CHAIRS AND FOOTSTOOLS.

207

workmanship. The kings and nobles of Egypt are

CHAIRS AND FOOTSTOOLS.

often represented accompanied by an attendant who is carrying a seat of similar appearance. One of the chairs in the British Museum is made of a black hard wood, bearing a considerable polish, which is probably the shittim wood. There is also a censer, of a very peculiar shape, in the museum of the Louvre at Paris, the handle of which is of the same material. It

represents the arm and hand of a man, the latter

CENSER.

holding a cup to contain the incense. The censer is often borne by the Pharaohs and pontiffs of high rank in the pictures and reliefs on the temples and tombs.

Nothing that remains of these remote periods conveys so vivid an idea of the luxury and refinement of the ancient Egyptians as the representations of the thrones of the Pharaohs which occur in the tomb of Remesses IV., who reigned during the sojourn in the wilderness (see Plate). Such combinations of extreme elegance of form with extreme richness of material are not to be found in the palace of any crowned king now in existence.

§ 5. OIL AND SPICES.

Oil is frequently mentioned in the hieroglyphic texts among the offerings to the gods, and in the enumerations of the wealth of great men in Egypt. Frankincense, also, :, and other compositions of fragrant woods and resins, were very extensively used both in the temple-service of the Egyptian idolatry and in the preparation of mummies; so that, during their captivity, the Israelites must have become conversant with this branch of the apothecaries' art. The spices used for the latter purpose were, according to Herodotus,* a mixture of pounded myrrh and cassia, with other spices. A mummy was opened at Leeds some years ago, which, having been embalmed at least

* Eut. 87.

SPICERY WHENCE OBTAINED.

209

five hundred years before the visit of Herodotus to Egypt," has been prepared with spices in much greater profusion than was ever practised in his times. This spicery has been minutely examined. It consists of a mixture of cassia, myrrh, ladanum, and some other unknown spices, pounded so evenly and skilfully, that not a single fragment could be found of a larger size than the rest, though very diligent search was made for it. The exact correspondence between the ingredients in this composition and the account of it given by Herodotus, plainly shows that the preparation of it was an art or trade, which would doubtless be abundantly called into exercise. The quantity used in this single embalming weighs nearly twelve pounds in its present dry state. None of the ingredients in this compound were the produce of Egypt; but they are all obtained, at this day, from trees and shrubs indigenous to those districts of Arabia and Canaan. which lie to the east of the desert of Sinai and the river Jordan. So large a demand for these articles in ancient Egypt would necessarily create an extensive traffic across the desert. The Ishmeelites to whom Joseph was sold by his brethren were engaged in it. They passed near the sons of Jacob as they "came down from Gilead," which is a part of this district, "with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt" (Genesis xxxvii. 25). "Balm, spices, and myrrh" also formed a part of the present which Jacob afterwards sent to

* It was the body of a priest of Monthra at Thebes, named "Ensa-amoun." He lived in the reign of Ramses IX., one of the monarchs of the 20th dynasty; about 1000 B.C.