stone left between the legs, prove that the original material in which the artist worked was soft and yielding, requiring support lest the superincumbent weight should crush the lower part of the figure. When a firm and rigid material was introduced, conventions were so firmly fixed that no later artist could break free from them. The ivory statuettes of the Ist dynasty show a realism and a truth to nature that were never attained at later periods. The sculptures found at Meydam, Gizeh, and Saqqara the celebrated figures of Rahotep and Nefert, the diorite statue of Khafra, and the wooden statues of Ka-aper (the Sheikh el Beled,' fig. 6) and his wife -are the finest examples. The lions and sphinxes of a later period (fig. 7), moreover, are often executed with amaz ing spirit. Sculptures in low relief-the depth often not more than of an inch-decorate the walls of tombs and temples (fig. 8); and a peculiar kind of bas-relief, known as relief en creux, also prevailed. In this the figures are sunk in slightly convex relief, but the intermediate ground is not cut away. Copper statues cast from moulds appear in the Vth dynasty; in the XIIth dynasty statuettes were cast, by the cire-perdue method, on a sand-core. Casting bronze statues on a core was an art introduced from Egypt into Greece by Rhocus. Painting was commoner in later times (Statuette in wood.) as a cheap substitute for sculpture; it had a rigid architectural character, and followed the same canon as sculpture. The colours were laid on flat, the background being gray, white, or yellow. Outline drawings show a freedom of line and a mastery of form that is not surpassed in modern art. The architectural details of Egyptian temples and the hieroglyphs appear to have been always coloured, and this added additional charm to Fig. 6.-Ka-aper, the Sheikh el Beled.' Fig. 7.-Ram-headed Sphinx. the sculptures. The religious papyri were often embellished with elaborately coloured vignettes, somewhat resembling the illuminations of medieval manuscripts. The Egyptians were also much devoted to music, the harp and flute appearing in use as early as the IVth, and heptachord and pentachord lyres as early as the XIIth, dynasty; besides drums, tambourines, flutes, cymbals, trumpets, and guitars in the XVIIIth, the most primitive form was the jingling sistrum, the instrument used in all religious worship (fig. 9). Many of the instruments were of great size, and must have produced considerable effect. Songs were chanted to the accompaniment of various instruments, and women beat time to their chants by clapping their hands to emphasise the rhythm. The well-known threshers' song, which occurs in the tomb of Ty of the Vth dynasty, has been paraphrased as: Hie along, oxen, Thresh the corn faster, The straw for yourselves, And the corn for your master. The refrain to this song was, 'Thresh for yourselves, O oxen.' The peasant songs were, in all probability, like the peasant songs of modern Egypt -a line of solo, with a refrain in chorus. In more ambitious poetry the same method is preserved in the strophe and antistrophe, of which the earliest and finest example is the Hymn to Senusert III. of the XIIth dynasty. In the mechanical arts many inventions had been made. The blowpipe, used on a large scale for metallurgy, appears in the Vth dynasty (fig. 10); bellows and siphons in the XVIIIth. Copper adzes, chisels, and harpoons were employed in the prehistoric periods; the use of the lever was fully understood in the IVth dynasty; the balance appears very early, but the steelyard does not occur till Roman times. Flint was the common material for tools in the prehistoric period, though the use of metal was already well known. At first copper was the chief metal; this was superseded by bronze in the XVIIIth dynasty, and iron, though known at all periods, is not common till the XXVIth. The earliest dated Glass (q.v.) made in Egypt is of the reign of Thothmes III. ; but glass, evidently imported, is known as early as the Ist dynasty. Hand-made pottery was used in the earliest prehistoric period, and a glazed ware and wheel-made pottery begin in the Ist dynasty. The Egyptians used, at an early period, shields and cuirasses of quilted leather; their weapons were stone-headed maces, clubs, bows, and daggers in prehistoric times, while spears and swords appear later. For sieges they employed the testudo, ladders, and mines. The army was composed of infantry till the XVIIIth dynasty, when war-chariots were introduced; for prior to that period the ass was the chief means of transport, and, carriages not having been invented, persons and goods were carried on the panniers of asses, or on a kind of saddle slung between two animals. War-boats no doubt existed at an early period; models and paintings of boats occur in prehistoric times, and mention is made of shipbuilding under the IIIrd dynasty, and of an armed expedition by boat to Nubia in the Vth dynasty; a regular navy occurs in the IIIrd, when Snefru built a fleet of sixty ships. The Nile, however, being the chief highway of Egypt, was