apsack leads a herd
of goats. There is a battle of the mice and cats, and the king of the
mice, in his chariot drawn by two dogs, is seen attacking the fortress
of the cats. A picture which is worthy of Edward Lear shows a ridiculous
hippopotamus seated amidst the foliage of a tree, eating from a table,
whilst a crow mounts a ladder to wait upon him. There are caricatures
showing women of fashion rouging their faces, unshaven and really
amusing old tramps, and so forth. Even upon the walls of the tombs
there are often comic pictures, in which one may see little girls
fighting and tearing at each others' hair, men tumbling one over another
as they play, and the like; and one must suppose that these were the
scenes which the owner of the tomb wished to perpetuate throughout the
eternity of Death.

The Egyptians took keen delight in music. In the sound of the trumpet
and on the well-tuned cymbals they praised God in Egypt as merrily as
the Psalmist could wish. The strings and the pipe, the lute and the
harp, made music at every festival--religious, national, or private.
Plato tells us that "nothing but beautiful forms and fine music was
permitted to enter into the assemblies of young people" in Egypt; and he
states that music was considered as being of the greatest consequence
for its beneficial effects upon youthful minds. Strabo records the fact
that music was largely taught in Egypt, and the numbers of musical
instruments buried in the tombs or represented in the decorations
confirm his statement. The music was scientifically taught, and a
knowledge of harmony is apparent in the complicated forms of the
instruments. The harps sometimes had as many as twenty-two strings: the
long-handled guitars, fitted with three strings, were capable of wide
gradations; and the flutes were sufficiently complicated to be described
by early writers as "many-toned." The Egyptian did not merely bang a
drum with his fist because it made a noise, nor blow blasts upon a
trumpet as a means of expressing the inexpressible. He was an educated
musician, and he employed the medium of music to encourage his lightness
of heart and to render his gaiety more gay.

[Illustration: PL. X. A relief of the Saitic Period, representing an old
man playing upon a harp, and a woman beating a
drum. Offerings of food and flowers are placed
before them.
--ALEXANDRIA MUSEUM.