, 270.
Shrines, 66, 108
    (see NAOS).
Shû
    (see GODS).
Silsilis, 38, 43-5, 232.
Silver,--
  bark of, 329-30.
  chain of, 322.
  eyes of, 310.
  hatchets of, 327.
  nuggets of, 11.
  poignard hilt of, 328.
  repoussé work of, 316-17.
  rings of, 321.
  sources of, 312.
  statues of, 314-15.
  vases and vessels of, 316 _et seq._
  wire of, 248.
Sinai, 41, 66, 101.
Sistrum, 53, 61, 95, 260.
Sitû, 252.
Situlae, bronze, 307.
Siût, 114, 148, 226, 242.
Skemka, 214.
Sky, Egyptian idea of, 90.
Sledges,--
  for transport of stone, 45.
  funerary, 292, 294.
Sneferu, 132, 144, 209.
Soane collection, 165 (note).
Soil of Egypt, 2, 4, 48.
Soleb
    (see TEMPLES).
Sop, genius, 324.
Sothis, feast of, 118.
Soudan, gold from, 313.
Soul, the
   (see BA).
Speos, the, 42, 81-5.
  Abû Simbel, 53, 82-4.
  Kalaat Addah, 81, 82.
  Silsilis, 82, 232.
    (See HEMI-SPEOS.)
Speos Artemidos
    (see TEMPLES).
Sphinx, the, 64 (note), 65, 206-8.
Sphinxes, 325.
  andro-, 89, 230.
  avenues of, 67, 88-9, 230.
  crio-, 88, 89.
  Hyksos, 227-8.
  New Empire, 229.
Spinners, 124.
Spoons, 273, 278-81, 306.
Stabling, 13, 35, 87.
Staircase,--
  fortress, 24.
  house, 11, 16.
  temple, 70, 71, 85.
  temple pylons, 50.
Statue of,--
  Alexandrian Isis, 241.
  portrait of Amenhotep I., 229.
  baker, 224.
  cross-legged scribe of Gizeh, 217.
  cross-legged scribe of the Louvre, 214-15.
  Hor, 242.
  Horemheb, 232-3.
  Khafra, 214, 217-18, 253.
  kneeling scribe, 214, 223.
  Mermashiû, 227.
  Nefert, 219-20.
  Nemhotep (dwarf), 225-6.
  Pahûrnefer, 214.
  Prince of Siût, 241-2.
  a queen, 232.
  Rahotep, 219.
  Sebekemsaf, 202, 227.
  Sebekhotep III., 227.
  Sheikh el Beled (Raemka), 214, 220-1, 224.
  Sheikh el Beled's wife, 221-2.
  Skemka, 214.
  Thothmes I., 229.
  Thothmes II., 229.
Statues,--
  in houses, 13.
  in temples, 106, 108-10.
  Ka, 126-7, 152, 163, 166, 211-14.
Statuette of,--
  Amen, gold, 315.
  a girl, 274-5.
  Hori Ra, wood, 275.
  Horus, bronze, 309-10.
  Horus, enamelled, 267.
  kneeling genius, bronze, 309.
  Mosû, bronze, 310.
  Naï, wood, 276.
  officer, wood, 275-6.
  priest, wood, 275, 276.
  Ptah, gold, 315.
  Ptahmes, enamelled, 268.
  Takûshet, bronze, 308-9.
Statuettes,--
  alabaster, 253.
  bronze, 307-10.
  clay, 257.
  Deir el Baharî, 266.
  gilt, 314.
  gold, 314-15.
  ivory, 273-4.
  limestone, 253.
  period XVIII. and XIX. dynasties, 307.
  XXII dynasty, 307.
  XXVI dynasty, 307.
  wood, Ptolemaic, 307.
    (See ÛSHABTIÛ.)
Stela, of Bakhtan, 109 and note.
  of Merrûka, 120.
Stelae, 24, 104.
  of mastabas, 115, 120-1, 125.
  pyramid-mastabas, 146.
  rock-cut tombs, 152, 157.
Step Pyramid
    (see PYRAMIDS).
Stone, 46.
  dikes, 38.
  grating, 71.
    (See ALABASTER, etc.)