constantly navigated by rowing and sailing vessels. An extensive commerce was carried on with neighbouring nations, and their tribute enriched the country with slaves, cattle, gems, valuable metals, and objects of curiosity. Rare animals were collected for ostentation. Under the earlier dynasties, the chief occupation of the nation appears to have been rearing cattle and cultivating grain, while the amusements consisted of banquets, games, hunting, and fishing; and the establishment of each noble-like that of a feudal baron of the Middle Ages-contained in itself all the organisation and artificers necessary for its maintenance. Transactions were carried on largely by barter; though rings of gold, probably of a standard weight and value, were also used. The unit of value, however, was always reckoned in copper. The Persians first introduced coined money (see NUMISMATICS). The wealth of families was often spent on the tombs and furniture of the dead, and the preparations for embalming were on so vast a scale that filial piety did not disdain to mortgage not only the sepulchres, but the very mummies of its ancestors (see EMBALMING). Amusements were various, from singlestick and juggling, the dance of the ghawazi (fig. 11), and bull-fights, to draughts, dice, and mora. In fact, eastern or their western successors. This high position was due to the fact that all landed property, including the throne itself, descended in the female line, from mother to daughter. Colossal in its art, profound in its philosophy and religion, and in possession of the knowledge of the arts and sciences, Egypt exhibits the astonishing phenomenon of an elevated civilisation at a period when the other nations of the world were almost unborn. Chronology and History.-In the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus, in the 3d century B. C., Manetho of Sebennytus, highpriest of Heliopolis, who had the best records of his country at his command, drew up, at the request of the king, a history in which we have the complete statement of the old Egyptian division of the space of time, from Menes Fig. 8.-Wall-painting from the Tomb of Ptah-hotep, at Saqqara: of the Pyramid age. ancient Egypt had, like any modern country, a material civilisation, which exerted all the require. ments of industry, and forgot none of idleness. The civil government was administered nominally by the Pharaoh, whose substitute was the vizier. Each province had its own governor, who was responsible for its good administration; the mechanism of government was carried on by officials of various kinds and grades. Sacred scribes attended to the ecclesiastical interests, and inferior scribes to the local interests. The public works, the collection of grain and other dues, the cattle, workmen, wells, irrigation, had each their separate organisation of superintendents and scribes. The temples were ordered by highpriests and an inferior hierarchy, with overseers and governors of revenues, domains, and donatives; and each temple, like a monastic institution, had its carefully subdivided organisation. The military force was ruled with severe discipline, under the direction of nomarchs, colonels, captains, and lieutenants. In early times there was a local militia, aided by foreign mercenary troops; this gradually developed into a standing army, and in the reign of Rameses II. we find the army divided into territorial divisions. The criminal and civil law was administered by judges, who held travelling assizes, and to whose tribunals the necessary officers were attached. Appeals could be made to the Pharaoh, to the vizier, and, in Roman times, to the prefect. The execution of deeds required so many witnesses that fraud evidently often occurred. The superior position of women in the social scale, notwithstanding the permission to marry within degrees of consanguinity usually forbidden, shows that the Egyptians reached a higher point of delicacy and refinement than either their Fig. 9.-Sistrum. cellus (800 A.D.), and a comparison of these statements, corrupted as they are, with the records of the monuments has clearly established the truth and authenticity of Manetho's authorities. The Hebrew Scriptures, Herodotus, Diodorus, Josephus, Eratosthenes, and others also contain chronological information. The division of the kings into dynasties is followed by all modern Egyptologists-the actual date of a dynasty being arrived at, where possible, by astronomical or seasonal data. The Egyptians themselves had a double calendar-(1) the official calendar, which consisted of 365 days in the year, losing a day every four years, and there. fore shifting gradually through all the seasons; and (2) the solar calendar of 365 days in the year. The two calendars coincided once in every 1460 years, this period being called by the Greeks a Sothic cycle, from Sopd, Sothis, or Sirius, the Dog-star; for the Egyptians calculated their new year from the rising of the Dog-star at dawn. As the chronology is still a matter of dispute, the table of dynasties which follows gives the dates from the