tamarisk, and other woods of the country; the poor classes being
contented with a cheaper sort, of pottery or stone. Porphyry mentions
a kind of wicker bedstead of _palm branches_, hence called _bais_,
evidently the species of framework called _kaffass_, still employed by
the modern Egyptians as a support to the _divans_ of sitting rooms,
and to their beds. Wooden, and perhaps also bronze, bedsteads (like
the iron one of Og, King of Bashan), were used by the wealthier
classes of the ancient Egyptians; and it is at least probable that the
couches they slept upon were as elegant as those on which their bodies
reposed after death; and the more so, as these last, in their general
style, are very similar to the furniture of the sitting-room.

The oldest specimen of a bedstead is that mentioned by Homer as joined
together by Odysseus in his own house. He had cut off the stem of an
olive-tree a few feet from the ground, and joined to it the boards of
the bed, so that the trunk supported the bed at the head. It therefore
was immovable. The antique bed must be considered as the prolongation
of the diphros. The cross-legged diphros prolonged became the folding
bed; that with perpendicular legs the couch. The former could easily
be moved and replaced; they are perhaps identical with the beds
frequently mentioned in the "Odyssey," which were put into the outer
hall for guests. One of them is shown as the notorious bed of
Prokrustes in a picture on a vase. The diphros corresponds to the
couch resting on four legs, at first without head and foot-board,
which were afterwards added at both ends. By the further addition of a
back on one of the long sides, it became what we now call a _chaise
longue_ or sofa. This sleeping kline was no doubt essentially the same
as that used at meals. The materials were, besides the ordinary woods,
maple or box, either massive or veneered. The legs and backs, and
other parts not covered by the bed clothes, were carefully worked.
Sometimes the legs are neatly carved or turned, sometimes the frames
are inlaid with gold, silver, and ivory, as is testified in the
"Odyssey," and elsewhere.

The bedding mentioned in Homer did not consist of sumptuous bolsters
and cushions, as in later times. It consisted, even amongst the richer
classes, first of all of the blankets of a long-haired woolen
material, or perhaps a kind of mattress. Hides, as spread by the poor
on the hard floor, were sometimes put under the bl