Storage, 16, 35, 36, 87, 132.
Stroganoff, Count, 308.
Stuart, Villiers, 300 (note).
Stucco, 50, 170, 261, 284, 314.
Sûit, mother of Horemheb, 179.
Swine,--
  alleged impurity of, 195-6.
  transmigration into, 164.
Sycamores, 8, 15.
  wood of, 205, 274, 284, 290.
Syene, 45, 77, 196, 209 (note), 243.
    (see ASÛAN).
Syenite, 139.
Syria, 31, 34 (note), 87, 187,
  248, 303, 312.
_Ta_, amulet, 247, 286.
Tabernacle, 66.
Tables of offerings, 106-7, 115, 119, 130, 157, 166, 237, 251-2.
Taharka, 52, 79.
Tahpanhes, 36 (note).
    (see TELL DEFENNEH and DAPHNAE).
Tahûti, general, 316.
Takûshet, 308-9.
Tambourine, 95.
Tanis, 1, 47, 103, 104 (note), 197, 200 (note), 227, 228, 234, 235, 307,
        311.
    (see SÃN and TEMPLES).
Tanks, of houses, 16.
Tapestry, 296-8, 303 and note.
Tat, amulet, 286 and note.
Tau-cross
    (see ANKH).
Taûd, 250.
Taûrt
    (see APET and THÛERIS).
Taxation, system of, 35.
Tefnût
    (see GODDESSES).
Tehneh, 45.
Tell Basta, I
    (see BUBASTIS).
Tell Defenneh, 36 (note),
    (see TAPHANHES and DAPHNAE).
Tell el Amarna, 13, 155, 197 (note), 231-3, 263.
Tell el Maskûtah, I
    (see PITHOM and THÛKÛ).
Tell el Yahûdeh, tiles of, 270-2.
Tell es Seba, 311.
Tell Eshmûneyn, 265.
Tell Gemayemi, 200, 262 (note).
Temenos, 87-9.
Temples, 46-110.
  Abû Simbel, 53, 82-4, 319.
  Abydos, 20, 47, 49, 51, 60, 64, 85-6, 90, 194, 232.
  Beit el Wally, 84, 205 (note), 235.
  Bubastis, 52 and note, 58, 88.
  Coptos, 245.
  Deir el Baharî, 51, 53, 61, 83, 85 and note, 229.
  Deir el Medineh, 69-70.
  Derr, 84.
  Denderah, 53, 57, 61, 72, 73, 88, 91, 92, 94, 100, 245.
  Edfû, 56, 57, 58, 64, 72, 74, 75, 88, 92, 100.
  El Kab, 56, 69, 88.
  Elephantine, 67-9.
  Esneh, 92, 245.
  Gebel Barkal, 53.
  Gebel Silsileh, 81, 82, 232.
  Gerf Husein, 85.
  Gizeh, 64-6, 85.
  Gûrneh, 60, 159.
  Kalaat Addah, 81, 82.
  Kalabsheh, 54, 56.
  Karnak, 1, 34, 35, 46, 47, 50, 52, 53, 54, 55, 57, 58, 59, 60, 62, 63-4,
        70-2, 76-9, 87, 88, 89, 92, 100, 101, 103, 104, 106, 107, 194,
        229, 230, 232, 235, 313, 314, 315.
  Luxor, 47, 52, 57, 60, 62, 72, 79, 80, 89, 100, 104, 106, 187, 202, 230,
        234.
  Medamot, 56, 59, 60, 64.
  Medinet Habû, 32-3, 50, 53, 60, 63, 72, 87, 101, 159, 184, 194, 199, 288,
        315.
  Mesheikh, 69.
  Nubia, 47, 82.
  Ombos, 26, 58, 88, 92-3, 245.
  Philae, 58-9, 62, 80-1, 92, 100, 245.
  Semneh, 50.
  Sesebeh, 58.
  Sharonah, 69.
  Soleb, 58.
  Tanis, 47, 104 (note).
  Wady Sabûah, 85, 88.
       *       *       *       *       *
  Amenhotep II, 53.
  Amenhotep III, 53, 67-8.
  Antoninus Pius, 100.
