meaning, unknown to everyone but himself; of the names and titles of individuals; of royal ovals, which are historically interesting; of good wishes; of pious ejaculations; and of magic formulae.  The earliest examples known date from the Fourth Dynasty, and are small and fine.  Sometimes Sixth Dynasty scarabs are of obsidian and crystal, and early Middle Kingdom scarabs of amethyst, emerald, and even garnet.  From the time of the Eighteenth Dynasty scarabs may be counted by millions, and the execution is more or less fine according to the hardness of the stone.  This holds good for amulets of all kinds.  The hippopotamus-heads, the hearts, the Ba birds (p. 111), which one picks up at Taud, to the south of Thebes, are barely roughed out, the amethyst and green felspar of which they are made having presented an almost unconquerable resistance to the point, saw, drill, and wheel.  The belt-buckles, angles, and head-rests in red jasper, carnelian, and hematite, are, on the contrary, finished to the minutest details, notwithstanding that carnelian and red jasper are even harder than green felspar.  Lapis lazuli is insufficiently homogeneous, almost as hard as felspar, and seems as if it were incapable of being finely worked.  Yet the Egyptians have used it for images of certain goddesses—­Isis, Nephthys, Neith, Sekhet,—­which are marvels of delicate cutting.  The modelling of the forms is carried out as boldly as if the material were more trustworthy, and the features lose none of their excellence if examined under a magnifying glass.  For the most part, however, a different treatment was adopted.  Instead of lavishing high finish upon the relief, it was obtained in a more summary way, the details of individual parts being sacrificed to the general effect.  Those features of the face which project, and those which retire, are strongly accentuated.  The thickness of the neck, the swell of the breast and shoulder, the slenderness of the waist, the fulness of the hips, are all exaggerated.  The feet and hands are also slightly enlarged.  This treatment is based upon a system, the results being boldly and yet judiciously calculated.  When the object has to be sculptured in miniature, a mathematical reduction of the model is not so happy in its effect as might be supposed.  The head loses character; the neck looks too weak; the bust is reduced to a cylinder with a slightly uneven surface; the feet do not look strong enough to support the weight of the body; the principal lines are not sufficiently distinct from the secondary lines.  By suppressing most of the accessory forms and developing those most essential to the expression, the Egyptians steered clear of the danger of producing insignificant statuettes.  The eye instinctively tones down whatever is too forcible, and supplies what is lacking.  Thanks to these subtle devices of the ancient craftsman, a tiny statuette of this or that divinity measuring scarcely an inch and a quarter in height, has almost the breadth and dignity of a colossus.