to the vast public works completed or commenced by him. In Nubia he erected the Temple of Semne, and two rock-excavated chapels at Ibrim, near Ipsambul; and some of the earlier portions of the Palace at Karnak, composing more than one-third of that building, together with the Granite Sanctuary, before which stand the two great obelisks of his sister and father, are likewise due to him. The Church of S. Giovanni del Laterano at Rome, the Atmeidán or Hippodrome at Constantinople, and the city of Alexandria, have also obelisks which belong to his reign. The Obelisk of the Atmeidán records that he encircled with his ships the great waters of the Naharaina or Mesopotamia; and the Statistical Tablet of Karnak (interpreted by Mr. Birch in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature') enters into still fuller details of his conquests, and of the nations from whom he procured tribute. In one of the Tombs at Thebes are records of the tribute brought to him by many different races, together with animals indicative of a people belonging to Syria and Bactria. Thothmes is represented receiving the tribute, which is duly registered.

There is another monument of this King in the Museum, which is rather curious, as it is the drawing of an Egyptian artist, upon a board prepared with linen and stucco, and subsequently squared. He is seated, with his hair encircled by a fillet, elegantly tied in a bow resembling flowers, and with pendent ribands. Before him are two cartouches, with his prenomen. A plaster cast from the Fallen Obelisk in front of the great granite obelisk at Karnak also represents this King standing and offering a vase of oil to Amen.

With this brief notice of the more remarkable among the statues of Royal personages which may be found in the Egyptian Saloon, we shall take next

2. STATUES AND FRAGMENTS OF DEITIES:

premising, however, that it is difficult to distinguish the representation of the God from that of the King; the Kings being not unfrequently sculptured under the likeness of Deities.

The statues of Pasht are the most remarkable of this class. The Museum possesses a considerable number of representations of this Deity, who occurs very frequently on ancient Egyptian works, such as the Nos. 37, 41, 45, 49, 57, 60, 62, 63, 65, 68-9, 71-2, 76-7, 79, 80, 84, 87-9, 95. There is generally a great resemblance between them, and it is probable that many of the colossal forms of Pasht served for the purpose of Caryatides before the Temple of the Goddess Maut, at Karnak.

No. 63.

One of the best preserved of seven similar ones is No. 76. It is carved in dark granite, and represents the Goddess standing, holding in her left hand the lotus sceptre, and in her right the sacred Tau, or Symbol of Life. The workmanship is of the age of Amenoph III. (B. c. 1692-61), and of a grand, pure style. The cheeks and limbs are full and well proportioned, and the general effect is good. The relation of this Goddess with the Sun is indicated by the ornaments with which she is often adorned. Thus, in another colossal statue of her, which we shall now describe, she wears the disk of the Sun on her head, entwined with the Uræus.

No. 63 is a beautifully-polished specimen of black granite. The head is surmounted by a disk; the figure itself seated, the hands resting on the lap, and the left one holding the crux ansata. Below the breast, an ornamental band or border encircles the body, and is met by a broader ornamental bandage which, as a continuation of the head-dress, passes over the breasts to join the border below them: the feet are bare. This statue, which was excavated by Belzoni at Thebes, bears on it a Hieroglyphical inscription with the name and titles of Sheshonk I., the Sesonchis or Shishak, who, in B.c. 972, invaded Palestine and pillaged Jerusalem. In style it differs considerably from the one last described; the cheeks are more hollow, the polish and detail more elaborate, the structure of the limbs more free and less strongly developed: the whole character of the art is less grand and pure than that of the Eighteenth Dynasty. The slab itself is nearly perfect; but the right arm has been cracked across, and the disk on the head is in a separate piece mortised into the upper part of the figure, and not carved out of the solid block.

Another statue of considerable interest (No. 8) is one commonly called Hapimoou or Hapi, the Nile, found at Karnak. It is about the size of life: in front of it appears an altar, on which are circular and oval cakes of bread and gourds, with the head, haunch, and ribs of a calf. It appears that the ancient name of the Nile was Hapi-moou, signifying "secret waters." The Nile is generally represented as Androgynous, and his form is distinguishable by being embonpoint, with the full breasts of a female, denoting that the river was the nurse and support of Egypt. As Egypt was divided into the Upper and Lower districts, so also in Egyptian mythography there were two Niles, the one wearing the lotus, the other the papyrus, the representatives of the Upper and Lower country, and the types respectively of the flood and low state of the river. So, too, the flesh of the two Niles is distinguished by the one being

painted red and the other blue. The offices performed by the Nile, in the Egyptian Pantheon, were of a subordinate nature: thus in the chamber at Philæ, where the Creator Noum is fabricating the limbs of Osiris of potters' clay, the Nile ministers to him the necessary water for moulding the clay. He seldom or never appears as one of the principal Deities; but it is stated on the Hieroglyphics that he vivifies all lands by his offerings. In one instance he is represented seated in a rocky cave, holding in each hand a water-vase; on the top of the rock are a hawk and a vulture, the emblems of the male and female principles of nature. The region where his worship principally prevailed was at Snem or Beghe, of which he was the Lord. The object of the inscriptions on this statue, both of that on the border of the altar in front and on the side, is to com-memorate the gift of this statue by Sheshonk to his Lord, the God Amen, with a prayer for health, prosperity, power, and victory over all lands and countries. The slab has been broken in several pieces and rejoined. It is not certain which monarch of the name of Shishak was its donor.

We shall defer a fuller account of Egyptian mythography till we come to the Egyptian Room (upstairs), as almost all the representations of deities are small, and in wood, clay, bronze, or porcelain.

3. REPRESENTATIONS OF ANIMALS.

Of these there are none in the British Museum more deserving of notice than Nos. 1 and 34-two Colossal Lions in red granite, which were brought to England by Lord Prudhoe (now Duke of Northumberland) in 1832. They were found near Mount Barkal, a very singular isolated rock in Upper Nubia, amidst the ruins of what seems to have been a palace of burnt bricks. The building itself is now entirely destroyed, the chief walls only rising about two feet above the heaps of earth. Rüppell, the celebrated traveller, had previously noticed these Lions in the course of his travels, and had described one of them; the other, he states, was broken into several pieces. They are remarkably good specimens of the early Egyptian art, as applied to the delineation of animal forms. They are represented reclining in an easy, natural manner, the hind quarters loose and relaxed, and the leg, which is visible, stretched out nearly parallel to the body, but at some distance from it. The chest, the full deep shoulder, the expression of the ribs and the outline of the back, are all strongly marked and full of energy. The animals are