The next subject is the flax-harvest; but we could willingly have spared the long dissertation into which Signor Rosellini has entered, to prove that the byssus of Egypt was cotton. We supposed this point to have been long established. It is especially unnecessary since the paintings, as yet discovered, nowhere show the cultivation of the cotton-plant. The Professor, however, has discovered, among some vessels containing different kinds of seeds, a small one full of the seed of this plant. The vintage scenes are curious, as finally deciding the question, which arose out of Herodotus, as to the cultivation of the vine in Egypt.* The whole process is represented the gathering the grapes, the wine-press, the pouring it into vats, and storing it away in large jars. One form of the wine-press is very curious, but not very intelligible; it is a kind of sieve, which, being drawn out to its extreme length, squeezes out the juice, which runs copiously into a vat below. Two men are drawing it out by means of poles; while a third lies at full length above, how supported is not quite clear, to force with his arms and feet the poles to a wider distance apart. The other harvests represented are those of the doura and the papyrus, the gathering of figs and some other fruits; in the latter, the peasants are assisted by some monkeys, whimsically perched upon the trees.

At this point, Signor Rosellini's explanation of the engravings breaks off. If, in his subsequent volumes, we should find, as we expect, curious and interesting matter, we shall be on the watch to communicate it to our readers; at present, we shall content ourselves with a very rapid and summary statement of the subjects engraved in the Numbers which have already reached this country.

There are two plates of weavers. The process seems to be very simple, but it is traced from the beating the flax, and winding the thread, through the woof, to the perfect piece. Then comes the carpenter's shop, in which we follow with the same regularity the whole course of the work, from cutting down and cleaving the tree till it is formed into pikes, or arrows, hewn into a boat, or wrought into seats or chariots. The wheelwright is busily employed in forming his circles and spokes. We are next admitted into the studios of the Wilkies and Chantreys of the court of Pharaoh. The painters, however, are chiefly employed in ornamenting mummy cases, or figures, not quite endowed with the grace and ease of modern art. The sculptors are hewing out, one a lioness, another a sphinx, others huge colossal idols, others apparently human forms, but not exactly the human form divine.'

Wine was universally used by the rich throughout Upper and Lower Egypt; and beer, as we learn from Herodotus, was also made (probably for the consumption of the common people) in those parts where the land, suited to the culture of corn, could not be spared for extensive plantations of the vine.'-Wilkinson, p. 204. There

There is one extraordinary sort of procession, in which hundreds of votaries are dragging along by main strength a vast idol, which moves on a kind of sledge. One priest, who looks like a Lilliputian mounted upon Captain Gulliver's knee, seems to be addressing the multitude; a second is making an offering; a third pouring forth a libation. We have before noticed the brick-makers, whom Rosellini is inclined to identify with the Jews; we do not feel sufficient confidence in our own hieroglyphical skill to decide upon the meaning of the long legend which accompanies these paintings. The goldsmiths and silversmiths next appear, weighing, melting, refining gold, and evidently exercising the art of gilding on some small statues; others are forming necklaces apparently of coloured glass. If we cannot discern much Grecian taste or ideal beauty in the studios of the painters and sculptors, we must express our surprise at finding almost all the most graceful and elegant forms of Etruscan and Grecian urns and vases in the rich collection of Egyptian pottery which has been obtained for the Florentine Museum, and is copied in this work. We have already noticed the extraordinary similitude in the plans and sites of the cemeteries belonging to the old Etruscan cities in Italy. This is a new point of similarity which still more vividly excites the curiosity. Nothing can surpass the splendour of colouring or the richness, grace, and variety of patterns in these vases: the airy human forms, which float upon the finer Grecian urns and vessels, and the exquisite mythological figures, which are drawn with so fine and light a pencil, are indeed wanting; still the borders, very like the Etruscan, the arabesques, and the kind of kaleidoscope patterns, are fanciful and elegant in the highest degree. We pass over several

"They were not only acquainted with glass, but excelled in the art of staining it of divers hues, and their ingenuity had pointed out to them the mode of carrying devices of various colours directly through the fused substance. Of the early epoch at which glass was known in Egypt, I must observe, that besides our finding the process represented at Beni Hassan and Thebes, I have seen a ball of this substance which bears the name of Amunneitgori, who lived towards the commencement of the eighteenth dynasty, about 1500 B. C. It is in the possession of Captain Henvey, R. N., who has had the kindness to send me the result of an examination, made by a friend of his in Europe, who ascertained that its specific gravity is 25-23; being the same as English crown-glass. It has a slight greenish hue, and has been worn as the bead of a necklace.'-Wilkinson, p. 258.

We have received from private information a still more curious fact. Signor Rosellini showed, the other day, to a friend of ours at Florence a sort of smellingbottle, evidently of Chinese porcelain, and with characters, to all appearance, Chinese! This was found by Rosellini himself in a tomb, which, as far as could be ascertained, had not been opened since the days of the Pharaohs.

