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 Uat, or lotus-column amulet.]

[Illustration:  Fig. 213.—­An Uta, 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, Ekhmim, 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 “Uat,” or sacred