t from both shoulders like a mantle.[**]

** This costume, to which Egyptologists have not given
sufficient attention, is frequently represented on the
monuments. Besides the two statues reproduced above, I may
cite those of Uahibri and of Thoth-nofir in the Louvre, and
the Lady Nofrit in the Gizeh Museum. Thothotpu in his tomb
wears this mantle. Khnumhotpu and several of his workmen are
represented in it at Beni-Hasan, as also one of the princes
of Elephantine in the recently discovered tombs, besides
many Egyptians of all classes in the tombs of Thebes (a
good example is in the tomb of Harmhabi). The reason
why it does not figure more often is, in the first place,
that the Egyptian artists experienced actual difficulty in
representing the folds of its drapery, although these were
simple compared with the complicated arrangement of the
Roman toga; finally, the wall-paintings mostly portray
either interior scenes, or agricultural labour, or the work
of various trades, or episodes of war, or religious
ceremonies, in all of which the mantle plays no part. Every
Egyptian peasant, however, possessed his own, and it was in
constant use in his daily life.

In fact, it did duty as a cloak, sheltering the wearer from the sun
or from the rain, from the heat or from the cold. They never sought to
transform it into a luxurious garment of state, as was the case in later
times with the Roman toga, whose amplitude secured a certain dignity of
carriage, and whose folds, carefully adjusted beforehand, fell around
the body with studied grace. The Egyptian mantle when not required was
thrown aside and folded up. The material being fine and soft it occupied
but a small space and was reduced to a long thin roll; the ends being
then fastened together, it was slung over the shoulder and round the
body like a cavalry cloak.[*]

* Many draughtsmen, ignorant of what they had to represent,
have made incorrect copies of the manner in which this cloak
was worn; but examples of it are numerous, although until
now attention has not been called to them. The following are
a few instances taken at random of the way in which it was
used: Pepi I., fighting against the nomads of Sinai, has the
cloak, but with the two ends passed through the belt of his
loin-cloth; at Zawyet el-Maiyitin, Khunas, killing