rings. You soon notice that in spite of the vigorous and excellent
outlines of these pictures there is something funny and stiff about
them. That is because the Egyptians had an odd custom of drawing a
person sideways, with his two feet in a straight line, one behind the
other. No one stands like that in real life, and if you try it you will
find how difficult it is not to fall over! Also, though the people they
drew were invariably shown from the side, yet the artists used to make
them look as if they were squared round in the upper part to show the
chest and both shoulders, so that Egyptians in pictures always look
oddly wedge-shaped, being very broad at the top and narrow below. The
eye was also put into the profile face as if it were seen from the
front! Look at any typical Egyptian picture and you will soon pick out
these peculiarities. It seems rather a pity they kept so rigidly to
these silly notions, as they really drew extremely well; but no artist
was original enough to dare to break away from the established custom!

[Illustration: AN EGYPTIAN QUEEN.]

Inside the temple walls all these scenes have something to do with the
gods and the offerings made to them by the king, but come outside and on
one of the finest bits of wall still standing you will see a most
spirited battle-scene. Look at the king in his chariot with the plunging
horses! He is drawing his bow and pursuing his enemies, who are dead and
dying under his wheels, and fleeing before him. To show how much more
important he was than the enemies he had himself made very large and the
enemies shown very small. That is not quite our idea of honour and glory
nowadays; we should think it more glorious to overcome enemies larger
and stronger than ourselves! This afternoon we are going to visit a
still larger and more wonderful temple, a mile or two away, called
Karnak, and there you will see pictures of the king of that time holding
the hair of his enemies' heads in the powerful grasp of his left hand
while he prepares to strike off all their heads at one sweep with his
sword.

The original entrance of Luxor temple does not face the river on the
side we came in; to find it we have to scramble over heaps of rubbish to
one end and there we see a great obelisk, a companion to the one which
is now in the principal square of Paris, the Place de la Concorde, and
we see also two huge buildings reared up on each side of the ancient
entrance--these were called py