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 commemorate 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

fleshy and muscular, and express admirably the idea of strength in a state of repose, which was probably the motive of the original design. The lion reclining on his right side is better preserved about the haunches than the other, and the stone is more highly polished; yet there seems no reason to doubt that the two were intended to form a pair. The material is a coarse-grained granite, with large pieces of feldspar, with black mica and quartz. The mane in front is inscribed with the prenomen and name of Amen-Asro, who is supposed to have been an Ethiopian monarch, and the base with a dedication to a King called Ra-neb-ma from his grandson Amenoph III. (Memnon), in whose reign it must have been sculptured.

The lion which is lying on his right side has the hieroglyphics only on the vertical front face of the plinth; and several of the cartouches have been purposely damaged, which does not appear to be the case with the other, so far as we can judge from the parts which are not broken off. It is probable that they were both excavated from the quarries at Tumbus.

4. SARCOPHAGI.

The British Museum contains several remarkable specimens of these funereal monuments, which, when carved out of stone, were generally used as the last and outer coverings of the body; though seldom, owing to its costliness, except by Kings or very wealthy persons. Such sarcophagi generally consist of two parts; the case containing the body, formed of one piece of stone and open at the top; and the lid which covered the opening. In some of the specimens in the Museum Collection the cover is wanting, but others are complete. The sarcophagus was generally a plain massive chest; but occasionally it was carved somewhat in the shape of the mummy to be deposited within it, with the human face, &c., sculptured on the outside. These last were not, impossibly, actual substitutes for the cheaper and more common cases of wood, while the more massive ones, on the other hand, were adapted to contain the cases.

The first sarcophagus we shall describe is No. 10, and is called "The chest of the Sarcophagus of the Monarch Her-nechthebi, (supposed to be either Amyrtæus or Nectabes,) of the Twenty-eighth Dynasty." It was found, according to the French, who first discovered it, in the court-yard of the Mosque of S. Athanasius, at Alexandria, where it was looked on by the Turks with considerable veneration. Its material is a breccia from a quarry near Thebes, and resembles that called in Italy breccia verde. It is a composite stone, in many cases admitting a high degree of

polish, and very difficult to work: hence its rarity among Egyptian remains. This is a very remarkable specimen; and the carving on it is so minute that, in more than one instance, as many as twelve hieroglyphics may be found within the space of one square inch : the whole surface, which is more than 100 feet square, is said to contain in all 21,700 characters. It is about ten feet three inches long, and varies from nine to ten inches in thickness, and is sculptured within and without with figures of men and animals; the Hieroglyphics, however, on the inside are not so numerous as on the outside. The celebrated traveller, Dr. Clarke, fancied that this was the identical sarcophagus which once contained the body of Alexander the Great; but we do not think he has made out his case in the paper which he wrote on the subject, while there is no doubt that the stone case itself was not made for Alexander, but for another person who lived at least a century before his time. There are, however, some curious coincidences in the story of Alexander's funeral, taken in connection with the subsequent traditions, and it is just possible that the secondary use of this sarcophagus may have been that which Dr. Clarke has imagined.

We know that Alexander died at Babylon, and that his body was embalmed after his death; that, after two years which were spent in preparing a suitable vehicle for it, it was conveyed to Egypt, and eventually taken by Ptolemæus, the Son of Lagos, to Alexandria, instead of to the Temple of Jupiter Ammon; and that a temenos was constructed for the body of the Macedonian King, who became the Hero of the city he had founded, and was honoured in after times with periodical sacrifices and festivals. It appears, too, that the body was still in Alexandria when Strabo visited Egypt, though no longer in its original case, which had been stolen by one of the later Ptolemies; that Augustus ordered the corpse to be brought from the Tomb, and that he placed a golden crown and flowers upon it, paying adoration to the great Founder of the city. The tradition that the remains of Alexander were still within the walls of Alexandria lasted to the time of the French occupation of Egypt, at the close of the last Century.

On the other hand, we know that the bodies of the Ptolemaic Princes were embalmed and buried within the same building, and it is just as likely that the sarcophagus was used for one of them as for the remains of Alexander the Great; while the Hieroglyphic name, which has been read upon the monument, is that of Amyrtæus, one of the Saite Dynasty, who reigned from B.C. 414 to B.C. 408. The Muhammedan tradition that the body of Alexander was still in