human
corruption. It was actually the custom, among the lower and middle
classes, to bury in the middle of the house children who had died at the
breast. The little body was placed in an old tool or linen box, without
any attempt at embalming, and its favourite playthings and amulets were
buried with it: two or three infants are often found occupying the same
coffin. The playthings were of an artless but very varied character;
dolls of limestone, enamelled pottery or wood, with movable arms and
wigs of artificial hair; pigs, crocodiles, ducks, and pigeons on wheels,
pottery boats, miniature sets of household furniture, skin balls filled
with hay, marbles, and stone bowls. However, strange it may appear, we
have to fancy the small boys of ancient Egypt as playing at bowls
like ours, or impudently whipping their tops along the streets without
respect for the legs of the passers-by.

[Illustration: 109.jpg APPARATUS FOR STRIKING A LIGHT]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch published in Fl.
Petrie, _Illahun, Kdhun and Gurob,_ pl. vii. The bow is
represented in the centre; on the left, at the top, is the
nut; below it the fire-stick, which was attached to the end
of the stock; at the bottom and right, two pieces of wood
with round carbonized holes, which took fire from the
friction of the rapidly rotating stick.

Some care was employed upon the decoration of the chambers. The
rough-casting of mud often preserves its original grey colour;
sometimes, however, it was limewashed, and coloured red or yellow, or
decorated with pictures of jars, provisions, and the interiors as well
as the exteriors of houses.

[Illustration: 110.jpg MITRAL PAINTINGS IN THE RUINS OF AN ANCIENT HOUSE
AT KAHUN]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the facsimile in Petrie's
_Illahun, Kahun and Gurob_, pl. xvi. 6.

The bed was not on legs, but consisted of a low framework, like the
"angarebs" of the modern Nubians, or of mats which were folded up in the
daytime, but upon which they lay in their clothes during the night, the
head being supported by a head-rest of pottery, limestone, or wood: the
remaining articles of furniture consisted of one or two roughly hewn
seats of stone, a few lion-legged chairs or stools, boxes and trunks
of varying sizes for linen and implements, kohl, or perfume, pots of
ababaster or porcelain, and lastly, the fire-stick with the bow by which
it was set in motion, and some rou