f the devout and of pilgrims.

* Bronze _respondents_ are somewhat rare, and most of those
which are to be found among the dealers are counterfeit. The
Gizeh Museum possesses two examples at least of indisputable
authenticity; both of these belong to the XXth dynasty.

[Illustration: 045.jpg FUNERARY CASKET IN THE TURING MUSEUM]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph.

[Illustration: 046.jpg SHRINE IN THE TURIN MUSEUM]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Lanzone.

We ought not, therefore, to be surprised if they are lacking in
originality; they are no more to be distinguished from each other than
the hundreds of coloured statuettes which one may find on the stalls of
modern dealers in religious statuary.

[Illustration: 046b.jpg The Lady Taksuhit]

From a bronze in the Museum at Athens

[Illustration: 046b.jpg-text]

Here and there among the multitude we may light upon examples showing
a marked individuality: the statuette of the lady Takushit, which now
forms one of the ornaments of the museum at Athens, is an instance. She
stands erect, one foot in advance, her right arm hanging at her side,
her left pressed against her bosom; she is arrayed in a short dress
embroidered over with religious scenes, and wears upon her ankles
and wrists rings of value. A wig with stiff-looking locks, regularly
arranged in rows, covers her head. The details of the drapery and the
ornaments are incised on the surface of the bronze, and heightened
with a thread of silver. The face is evidently a portrait, and is that
apparently of a woman of mature age, but the body, according to the
tradition of the Egyptian schools of art, is that of a young girl,
lithe, firm, and elastic. The alloy contains gold, and the warm and
softened lights reflected from it blend most happily and harmoniously
with the white lines of the designs. The joiners occupied, after the
workers in bronze, an important position in relation to the necropolis,
and the greater part of the furniture which they executed for the
mummies of persons of high rank was remarkable for its painting and
carpentry-work. Some articles of their manufacture were intended for
religious use--such as those shrines, mounted upon sledges, on which the
image of the god was placed, to whom prayers were made for the deceased;
others served for the household needs of the mummy, and, to distinguish
these, there are to be seen upon their sides r