Prisse d'Avennes. It is of glazed earthenware, of very
delicate and careful workmanship.

He is approached, moreover, as a god is approached, with downcast eyes,
and head or back bent; they "sniff the earth" before him, they veil their
faces with both hands to shut out the splendour of his appearance; they
chant a devout form of adoration before submitting to him a petition.
No one is free from this obligation: his ministers themselves, and the
great ones of his kingdom, cannot deliberate with him on matters of
state, without inaugurating the proceeding by a sort of solemn service
in his honour, and reciting to him at length a eulogy of his divinity.
They did not, indeed, openly exalt him above the other gods, but these
were rather too numerous to share heaven among them, whilst he alone
rules over the "Entire Circuit of the Sun," and the whole earth, its
mountains and plains, are in subjection under his sandalled feet.
People, no doubt, might be met with who did not obey him, but these
were rebels, adherents of Sit, "Children of Euin," who, sooner or later,
would be overtaken by punishment.

[Illustration: 030.jpg DIFFERENT POSTURES FOR APPROACHING THE KING]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Insinger. The
picture represents Khamhait presenting the superintendents
of storehouses to Tutankhamon, of the XVIIIth dynasty.

While hoping that his fictitious claim to universal dominion would be
realized, the king adopted, in addition to the simple costume of the old
chiefs, the long or short petticoat, the jackal's tail, the turned-up
sandals, and the insignia of the supreme gods,--the ankh, the crook, the
flail, and the sceptre tipped with the head of a jerboa or a hare, which
we misname the cucupha-headed sceptre.* He put on the many-coloured
diadems of the gods, the head-dresses covered with feathers, the white
and the red crowns either separately or combined so as to form the
pshent. The viper or uraeus, in metal or gilded wood, which rose from
his forehead, was imbued with a mysterious life, which made it a means
of executing his vengeance and accomplishing his secret purposes. It was
supposed to vomit flames and to destroy those who should dare to attack
its master in battle. The supernatural virtues which it communicated to
the crown, made it an enchanted thing which no one could resist. Lastly,
Pharaoh had his temples where his enthroned statue, animated by one
of his doubles, receive