EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES.

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literature and antiquities. As the greater number of these antiques are articles of rare occurrence, and some of them, perhaps, unique, a concise description of the more remarkable may not be thought altogether uninteresting : —1. Twenty-two scarabæi, of which several are of marble. One of these, of a fine-grained greenstone, is very exquisitely sculptured; the wings, closed upon the back, and the legs, which nearly meet in front, being wrought with singular minuteness and delicacy. The bottom or slab upon which the beetle rests is charged with hieroglyphics, of equally excellent workmanship; and the whole was originally covered with gold leaf, of which several pieces of considerable thickness still adhere to the side. Another scarabæus, of a kind of black ironstone, polished like a mirror, had been broken, and repaired, by the Egyptians themselves, with a resinous sort of cement, which holds together, with great tenacity, the broken pieces of the stone. Several of the scarabæi are of what, in the East, is called root of emerald, or coarse emerald; others of a beautiful green jasper. In these diminutive objects of their worship, the Egyptians exhibited the same passion for allegorical representation discoverable in the paintings and intaglios of a mythological character which cover the walls of their temples and palaces: upon the body of one of the scarabæi is sculptured the head of a woman; another, from the ruins of Thebes, is fashioned like a jar, and has the beetle sculptured on one side; a third, from Memphis, is adorned with the figure of the phoenix,

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and of a monstrous bird with a human head (supposed to typify the soul), turned face to face. 2. A thick heavy gold ring containing a small stone of three colours, black, white, and amber, upon which the same bird is engraved, surmounting the symbol of life. Many of these scarabæi are bored, and would seem to have been worn as amulets. They are generally found within the wrapper on the breast of the mummies. 3. On a small oblong stone, worn as an amulet or charm, the yoni-lingam, or symbol of life, is sculptured beside a temple; with a wavy line above, upon which stands the ichneumon, which nowhere else, I believe, occurs as a hieroglyphic. 4. A lady's cornelian necklace, having numerous gold ornaments intermingled with the beads. 5. Another necklace, with two frogs and two lotus flowers, cut in cornelian. 6. A gold ornament, attached to a necklace, representing a woman in a very wanton and extraordinary attitude. * 7. A serpent's head in cornelian, worn at the neck. 8. Various figures of gods, in lapis lazuli. 9. A scarabæus, having, on the obverse, the representation of a human sacrifice in honour of the god Phthah: the victim is on his knees, and the

We find, among the objects of religious worship of the neighbouring nations, representations equally scandalous. "Il y avait à Majuma, port de Gaza en Palestine, une statue de marbre de Vénus, nue, quæ habebat aperta sua pudenda, comme dit Marc Diacre in Vitâ Sancti Porphyrii Gazensis. Les habitans de Majuma avaient pour elle la plus grande vénération, et principalement les femmes, qui brûlaient de l'encens et allumaient des lampes en son honneur." -Larcher, Mémoire sur Vénus, p. 24, 25. — Hospin de Orig. Fest. Ethnic. p. 160.

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sacrificer, who holds him by the hair with his right hand, has the sword or sacrificial knife in the left. 10. Articles of a lady's toilette: a vessel of alabaster, supported by the figure of a monkey, with stopper of the same material, for holding the surmeh, or collyrium for the eyes. A small fictile vase, nearly as hard and heavy as stone, supposed, from the hieroglyphics on the outside, to have belonged to a queen of Egypt it has the name of the owner, together with that of some god, on its exterior; and was probably used for containing collyrium or essence. small fictile bottle, in the form of a column, with wavy ornaments in bright blue, yellow, and white, with a very fine glossy varnish: blue on the inside. A small flattish round bottle of alabaster, with slender handles, of very elegant form. A very neat little wooden vessel, in the form of a duck, with a cover turning on a pivot, the handle consisting of the duck's neck and head: it was once neatly inlaid; and contains a small pencil for inserting the surmeh beneath the eyelids the whole of sycamore. 11. A small head in terra-cotta, with the mouth open; the tongue hanging out, and all the features distorted by passion, like the tragic masks of the Greeks: executed with much spirit and delicacy. 12. A long pin for the hair, set with precious stones, in shape resembling those which are worn by the peasant girls of Northern Italy. 13. Head of a sphynx in bronze. The head, neck, breast, and paws of this small figure are in perfect preservation; but the body, which was not of one

piece with the head, has been lost. The head-dress, which considerably resembles a nun's hood, is surmounted by a complete Christian cross; an exact counterpart of those wooden crosses which, in Catholic countries, are placed over church-doors: from which it may be inferred that it is a production of those ages when Christianity was as yet mingled with paganism, and their symbols mixed up and confounded in the same monuments. The conception and workmanship are inferior; and it has nothing Egyptian about it but the form. 14. Various bronze figures of Theban and Memphian gods. 15. Figure of Nephthys, the least intelligible of all the divinities of Egypt, in terra-cotta; with the head of the hippopotamus, the hanging paps of the sow, and the legs and feet of some other animal. This strange figure occurs on the walls of the smaller temple of Koom Ombos, sometimes with the head of a crocodile; in other cases, as here; and in others, again, with the head of some other fierce animal. She is regarded as the

sakti, or energy, of Typhon.

16. A very singular

kind of figure, of a woman, in dark brown wood, headless, and with a serpent springing forth from the neck, instead of a head, having the hands held up, grasping the snake. 17. Figure of Osiris, in bronze, holding the crosier and flagellum with both hands an elegant specimen of Egyptian art, which, except that the lips are somewhat too thick, might have passed for the workmanship and effigies of a Greek; the forehead, which is partly concealed

by the mitre, being lofty, the nose regularly formed, the cheeks full, and the lower part of the face rounder than is usual in Egyptian statues. The beard is gathered together in the usual way, and falls down upon the breast; the ears are rather too large, and appear beneath the mitre, in front of which is the Uræus, or cobra di capello, rearing the fore part of the body, and projecting the head in a menacing attitude. 18. Figure of Isis in bronze: the goddess is here represented, as in the temples of Upper Egypt, with the infant Horus on her lap, having her right hand pressed upon the left breast; and bearing upon her head her characteristic mitre, the spreading horns of the cow, with the globe of the moon between them. 19. Figure of Harpocrates, with his forefinger placed upon his lips; on the right side of the head is an immense lock of hair, such as is found on the mummies, and on the heads of several Oriental nations, though not in Egypt. 20. Figure of Apis* (the bull god) in bronze. That which renders this small statue extremely remarkable, is a silver triangle, with the base upwards, on the forehead; undoubtedly representing the yoni of the Hindoos, and connected with the worship of Athor. A vulture, the symbol of Isis, is represented on the back, and between the horns is a figure of the sun, with the Uræus or Agathodæmon projecting from the disc.

* Thus described by Herodotus: "The skin is black; but on its forehead is a white star of a triangular form. It has the figure of an eagle on the back, the tail is divided, and under the tongue it has an insect like a beetle." - Thalia, 28.