consumed the grain that lay in the model granaries. From this curious
relic the visitor will turn with some astonishment to an ancient
Egyptian wig: it is curled on the top and plaited at the sides, and is
in all respects a well manufactured article. It is a state wig, worn
only on great occasions--the Egyptians going habitually closely
shaven. In the third division of the cases are assembled various bulky
figures, which the visitor will recognise as various Egyptian deities:
there is Pasht with his lion's head; Num, ram-headed; Thoth,
ibis-headed, and others; also the figure of a Pharaoh, or Egyptian
king, with the teshr, a royal cap, all taken from the tombs of the
kings at Thebes.
In the two next cases (20, 21) the visitor will find various specimens
of the dresses and personal ornaments of the ancient Egyptians. In the
first division are a leather cap, cut into net-work from a single
piece, the ordinary male head-dress; a leather workman's apron: a
palm-leaf basket, and a linen cloth tunic that was found in it at
Thebes. The toilet vessels of various substances and shapes, used to
contain the metallic dye for the eye-lids, called sthem, worn by the
ancient Egyptians, including the cylindrical case, bearing the royal
names, are arranged in the second division, together with ivory,
porcelain, and other hair studs, and a pair of cord sandals from
Memphis. The third division is filled with varieties of Egyptian
mirrors, pins, combs, and sandals. The mirrors of the Egyptians
consisted of circular metallic plates, with variously ornamented
handles. The specimens in this case, which have lost their lustre
under centuries of rust, include one with a lotus handle, ornamented
with the Egyptian goddess of beauty, Athor; one with a tress of hair
as a design for the handle: and others ornamented with the head of the
much reverenced hawk. The pins are in bronze and wood, and were used
by the Egyptian ladies either to bind the hair or to apply the sthem
to the eyelids. The combs show a double row of teeth, and are of wood.
The shoes and sandals are of various kinds, but the greatest variety
of these articles is deposited in the fourth division of the cases.
These are made of palm leaves, wood, and papyrus: those with
high-peaked toes are the most ancient, having been worn in the
eighteenth dynasty, about fourteen centuries before our era.
The nine following cases (22-32) are devoted to the vases and other
domestic vessels of the Egyptians; an intervening case (27) being
filled with the cedar coffin of a prophet priest of Amoun in Thebes,
elaborately ornamented with various religious symbols. Some of the
vases are inscribed with royal names of early dynasties, proving their
great antiquity: some of the most elegant dating so far back as
fourteen centuries before our era. These specimens of ancient Egyptian
workmanship suggest a state of high artistic refinement of a remoter
antiquity than the Grecian, wrecks of which lie in the Elgin and other
saloons on the basement of the museum. Of the large collection here
arranged the visitor will only care to notice the more remarkable
specimens. The uses to which these cups and bowls and vases were put,
may be inferred partly from their shapes, and partly from the material
of which they were made; those of a costly kind being probably the
receptacles of the unguents with which the ancient Egyptians of both
sexes anointed their persons after the bath; and the larger and less
costly varieties being the wine vases, &c, in common use. Two ancient
vases are in the first division of the case (22, 23) one with the name
of a king before the twelfth dynasty, and the more modern one of the
twenty-fifth dynasty. In the second division the visitor should notice
the small aragonite vases, resembling wine-glasses; in the third case
a slab, upon which are six vases of various shapes in calcareous
stone; in the fourth a vase from Lower Egypt, with the quantity it
holds inscribed upon it. In the next five cases, 24-27 are filled with
cups, and bowls, small vases, and lamps, including pottery vases
shaped like the pine cone; blue porcelain vase with a pattern; a
highly ornamented porcelain jug; vases in the shape of the hedgehog
and the ibis; glass, long-necked vases; a large blue bowl, ornamented
with leaves; a porcelain vase of the time of Sesostris, ornamented
with petals of the lotus flower; polished terra-cotta vases; double
vases; a lamp shaped like a bottle: a vase for libations in
terra-cotta, with a spout shaped like a bird's beak; bottle-shaped
vase in painted pottery, with three handles, and symbolic decorations;
and curious perforated cups on feet. The three cases marked 30-32
contain also some curious vases and lamps, including a vase shaped
like a woman playing a guitar, from Thebes; a vase issuing from a
flower, in red pottery; a, lamb reclining as a vase; gourd-shaped
vases; earthenware bowls covered with various deities; and lamps
ornamented with toads, boars' heads, children, and leaves, in relief.
