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which the figure is possessed, because there is no attempt to foreshorten. For the same reason, goats or antelopes are often depicted with one horn only, and in these representations the fable of the unicorn probably originated.

From the tomb of Petamenoph at Thebes.

Regular solid figures would evidently present formidable difficulties to artists who knew nothing either of perspective or of light and shade, and their designs of them are extremely difficult of comprehension. It was only after long familiarity that the Egyptian representations of troughs, blocks, tools, household furniture, and similar objects, were understood by those who have recently devoted themselves to the study of these antiquities. The pictures of houses, gardens, and granaries are still nearly unintelligible, though every detail is drawn with the minutest accuracy. A full elucidation of them would be highly interesting and important. In large pictures or groups, figures on the same plane are denoted by being placed one above the other.

The annexed plate is the representation of a granary.

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This device is of not infrequent occurrence in the tombs of Egypt. The stooping figure to the right is filling his measure from a heap of grain, in order to put it into the sack of the next man, who is holding it open for the purpose. Three Egyptians are carrying full sacks up the stairs, and the next at the top empties his sack into the aperture of the matadore, or vault, in which it was deposited. The superintendent, or steward of the personage who was buried in the tomb, holds his symbol of office in one hand, and with the other indicates the number of measures poured into the vault. The whole quantity which the vault is capable of containing is inscribed on the wall above the window, but has been too much defaced to be legible. The window was for the purpose of admitting air to the corn, without which it soon becomes mouldy. This granary was probably a low flat-roofed building. Immediately at the entrance was a room, or warehouse, in which the corn was received from the threshing-floor. A flight of steps conducted to a chamber over the vaults, which were seven in number, and in two tiers on the same plane. The upper one of three vaults is that furthest from the eye. So little regard had the Egyptians to perspective, that the artist has depicted the opposite wall above, for the purpose of giving the number of measures of grain deposited in the granary. The semi-circular roof in the middle was for architectural effect; probably it faced some public way.

These remarks may, perhaps, afford some help in comprehending the meaning of the pictures which cover the monuments of Egypt.

But though thus indifferent to picturesque effect in the details of their designs, the Egyptians knew how to obtain

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it in a very high degree in the arrangement and harmony of the whole, of which they formed a part. The effect of the immense coloured reliefs which cover the walls of some of the caves and temples is said far to surpass that of the most celebrated efforts of Grecian art, notwithstanding the uncouthness and clumsiness of the details.

The impression upon the mind of the spectator when he first enters one of the vast halls which still remain in the interior of the palaces at Thebes, is described to be absolutely stunning. Some of these halls are 600 feet both in length and breadth, and are crowded throughout their entire area with massive columns 12 feet in diameter and 66 feet high. The walls, pillars, and gateways are all covered with colossal figures in relief of gods and kings, and with the representation of long triumphal and religious processions. These designs are also painted with the most vivid colours, which are applied every where with very skilful attention to general harmony of effect. It may readily be imagined that the sensations excited by the contemplation of a scene so wonderful and so strange are as difficult for one who has seen it to describe as for one who has not seen it to conceive.

Those who have visited Egypt also praise greatly the architectural effect of those temples the exterior of which remains entire, or nearly so. They speak of the air of solemn magnificence which is presented by these majestic ruins, in this respect, also, giving them a decided preference to the Grecian temples, and enlarging upon the singular propriety of this style of architecture for the construction of an edifice set apart for religious purposes.

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