  Caesars, 66.
  Dynasty IV, 64.
  Dynasty XII, 66.
  Hatshepsût
    (see DEIR EL BAHARÎ and SPEOS ARTEMIDOS).
  Horemheb
    (see GEBEL SILSILEH).
  Khonsû, at Karnak, 60, 70-2, 74, 235.
  Ptolemies, 66.
  Rameses III.
    (see MEDINET HABÛ).
  Seti I, 42.
    (See CHAPEL, HEMI-SPEOS, SANCTUARY, SPEOS.)
Terraces, 16, 36, 74.
Terra-cotta, vases of, 114, 166.
Teti, King, pyramid of, 140.
Textiles, 67, 296-8, 302-4.
  Alexandrian, 303.
  brocaded, 303.
  Ekhmîm, 303-4 and note.
  Roman, 303.
Thebaid, the, 243, 273.
Thebes, 1, 2, 6, 26, 32, 33, 36, 66, 79, 85, 88, 89, 103, 131, 147, 148,
        153, 154, 155, 157-65, 168, 174, 177, 186, 193, 197, 205, 209,
        226, 229, 235, 237, 244, 250, 277, 290, 293, 313.
    (See KARNAK, LUXOR.)
Thmûis, silver vases of, 316-17.
Thoth
    (see GODS).
Thothmes I, 76-7, 229.
Thothmes II, 77, 287.
Thothmes III, 26, 42, 53, 58-9, 60, 77, 92, 157, 229, 263, 302, 326, 320.
Thothmes IV, 205.
Thûeris
    (see GODDESSES, APET, and TAÛRT).
Thûkû, 36 and note.
    (see PITHOM and TELL EL MASKHÛTAH).
Ti
    (see TOMB).
Tiberius, at Denderah and Ombos, 245.
Tibur, Egyptian rooms in Hadrian's villa at, 243.
Tii, Oueen, vase of, 267.
Tiles,--
  for mural decoration, 269-72.
  in pyramid of Sakkarah, 270.
  of Tell el Yahûdeh, 270-2.
Tipcat, 282.
Tin, 304.
Toilet, articles of, 166, 259, 266-7, 273, 277, 281, 306.
Tomb of,---
  Affi, 117.
  Aï, 16, 17, 155, 158.
  Aimadûa, 20.
  Amenhotep III, 158.
  Ameni, 149, 151.
  Anna, 12, 229.
  Bakenrenf, 165.
  an Entef, 265-6.
  Hapizefa, 150.
  Hesî, 210.
  Horemheb, 179-80, 183.
  Horhotep, 156-7.
  Hûi, 229,
  Kaäpir, 115,
  Khabiûsokari, 117, 208.
  Khamha, 229.
  Khetî, 155.
  Khnûmhotep, 149, 150, 151, 152, 155, 177, 297.
  Manna, 154.
  Merrûka, 120.
  Neferhotep, 115, 116, 155.
  Nenka, 130 and note.
  Petamenoph, 165.
  Pohûnika, 116.
  Ptahhotep, 118, 119, 122, 124, 188.
  Rahotep, 126.
  Rameses I., 158.
  Rameses II., 158.
  Rameses III., 161-3, 301.
  Rameses IV., 160.
  Red Scribe, 118.
  Rekhmara, 3, 186, 187, 229.
  Seti I., 158, 161-3, 232.
  Sennetmû, 258, 294.
  Shepsesptah, 117.
  Thenti, 118, 126.
  Ti, 116, 117, 127, 155.
  Ûna, 155.
  Ûrkhûû, 124.
    (See PYRAMID.)
Tombs, 111-68.
  Egyptian idea of, 111-12.
  mastaba-pyramids, 145-8.
  mastabas, 113-31.
  pyramids, 131-45.
  rock-cut tombs, 146-68.
       *       *       *       *       *
  Abydos, 22, 145-7.
  Ahnas el Medineh, 259.
  Asûan, 53, 148, 149, 150, 259.
  Beni Hasan, 24, 53, 148 and note, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 155, 177,
        256-7.
  Bersheh, 148 and note.
  Coptic period, 303-4.
  Deir el Gebrawî, 204.
