a steel used for sharpening cutlery: we may also observe that the knives of these very pictures are painted blue, distinguishing them from implements of bronze, which is indicated by a brown or reddish hue. The weapons depicted in the scenes of the tomb of Rameses III., display the same variety, some being blue, to represent steel, others red, to indicate

bronze.

It is true that scarcely any specimens of iron of ancient manufacture have been found in Egypt. This, however, by no means disproves its common use; as the extreme rapidity with which this metal is decomposed, would, except under extraordinary circumstances, preclude its preservation. An iron sickle, however, was found by Belzoni, under the feet of a sphinx at Thebes, and is now in the British Museum; it is broken into three pieces. And a piece of iron was discovered by Colonel Howard Vyse imbedded in the masonry of the great Pyramid, which he considers must have been placed there at the time of its erection.

The sculptures, which in such profusion were executed in the hardest granite, and which are under our own eyes, are a sufficient proof of the excellence of the metallic implements used for that purpose.

"The hieroglyphics," observes Sir Gardnor Wilkinson, "on obelisks and other granite monuments are sculptured with a minuteness and finish, which, even if they used steel as highly tempered as our own, cannot fail to surprise the beholder, and to elicit from him the confession that our modern sculptors are unable to vie with them in this branch of art.

"Some are cut to the depth of more than two inches, the edges and all the most minute parts of the intaglio presenting the same sharpness and accuracy; and I have seen the figure of a king in high relief, reposing on the lid of a granite coffin, which was raised to the height of nine inches above the level of the surface. What can be said, if we deny to men who executed such works as these the aid of steel, and confine them to bronze implements? Then, indeed, we exalt their skill in metallurgy far beyond our own, and indirectly confess that they had devised a method of sculpturing stone of which we are ignorant. In vain should we attempt to render copper, by the aid of certain alloys, sufficiently hard to sculpture granite, basalt, and stones of similar quality. No one who has tried to perforate or cut a block of Egyptian granite will scruple to acknowledge that our best steel tools are turned in a short time, and require to be retempered; and the labour experienced by the French engineers, who removed the obelisk of Luxor from Thebes, in cutting a space less than two feet deep, along the face of its partially decomposed pedestal, suffices to shew that, even with our excellent modern implements, we find considerable difficulty in doing what to the Egyptians would have been one of the least arduous tasks."*

Sir G. Wilkinson found a chisel at Thebes, which had been used for stone-cutting. It is made of bronze, is about nine inches long, and nearly three quarters wide at the tip, and in form resembles those in use among our masons. That this instrument has

*Wilk. iii. 250.

been used is evident, for "the summit is turned over by the blows it has received from the mallet," and yet the point is uninjured, "as if it had recently left the hands of the smith who made it." As the point, however, is not now able to resist the hardness of stone, the conclusion seems unavoidable, that the Egyptian artificers were wont to encase the tips of their bronze chisels in a sheath of harder metal, which must have been steel.

One of the uses to which bronze was applied was the formation of ladies' toilet-mirrors. Many of these have been found, and are deposited in museums.

They are nearly circular, placed at the end of a handle of form and materials very varied. They were susceptible of a high polish, and were, perhaps, scarcely inferior to our own silvered glass. Such, we may presume, was the form, and such the mate

rial, of the mirrors which, having been just brought from Egypt by the Hebrew women, were devoted by them to the service of Jehovah.

And [Moses] made the laver of brass, [bronze] and the foot of it of brass, of the looking-glasses of the women assembling, which assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. Exod. xxxviii. 8.

The cutting, graving, and setting of precious stones we have already spoken of in speaking of Egyptian jewellery. Our museums are rich in specimens of the lapidary's art, cut and set in various forms in necklaces, and graven in signet-rings. The diamond was doubtless employed in cutting gems, as well as glass; Pliny, indeed, while stating that the diamond was so used in his time, affirms that "in ancient times it was thought wrong to violate gems with engraving or device," but the specimens before our eyes prove that he was mistaken. In the elegant vases of gold and silver, already referred to, precious stones, as emeralds and amethysts, were set, and frequently when the head of an animal formed part of the design, the eyes were represented by radiant gems.

We have seen that precious stones in small sealed bags or in strings, formed an important part of the tribute brought from Punt, Cush, and Sheba. Extensive mines of emeralds were wrought in Egypt, and are still kept open, though with little success. Belzoni visited the emerald mountain in 1816, and has drawn a sad picture of the misery of the unfortunate beings doomed to the search for these objects of luxury. He remarked that a great number of

mines had existed in this mountain, and that the amount of earth that had been brought out was enormous, giving some idea of the great extent to which they had been worked in ancient ages.*

The art of the cabinet-maker, the "carving in

FOLDING CHAIR.

wood" of the Sacred History, is very frequently represented upon the monuments, and is indicated by many specimens that have resisted the gnawing tooth of time. In the British Museum are some stools, formed of ebony, inlaid with ivory; the seat is concave, and was covered with a leathern cushion. Others are preserved of which the legs were crossed, after the fash

ion of our folding-stool; the seat was of leather stretched across. In a painting in the same collection a figure is seated on a chair of remarkable ightness and elegance, the crossed legs of which are secured by a pin, and a leopard skin is thrown over the seat. The forms, indeed, which were given to these articles, were very various; from those of the massive structures sometimes seen in the halls of our old mansions, to the kangaroo-chairs and fauteuils of

* Belzoni, 314.