* There are depicted on the monuments bags or heaps of gold
     dust, ingots in the shape of bricks, rings, and vases,
     arranged alongside each other.

The general prosperity encouraged a passion for goldsmith’s work, and the use of bracelets, necklaces, and chains became common among classes of the people who were not previously accustomed to wear them.  There was henceforward no scribe or merchant, however poor he might be, who had not his seal made of gold or silver, or at any rate of copper gilt.  The stone was sometimes fixed, but frequently arranged so as to turn round on a pivot; while among people of superior rank it had some emblem or device upon it, such as a scorpion, a sparrow-hawk, a lion, or a cynocephalous monkey.  Chains occupied the same position among the ornaments of Egyptian women as rings among men; they were indispensable decorations.  Examples of silver chains are known of some five feet in length, while others do not exceed two to three inches.  There are specimens in gold of all sizes, single, double, and triple, with large or small links, some thick and heavy, while others are as slight and flexible as the finest Venetian lace.  The poorest peasant woman, alike with the lady of the court, could boast of the possession of a chain, and she must have been in dire poverty who had not some other ornament in her jewel-case.  The jewellery of Queen Ahhotpu shows to what degree of excellence the work of the Egyptian goldsmiths had attained at the time of the expulsion of the Nyksos:  they had not only preserved the good traditions of the best workmen of the XIIth dynasty, but they had perfected the technical details, and had learned to combine form and colour with a greater skill.  The pectorals of Prince Khamoisit and the Lord Psaru,now in the Louvre, but which were originally placed in the tomb of the Apis in the time of Ramses II., are splendid examples.

[Illustration:  345.jpg PECTORAL OF RAMSES II.]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the jewel in the Louvre.

The most common form of these represents in miniature the front of a temple with a moulded or flat border, surmounted by a curved cornice.  In one of them, which was doubtless a present from the king himself, the cartouche, containing the first name of the Pharaoh-Usirmari, appears just below the frieze, and serves as a centre for the design within the frame.  The wings of the ram-headed sparrow-hawk, the emblem of Amonra, are so displayed as to support it, while a large urseus and a vulture beneath embracing both the sparrow-hawk and the cartouche with outspread wings give the idea of divine protection.  Two didu, each of them filling one of the lower corners, symbolise duration.  The framework of the design is made up of divisions marked out in gold, and filled either with coloured enamels or pieces of polished stone.  The general effect is one of elegance, refinement, and harmony, the three principal elements of the design becoming