  El Amarna, 13, 15, 16, 17.
  Fayûm, 259, 291-2, 303-4.
  Gizeh, 148.
  Greek period, 175.
  Kasr es Saîd, 148.
  Kûrnet Murraee, 294.
  Negadeh, 148.
  Sheikh Saîd, 148.
  Siût, 148, 150.
Tools, etc.,--
  adze, 283, 304.
  anvil, 313.
  axe, 201, 304.
  burin, 305, 325.
  chains, measuring, 155.
  chisel, 45, 214, 304.
  drill, 195, 214, 247, 250, 282.
  gouge, 195.
  grindstone, 247.
  hammer, 195, 313.
  knives, 304, 306.
  mallet, 45, 197, 202.
  pegs, 283.
  point, 47, 195 (note), 197, 201, 202, 247, 250.
  saw, 247, 250, 304.
  wedges, 45.
  wheel, 250
    (see WHEEL, POTTER'S).
Tops, 284.
Torus, 50.
Towns, 1-2, Note 1, 7-8, 87-8.
  Coptic, 8.
  Pharaonic, 1, 7, 8.
  Ptolemaic, 1.
  Roman, 8.
  Saïtic, 1.
  Twelfth Dynasty, 1, 7.
  walled, 20, 26.
Toys, 182, 282.
Trees, 274.
Trellis, 182, 189.
Tûaï, 273.
Tûatmûtf, genius, 258 (note).
Tûm
    (see GODS).
Turin Museum, 160, 171, 229, 231, 232, 235, 262, 274, 275.
Turquoise, 247, 325, 329.
Typhon (Set)
    (see GODS).

Ûaga, feast of, 118.
Ûahabra, 269 (note).
    (see APRIES and HOPHRA).
Ûati
    (see GODDESSES).
Ûna
    (see TOMB).
Ûnas, 133, 138, 139, 163.
Uraeus (basilisk), 61, 201, 294.
Ûsekh, 326-7.
Ûsertesen I, 76, 143.
Ûsertesen II., 7, 143, 322.
Ûsertesen III., 28, 226, 322, 323.
Ûshabtiû, 167, 253, 257, 266.
_Ûta_, amulet, 247-8.

Varnish, 203-4, 305.
Vases,---
  Ancient Empire, 255, 256.
  bronze, 305.
  canopic, 167, 252-3, 258, 292.
  decoration of, 256, 257, 258, 259.
  libation, 292, 310.
  silver and gold, 316-20.
  situlae, 307.
  terra-cotta, 114, 166.
  toilet, 253-4.
    (See BRONZE, GLASS, GLAZED WARE, GOLD, POTTERY, SILVER.)
Vaulting, 6 and note, 36, 51,
145, 146, 150, 151.
Vauquelin, M., 304.
Venus, 243.
Vermilion, 203.
Vienna Museum, 272.
Vulture, 92, 299, 301, 315, 325.
Vyse, Col. Howard., 137

Wady Gerraweh, 40.
  Genneh, 41.
  Sabûah
    (see HEMI-SPEOS).
Wages, 35.
Wall-scenes, 3, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 24, 30, 31, 35, 36,
        91, 92, 97, 99, 120, 122, 124, 130, 152-6, 162-5, 177, 178, 179-
        92, 193, 194, 195, 260, 284, 295, 296, 297, 298, 300, 301, 313,
        318, 319, 320.
    (see BAS-RELIEF and PAINTING).
Washhouse, 12.
Weavers, 124, 297-8.
Wheel, potter's, 255.
Wig, 236, 275, 276, 286, 308, 310, 332.
Wilkinson, Sir Gardner, 295, 303, 305.
Wilson, Sir E., 128 (note).
Windows, 9, 11, 50, 65, 70, 144.
Wine, 35, 36, 97, 180.
Wood, 25, 50, 66, 169, 205, 210-11, 214 and note, 224, 235, 274-7.
    (see CABINET-MAKING, MUMMY-CASES, STATUETTES, STATUES).

Zagazig, 332.
Zarû (Selle), 34 and note.
Zodiacal circle of Denderah, 93, 94.
Zowyet el Aryan, 134.





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