which exhibit, in their infinite variety, a confusion of species so
ingenious and astonishing, that the spectator who has the least
zoological enthusiasm is utterly confounded by the strange sights that
are here. These animals are collected into four cases (8-11), the two
first of which are chiefly devoted to the quadrupeds; and the two last
to the birds. Among the former, or quadrupeds, the visitor will
particularly remark the cynocephali, or dog-headed baboons, in bronze
and stone; various lions; cats, with bored ears; jackals; shrew mice
bearing the winged world; bulls; gazelles; a kneeling ibex; a ram
walking with the conical cap on its head; a sow with pigs, in bronze;
a quadruped with a viper's head; sphinxes, one covered with a lotus;
and various models of hares, ram's heads, &c. These animals, that is
to say the sacred animals that actually had life, were waited upon by
the priests, and the pain of death was inflicted upon any person who
killed them. Among the birds are many figures of hawks, some with
human faces, others with the solar disk on the head, or the conical
cap; the ibis, variously decorated; snakes and fishes; uraei; wooden
fragments of vipers; frogs; scorpions; a bronze crocodile; scarabaei,
in lapis-lazuli and other substances; emblems of stability; a wooden
head of the hippopotamus from the Tombs of the Kings at Thebes;
vultures; and snakes.
Next to the cases of sacred animals are two (12, 13) devoted to small
statues of various kinds, in various substances. In the first division
of these cases are stone heads of priests, and officers of state with
long hair; and in the second, many curious objects are arranged,
including figures of men seated on thrones; a standing figure of a
Pharaoh; a long haired officer of state carved in ebony; rowers, with
moveable arms, taken from the models of boats. The third division
includes a dark green figure of a royal scribe, kneeling and holding a
tablet on which the prenomen of Rameses is visible; kings in various
attitudes; the bronze figure of a kneeling priest supporting a bowl
containing loaves; an altar of libation, with sacred animals, and
vases, cakes, &c.; various figures of scribes and others; a female
figure with a calf suspended about the neck by its legs, and the hand
resting upon the horns of a gazelle; reclining female figures; parts
of two females supporting monkeys; a seated female with blue hair; and
fragments of figures. The fourth division contains other Egyptian
figures. Having examined these two cases the visitor should approach
those in which the larger