These are truly anatomical monsters, and yet the appearance they present to us is neither laughable nor grotesque.  The defective limbs are so deftly connected with those which are normal, that the whole becomes natural:  the correct and fictitious lines are so ingeniously blent together that they seem to rise necessarily from each other.  The actors in these dramas are constructed in such a paradoxical fashion that they could not exist in this world of ours; they live notwithstanding, in spite of the ordinary laws of physiology, and to any one who will take the trouble to regard them without prejudice, their strangeness will add a charm which is lacking in works more conformable to nature.  A layer of colour spread over the whole heightens and completes them.  This colouring is never quite true to nature nor yet entirely false.  It approaches reality as far as possible, but without pretending to copy it in a servile way.  The water is always a uniform blue, or broken up by black zigzag lines; the skin of the men is invariably brown, that of the women pale yellow.

[Illustration:  249.jpg BAS-RELIEF IN IVORY]

     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Bouriant.  The
     original is in private possession.

The shade befitting each being or object was taught in the workshops, and once the receipt for it was drawn up, it was never varied in application.  The effect produced by these conventional colours, however, was neither discordant nor jarring.  The most brilliant colours were placed alongside each other with extreme audacity, but with a perfect knowledge of their mutual relations and combined effect.  They do not jar with, or exaggerate, or kill each other:  they enhance each other’s value, and by their contact give rise to half-shades which harmonize with them.  The sepulchral chapels, in cases where their decoration had been completed, and where they have reached us intact, appear to us as chambers hung with beautifully luminous and interesting tapestry, in which rest ought to be pleasant during the heat of the day to the soul which dwells within them, and to the friends who come there to hold intercourse with the dead.

The decoration of palaces and houses was not less sumptuous than that of the sepulchres, but it has been so completely destroyed that we should find it difficult to form an idea of the furniture of the living if we did not see it frequently depicted in the abode of the double.  The great armchairs, folding seats, footstools, and beds of carved wood, painted and inlaid, the vases of hard stone, metal, or enamelled ware, the necklaces, bracelets, and ornaments on the walls, even the common pottery of which we find the remains in the neighbourhood of the pyramids, are generally distinguished by an elegance and grace reflecting credit on the workmanship and taste of the makers.* The squares of ivory which they applied to their linen-chests and their jewel-cases often contained actual bas-reliefs in miniature of as bold workmanship and as skilful execution as the most beautiful pictures in the tombs:  on these, moreover, were scenes of private life—­dancing or processions bringing offerings and animals.**