Ist to the XVIIIth dynasty as calculated from Manetho's History, and the same dates as calculated by Meyer. After the XVIIIth dynasty, the two methods being practically in agreement, only one date is given for each dynasty. Egypt was fabled to have been first governed by a dynasty of gods, who, according to Manetho and other authors, were: Hephaestus (Ptah), Helios (Ra), Agathodæmon, Kronos (Geb), Osiris, Typhon (Set), and Horus. These gods reigned 13,900 years, and were succeeded by the demi-gods, manes, and mythical kings, who reigned 11,000 years in all. This fable points to a tradition of an ancient and settled government of long duration, in which the power was wielded by kings of North and South Egypt before the date of Menes, the first historic king; a tradition which has been confirmed by the discovery of prehistoric burials, showing a long period of rising and waning civilisations before the advent of the dynastic Egyptians. The epoch of Menes is the starting-point of Egyptian history, and is placed at 5500 B.C. by Manetho, at 3400 B.C. by Meyer. Menes has been identified with King Narmer, of whom several contemporary monuments still exist. He is said to have founded Memphis by diverting the course of the Nile, to have made laws and instituted the worship of the gods, and, finally, to have been killed by a hippopotamus. His immediate successor, Atothis, is traditionally credited with the authorship of a treatise on anatomy. The tombs of the kings of the Ist dynasty are at Abydos, and were excavated first by Amélineau and then by Petrie. The objects found there include pottery, vases of hard stone, copper implements, carved wood and ivory, some very fine weav ing, and jewelled bracelets, which are among the finest examples in the world of the goldsmith's art. The first recorded expedition to Sinai to obtain copper occurred in the reign of Semerkhet (Mersekha) of the Ist dynasty. In the IInd dynasty the primitive worship of sacred animals was reintroduced, and the right of inheritance through the female line officially sanctioned. Zeser, the king of the IIIrd dynasty, was the builder of the Step-pyramid of Saqqara, the first of the Egyptian pyramíds; and the last king of this dynasty, Snefru, built the pyramid of Meydum. Round his pyramid were buried the nobles and officials of his court; and in these tombs were found inscriptions and sculptures, among them the famous seated figures of Rahetep and his wife Nefert. The first three dynasties lasted 769 years, the IVth dynasty beginning about 4700 B.C. Khufu, the Cheops of Herodotus, constructed the Great Pyramid at Gizeh, and has been handed down to posterity as an impious and cruel tyrant by the priests whom he offended; for he closed the temples and forbade sacrifices, thereby relieving the people from a heavy burden and striking a severe blow at the power of the priesthood. Khafra (Chephren), his successor, built the second of the Gizeh pyramids and continued the policy of Khufu. Menkaura (Mycerinus), who built the third pyramid, reversed that policy, reopened the temples, and restored the priesthood to power. The high civilisation of this period marks an epoch in Egyptian history, and the numerous tombs of this and the subsequent dynasty exhibit a highly advanced state of art. The statues of Khafra (found near the Sphinx), carved in black diorite, are notable evidence of artistic feeling and mechanical skill; the cultivation of farms, the chase, the arts, enjoyed a great part of the attention of the Egyp tians; the simpler mechanical inventions were in common use, but the horse and chariot had not yet been introduced. The Vth dynasty was also Memphite, and consisted of nine kings, reigning about 220 years. The VIth dynasty, also from Memphis, lasted about 200 years. Tombs and inscriptions of this period are found throughout Egypt -from Assuan to Tanis, and even in the Wady Hammamât, the valley leading from Koptos to the Red Sea. The pyramids of these kings are at Saqqara, and are remarkable for the inscriptions on the walls of the tomb chambers. These inscriptions are now known by the name of the Pyramid texts,' and are the earliest religious writings that have yet been discovered in Egypt. They throw great light on the early beliefs of the country, and elucidate some of the chapters in the Book of the Dead (q.v.), or Ritual, of later times. They are also of great importance linguistically, being the only long texts in the archaic form of the language which remain to us. Pepy II., the fifth king of the VIth dynasty, is recorded to have reigned ninetyfive years, coming to the throne at the are of five and dying at the age of one hundred. During his reign armed expeditions were sent into Nubia under a captain named Una, in whose biographical inscriptions many historical details are preserved. The dynasty ended, according to Manetho, with a queen (Nitocris), said to have been buried in the Third Pyramid of Gîzeh. Nitocris is the subject of various legends, and is believed by the Arabs to be a witch who still haunts the pyramid. The period from the |