of old soldiers, officials, guardians of temples, and priests proudly executing their office in their distinctive panther skins.  Three individuals in the Gizeh were contemporaries, or almost so, of the young girl of the Turin Museum.  They are dressed in rich costumes, to which they have, doubtless, a just claim; for one of them, Hori, surnamed Ra, rejoiced in the favour of the Pharaoh, and must therefore have exercised some court function.  They seem to step forth with a measured pace and firm demeanour, the body well thrown back and the head erect, their faces displaying something of cruelty and cunning.  An officer, whose retirement from service is now spent in the Louvre, is dressed in a semi-civil costume, with a light wig, a closely fitting smock-frock with shirt-sleeves, and a loin-cloth tied tightly round the hips and descending halfway down the thigh, to which is applied a piece of stuff kilted lengthwise, projecting in front.  A colleague of his, now in the Berlin Museum, still maintains possession of his official baton, and is arrayed in his striped petticoat, his bracelets and gorget of gold.  A priest in the Louvre holds before him, grasped by both hands, the insignia of Amon-Ra—­a ram’s head, surmounted by the solar disk, and inserted on the top of a thick handle; another, who has been relegated to Turin, appears to be placed between two long staves, each surmounted by an idol, and, to judge from his attitude, seems to have no small idea of his own beauty and importance.  The Egyptians were an observant people and inclined to satire, and I have a shrewd suspicion that the sculptors, in giving to such statuettes this character of childlike vanity, yielded to the temptation to be merry at the expense of their model.

The smelters and engravers in metal occupied in relation to the sculptors a somewhat exalted position.  Bronze had for a long time been employed in funerary furniture, and ushabtiu (respondents),* amulets, and images of the gods, as well as of mortals, were cast in this metal.  Many of these tiny figures form charming examples of enamel-work, and are distinguished not only by the gracefulness of the, modelling, but also by the brilliance of the superimposed glaze; but the majority of them were purely commercial articles, manufactured by the hundred from the same models, and possibly cast, for centuries, from the same moulds for the edification of the devout and of pilgrims.

* Bronze respondents are somewhat rare, and most of those which are to be found among the dealers are counterfeit.  The Gizeh Museum possesses two examples at least of indisputable authenticity; both of these belong to the XXth dynasty.

[Illustration:  045.jpg FUNERARY CASKET IN THE TURING MUSEUM]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph.

[Illustration:  046.jpg SHRINE IN THE TURIN MUSEUM]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Lanzone.