choice, a few hours of work were sufficient to transform the rough sketch into a portrait, such as it was, of the deceased they desired to commemorate, and to arrange his garment according to the latest fashion.  If, however, the relatives or the sovereign* declined to be satisfied with these commonplace images, and demanded a less conventional treatment of body for the double of him whom they had lost, there were always some among the assistants to be found capable of entering into their wishes, and of seizing the lifelike expression of limbs and features.

* It must not be forgotten that the statues were often, like the tomb itself, given by the king to the man whose services he desired to reward.  His burying-place then bore the formulary, “By the favour of the king,” as I have mentioned previously.

[Illustration:  241.jpg THE SHEIKH-EL BELED IN THE GIZEH MUSEUM]

     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey.

We possess at the present day, scattered about in museums, some score of statues of this period, examples of consummate art,—­the Khephrens, the Kheops, the Anu, the Nofrit, the Rahotpu I have already mentioned, the “Sheikh-el-Beled” and his wife, the sitting scribe of the Louvre and that of Gizeh, and the kneeling scribe.  Kaapiru, the “Sheikh-el-Beled,” was probably one of the directors of the corvee employed to build the Great Pyramid.* He seems to be coming forward to meet the beholder, with an acacia staff in his hand.  He has the head and shoulders of a bull, and a common cast of countenance, whose vulgarity is not wanting in energy.  The large, widely open eye has, by a trick of the sculptor, an almost uncanny reality about it.

* It was discovered by Mariette at Saqqara.  “The head, torso, arms, and even the staff, were intact; but the pedestal and legs were hopelessly decayed, and the statue was only kept upright by the sand which surrounded it.”  The staff has since been broken, and is replaced by a more recent one exactly like it.  In order to set up the figure, Mariette was obliged to supply new feet, which retain the colour of the fresh wood.  By a curious coincidence, Kaapiru was an exact portrait of one of the “Sheikhs el-Beled,” or mayors of the village of Saqqara:  the Arab workmen, always quick to see a likeness, immediately called it the “Sheikh el-Beled,” and the name has been retained ever since.

[Illustration:  242.jpg THE KNEELING SCRIBE IN THE GIZEH MUSEUM]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-
     Bey.

     [Illustration:  242b.jpg THE SITTING SCRIBE IN THE GIZEH MUSEUM]

     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey. 
     This scribe was discovered at Saqqara, by M. de Morgan, in
     the beginning of 1893.