to the gods of the south and of the north, and with the products of the south and of the north.  Each sculptured tableau must, therefore, be repeated at least twice in each temple—­on a right wall and on a left wall.  Amen, on the right, receives the corn, the wine, the liquids of the south; while on the left he receives the corn, the wine, and the liquids of the north.  As with Amen, so with Maut, Khonsu, Mentu, and many other gods.  Want of space frequently frustrated the due execution of this scheme, and we often meet with a tableau in which the products of north and south together are placed before an Amen who represents both Amen of the south and Amen of the north.  These departures from decorative usage are, however, exceptional, and the dual symmetry is always observed where space permits.

[Illustration:  Fig. 106.—­Frieze of uraei and cartouches.]

In Pharaonic times, the tableaux were not over-crowded.  The wall-surface intended to be covered was marked off below by a line carried just above the ground level decoration, and was bounded above by the usual cornice, or by a frieze.  This frieze might be composed of uraei, or of bunches of lotus; or of royal cartouches (fig. 106) supported on either side by divine symbols; or of emblems borrowed from the local cult (by heads of Hathor, for instance, in a temple dedicated to Hathor); or of a horizontal line of dedicatory inscription engraved in large and deeply-cut hieroglyphs.  The wall space thus framed in contained sometimes a single scene and sometimes two scenes, one above the other.  The wall must be very lofty, if this number is exceeded.  Figures and inscriptions were widely spaced, and the scenes succeeded one another with scarcely a break.  The spectator had to discover for himself where they began or ended.  The head of the king was always studied from the life, and the faces of the gods reproduced the royal portrait as closely as possible.  As Pharaoh was the son of the gods, the surest way to obtain portraits of the gods was to model their faces after the face of the king.  The secondary figures were no less carefully wrought; but when these were very numerous, they were arranged on two or three levels, the total height of which never exceeded that of the principal personages.  The offerings, the sceptres, the jewels, the vestments, the head-dresses, and all the accessories were treated with a genuine feeling for elegance and truth.  The colours, moreover, were so combined as to produce in each tableau the effect of one general and prevailing tone; so that in many temples there were chambers which can be justly distinguished as the Blue Hall, the Red Hall, or the Golden Hall.  So much for the classical period of decoration.

[Illustration:  Fig. 107.—­Wall of a chamber at Denderah, to show the arrangement of the tableaux.]