Other vases are arranged here and there about the five next cases
(33-37) together with agricultural implements; and, strange to say,
viands prepared perhaps for some of the mummies that lie in the
immediate neighbourhood, together with odd bits and fragments, all
illustrative of times before Alexander had bequeathed the Ptolemies to
Egypt. In the first two divisions, the remarkable objects are various,
bronze buckets with ornamental outlines of various deities and sacred
animals; a rectangular bronze table, perforated to receive vessels;
bronze lamps, &c.; and in the third division the visitor should
certainly notice the two-staged stand of papyrus and cane from a
private tomb at Thebes, with trussed ducks and cakes of bread upon it;
baskets containing fruits, as figs, pomegranates, dates, cakes of
barley, &e. The fourth division contains some old agricultural
implements, including the fragments of a sickle found by Belzoni under
a statue at Karnak; a wooden pick-axe; an Egyptian hoe; a yoke of
acacia wood; eight steps of wood from a rope-ladder, and specimens of
palm-fibre rope.
Passing from these interesting relics of ancient manufacturing skill,
the visitor will next arrive before two cases (36, 37) of Egyptian
fragments of tombs, and weapons of war, illustrating the means of
killing and the fashion of burial. In the first division are various
goms, or Egyptian sceptres and staffs, some of ebony and some of wood;
and the blade of a war-axe, with the name of Thothmes III. inscribed
upon it. A variety of offensive weapons are arranged in the second
division, including bronze war-axes, one with a hollow silver handle;
daggers; bows and arrows, the arrows pointed with triangular bronze
heads, and fragments of flint-arrow-heads; fowling-sticks; handsome
bronze bladed knives, with agate and other handles, some worked with
gold, &c. The fragments in the third division include a knotted rope;
a piked club; wooden fan handles; wooden paddles carved with heads of
jackals; a mast for the model of a boat; and in the fourth division
are a curious cuirass and helmet, from the tombs of Manfaloot,
fashioned from a crocodile skin. At this point is another intermediate
case containing a mummy, coffin, and boards. The coffin is shaped like
a mummy, with a green face, and Netpe, between Isis and Nephthys on
the breast, with the deceased being introduced to the deities, among
whom he is to be divided by Thoth. This coffin was presented to the
Museum by George III.
Having peered into the fragmentary establishments of ancient Egypt,
followed the contemporaries of Sesostris into their dining-rooms, even
noticed specimens of their dishes, and seen them in their waxen
winding-sheets, the visitor may now pass to the next case (39) and
notice some of the remains of the materials by the means of which they
recorded their actions, and traced their lineaments. Here are
displayed the ancient Egyptian pens and pencils, colours and ink, all
shrivelled and discoloured with the mould of centuries, but remaining
still to bear witness to the early love of knowledge and of art, that
urged the Egyptian scribe and the Egyptian artist to fashion them. In
the first division are the rectangular pallets, with grooves for the
wooden pens or reeds, and hollows for the colour or ink; and here,
too, are the kash, or pens used by the ancient scribes. The pallets
have inscriptions upon them; on one there is an invocation to the
goddess of writing. Fragments of one or two colours, with the
palm-leaf baskets in which they were deposited are also in this case;
together with stands with small colour vases; slabs with colour jars;
mullets for grinding, a basket with paint-brushes made of palm-fibres;
and upon a thin piece of cedar wood is a portrait of an Egyptian
female of the Greek period. Amidst other minute objects lie Egyptian
folding wax tablets for writing; a cylindrical ink-box, with a chain
attached to hold the pen case; seals of various kinds with impressions
of bulls, jackals, and hieroglyphics; portion of a calendar on stone;
and fragments of Egyptian writing on stone, and chiefly from tombs.
These fragments illustrative of the Egyptian character are continued
in the first two divisions of the cases marked 40, 41, including a
panel and stud from an ebony box inscribed with the titles of
Amenophis III. and his daughter; and a fragment in ebony, with an
inscribed dedication to Anubis. Among the miscellaneous objects also
in these divisions are various boxes in wood, papyrus, one veneered
with white and red ivory, some inscribed with names; and one with a
pyramidal cover, veneered with ivory and ornamented with figures and
birds. The next or third division is filled with varieties of Egyptian
spoons. Some of these are curious. They are chiefly of wood; but some
are of ivory. Among them are wooden spoons, shovel, egg and
cartouche-shaped; one with the handle carved in the shape of lotus
flowers; one with a moveable cover from Memphis; one with the handle
representing a gazelle, and within fish demolishing a water plant,
from Thebes; one in the shape of a fish; one circular, with a lotus
handle and a hawk cynocephalus on its edge; one with the form of a
fish for a bowl, and a fox seizing the fish for a handle; and others
equally curious in point of design. The last, or fourth division of
the case is full of ancient Egyptian building materials, including
fragments of painted plaster; stamps for bricks; palm-fibre brushes
for colouring walls, and smoothing tools.