[Illustration:  Fig. 215.—­Perfume vase, alabaster.]

[Illustration:  Fig. 216.—­Perfume vase, alabaster.]

[Illustration:  Fig. 217.—­Perfume vase, alabaster.]

They are unornamented, except perhaps by two lotus-bud handles, or two lions’ heads, or perhaps a little female head just at the rise of the neck (fig. 218).  The smallest of these vases were not intended for liquids, but for pomades, medicinal ointments, and salves made with honey.  Some of the more important series comprise large-bodied flasks, with an upright cylindrical neck and a flat cover (fig. 219).  In these, the Egyptians kept the antimony powder with which they darkened their eyes and eyebrows.  The Kohl-pot was a universal toilet requisite; perhaps the only one commonly used by all classes of society.  When designing it, the craftsman gave free play to his fancy, borrowing forms of men, plants, and animals for its adornment.  Now it appears in the guise of a full-blown lotus; now it is a hedgehog; a hawk; a monkey clasping a column to his breast, or climbing up the side of a jar; a grotesque figure of the god Bes; a kneeling woman, whose scooped-out body contained the powder; a young girl carrying a wine-jar.  Once started upon this path, the imagination of the artists knew no limits.  As for materials, everything was made to serve in turn—­granite, diorite, breccia, red jade, alabaster, and soft limestone, which lent itself more readily to caprices of form; finally, a still more plastic and facile substance—­clay, painted and glazed.

[Ilustration:  Fig. 218.—­Perfume vase, alabaster.]

[Illustration:  Fig. 219.—­Vase for antimony powder.]

It was not for want of material that the art of modelling and baking clays failed to be as fully developed in Egypt as in Greece, The valley of the Nile is rich in a fine and ductile potter’s clay, with which the happiest results might have been achieved, had the native craftsman taken the trouble to prepare it with due care.  Metals and hard stone were, however, always preferred for objects of luxury; the potter was fain, therefore, to be content with supplying only the commonest needs of household and daily life.  He was wont to take whatever clay happened to be nearest to the place where he was working, and this clay was habitually badly washed, badly kneaded, and fashioned with the finger upon a primitive wheel worked by the hand.  The firing was equally careless.  Some pieces were barely heated at all, and melted it they came into contact with water, while others were as hard as tiles.  All tombs of the ancient empire contain vases of a red or yellow ware, often mixed, like the clay of bricks, with finely-chopped straw or weeds.  These are mostly large solid jars with oval bodies, short necks, and wide mouths, but having neither foot nor handles.  With them are also found pipkins and pots, in which to store the dead man’s provisions; bowls more or less shallow; and flat plates, such as are still used by the fellahin.