by a servant to these shops, whenever it was incon-
venient to have it done in the house. The pestles
they used, as well as the mortars themselves, were
precisely similar to those of the modern Egyptians;
and their mode of pounding was the same; two
men alternately raising ponderous metal pestles
with both hands, and directing their falling point
to the centre of the mortar; which is now

4 g

No. 367.

3

2

Thebes.

cab 1 Pounding various substances in stone mortars, with metal pestles. agi, mortars. dd, pestles. Figs. 1 and 2, alternately raising and letting fall the pestles into the mortar. Fig. 3 and 4, sifting the substance after it is pounded; the coarser parts, h, being returned into the mortar to be again pounded.

generally made of a large piece of granite, or
other hard stone, scooped out into a long narrow
tube, to little more than half its depth. When the
substance was well pounded, it was taken out, and
passed through a sieve, and the larger particles
were again returned to the mortar, until it was
sufficiently and equally levigated; and this, and
the whole process here represented, so strongly
resemble the occupation of the public pounders
at Cairo, that no one, who has been in the habit of
walking in the streets of that town, can fail to recog-

nise the custom, or doubt of its having been handed down from the early Egyptians, and retained without the slightest alteration, to the present day.

In a country where water and other liquids were carried, or kept, in skins and earthenware jars, there was little necessity for the employment of wooden barrels, which too are little suited to a climate like the hot and arid Egypt; and modern experience there shows how ill adapted barrels are for such purposes, and how soon they fall to pieces, if neglected or left empty for a very short period. We cannot, therefore, expect that they should be in common use among the ancient Egyptians; and the skill of the cooper* was only required to make wooden measures for graint, which were bound with hoops either of wood or metal, and resembled in principle those now used in Egypt for the same purpose; though in form they approached nearer to the small barrels ‡, or kegs, of modern Europe.

*

In an agricultural scene, painted at Beni Hassan, a small barrel is represented, placed upon a stand, apparently at the end of the field, which I at first supposed to have been intended to hold water for the use of the husbandmen, one of whom is approaching the spot; calling to mind the cup of wine presented to the ploughman on reaching the end of the furrow, mentioned by Homer, in

*The coopers of Cairo are generally Greeks.

One of these is represented in wood-cut, No. 90. fig. 2.

In Europe, barrels were said by Pliny to have been invented by the Gauls, who inhabited the banks of the Po. Varro and Columella mention them in their time. They were pitched within.

his description of the shield of Achilles; but it is probable that in this instance, also, it is intended to indicate the measure of grain, with which the land was to be sown after the plough had passed.

In

A great number of persons were constantly employed in making coffins, as well as the numerous boxes, wooden figures, and other objects connected with funerals, who may be comprehended under the general head of carpenters; the undertakers, properly so called, being a different class of people, attached to and even forming part of the sacerdotal order, though of an inferior grade. deed the ceremonies of the dead were so numerous, and so many persons were engaged in performing the several duties connected with them, that no particular class of people can be said to have had the sole direction in these matters; and we find that the highest orders of priests officiated in some, and in others those of a very subordinate station. Thus the embalmers were held in the highest consideration, while those who cut open the body, when the intestines were removed, are said to have been treated with ignominy and contempt. +

BOAT-BUILDERS AND SHIPS.

The boat-builders may be divided into two separate and distinct classes; one of which formed a subdivision of the carpenters, the other of the basket-makers, or the weavers of rushes and osiers; another very numerous class of workmen. † Diod. i. 91.

* Homer Il. o. 545.

The boats made by these last were a sort of canoe or punt, used for fishing, and consisted merely of water plants or osiers, bound together with bands. made of the stalks of the papyrus or cyperus.* They were very light, and some so small that they could easily be carried from one place to amothert; and the Ethiopian boats, mentioned by Pliny ‡, which were taken out of the water, and carried on men's shoulders past the rapids of the cataracts, were probably of a similar kind.

Strabo §, on the other hand, describes the boats at the cataracts of Syene passing the falls in perfect security, and exciting the surprise of the beholders, before whom the boatmen delighted in displaying their skill; and Celsius affirms that they were made of the papyrus.

Papyrus boats are frequently noticed by ancient writers. Plutarch describes Isis going, in search of the body of Osiris," through the fenny country, in a bark made of the papyrus ; whence it is supposed that persons using boats of this description are never attacked by crocodiles, out of fear and respect to the goddess;" and Moses is said to have been exposed in "an ark (or boat) of bulrushes, daubed with slime and with pitch.' From this last we derive additional proof that the

*Not the same species as that used for making paper. p. 146.

† Achilles Tatius, lib. iv.

Plin. v. 9.

§ Strabo, xvii. p. 562.

Plut. de Is. s. 18. “ Εν βαριδι παπυρινῃ.

“ Εν παπυρινοις σκάφεσι πλεοντας.” Plut. loc. cit.

Vide suprà,

**Exod. ii. 3. The bulrush is called ; the paper reeds in