s to tombs (157),
ornamented with figures; and more statues of Pasht, amongst them a
colossal bust from a statue (521).

Having noticed these specimens, the visitor should pass into the lobby
at the northern end of the saloon, to notice the two small obelisks
placed here, brought from Cairo; they stood before a temple to Thoth.
The hieroglyphics upon them are carefully executed, but these
specimens give the spectator no idea of the colossal obelisks of
ancient Egypt, of which that of Alexandria, 63 feet high, is a fair
specimen. These obelisks were generally in pairs, and were placed on
each side of the great entrance to Egyptian temples. Having returned
to the saloon, the visitor should, before finally passing from it,
notice the famous tablet of Abydos (117), found by Mr. Banks, in 1818,
in the Temple of Abydos. It is the work of the great Sesostris, and
the inscription on it is a record of his predecessors in the kingly
office: hence it has been long an attractive object to chronologists.
Also, before glancing at the few paintings, and closing the
examination of this interesting saloon, the visitor should inspect the
Rosetta stone (24), inscribed in three characters (of which one is
Greek), by order of the high priests, recording the services of the
fifth Ptolemy. And now, with a glance at the

EGYPTIAN FRESCOES,

the visitor should rapidly close his survey of this chamber. These are
rude performances enough, and, as the visitor will see, bear a close
resemblance to those we introduced to him in the Egyptian rooms up
stairs. Mr. Long, while on the subject of Egyptian art, thus mentions
their paintings:--"Sculpture and painting were closely allied, both
among the Egyptians and in the old schools of Greece; and both arts
were intimately associated with architecture. Sculptured and coloured
figures formed in ancient Egyptian edifices the decoration and the
finish of the larger masses of the architecture which served as a
framework within which they were placed. The edifices, from their
massy forms and the magnitude of their component parts, were well
calculated to produce a general impression of grandeur; and this was
not destroyed by the smaller decorated parts, which were always
strictly subordinate to the general design, and were not, like it,
comprehended at a glance, but required to be studied in detail.

"Painting, in the proper sense of the term, that of the
representations of objects by colours on the flat