It is doubtful,' observes Sir W. Gell, in his recent work on the Topography of Rome, whether some antiquities decidedly Egyptian, said to have been found at Corneto, were really discovered there or not. Certain geese, alternating with little figures in the attitude of prayer, and forming a border in fine gold, seem evidently Egyptian.' Vol. i. p. 379. From the engravings in Sir W. Gell's book, these are clearly the symbolic characters which perpetually occur in the inscriptions.

domestic

domestic manufactures, of shoes made of palm or of papyrus leaves and of leather, of ropes and skins, with the females employed in distilling the essences of flowers, the perfumers to the queens of the Pharaohs.

We proceed to the mansion of an Egyptian of rank, perhaps to the royal palace, where we are admitted to the private chambers of the females, ornamented in the most sumptuous manner, opening upon a garden, and supported by slender pillars with lotus capitals, which have a singular Indian appearance.* In the garden which follows we should expect, of course, that Egyptian taste would partake of the formal regularity of artificial gardening, and so it is'Grove nods at grove, each alley has its brother,

And half the platform just reflects the other.'

Four square fish-ponds are marked by rows of aquatic birds of exactly the same shape, and the avenues of trees are trimmed into a rounded form. The vineyard forms the centre, and appears trained in not ungraceful festoons. The late Mr. Hope, the reformer of English taste in furniture-a taste, we beg to observe, on which a great deal of the elegance and comfort of private life depends-would have been amused to find that some of his designs were rivalled in splendour and grace by the Gillows of Thebes and Abydos. Our carpet and floorcloth manufacturers might find it worth their while to study some of the Egyptian patterns; and several of the chairs might furnish models for the most splendid palace in Europe. Their furniture, says Mr. Wilkinson, resembles that of an European drawing-room; and stools, chairs, fauteuils, ottomans, and simple couches (the three last precisely similar to many that we now use), were the only seats met with in the mansions of the most opulent of the Egyptians. But we do not remain in the saloon-we ascend to the royal bed-chamber, where the Pharaoh reposed on a couch without curtains, but ornamented with what appear to be candelabra on each side; there is a wardrobe, as like a modern one as can be, to receive the royal vestments; a tiger's skin is spread out for a carpet. His majesty is arisen, and the toilet begins. There stands the barber, and a formidable weapon he wields, performing his office upon the royal head; the

*These houses, whose construction differed according to circumstances, consisted frequently of a ground-floor and an upper story, with a terrace, cooled by the air, which a wooden múlquf conducted down its slope. The entrance, either at the corner or centre of the front, was closed by a door of a single or double valve, and the windows had shutters of a similar form. Sometimes the interior was laid out in a series of chambers, encompassing a square court, in whose centre stood a tree or a font of water. Many were surrounded by an extensive garden, with a large reservoir for the purpose of irrigation; lotus flowers floated on the surface, rows of trees shaded its banks, and the proprietor and his friends frequently amused themselves there by angling, or by an excursion in a light boat towed by his servants,'-Wilkinson, pp. 199, 200,

valets approach with the robes, the collars, the girdle, the bow. Her majesty's ladies of the bedchamber are likewise in waiting with the female paraphernalia. The next print is a curious one, and deserves a close investigation: it seems to represent offerings of food, and of ornaments, and other honours to the dead. It is followed by a kitchen-scene, and then a banquet of the living. The former commences as usual, ab ovo, at least with the slaughterhouse. The beasts are killed, flayed, cut up; the geese and other fowl flutter in the barbarous hands of the poulterers; the lambs are carried along in baskets, like our milk-pails; the ox is bleeding his life away into a pitcher; the cooks and bakers are as busy as if preparing for a city festival, their cauldrons and kettles boiling over the fire, their flesh-hooks in active work, and one artiste peeling leeks for the sauce. The guests at the dinner thus bountifully provided are not arrayed along or round a table, but in separate groups, containing from one to three ;-one only is seated on a kind of chair, the rest sit with their legs straight under them, in what appears to us a more uncomfortable posture than that of the modern Orientals.* The slaves are waiting and bearing different luxuries, whether of perfumes or food. Next come music and dancing-harps with six, nine, ten, or twelve strings, wind instruments of great diversity of form, ancient Almès displaying their shapes in the dance, and among them appear four grotesque figures playing and dancing, as if in a kind of masque or fancy ball. Wrestlers are next seen in every possible distortion of form, and female tumblers, not always in the most decent attitudes. Then some other games which we cannot make out, and chess, or a game like chess, with men all of the same shape.

The forms of the boats and the way of rowing, the men standing in rows sometimes one above the other, are very curious, as well as the barks, in which,

'With adventurous oar and ready sail,

The dusky people drive before the gale.'

In some of the sailing-boats, with their chequered sails, we catch a resemblance to the boats and mat-sails of the South Sea Islanders. One or two of the more splendid barks realize the description of Cleopatra's :

* Wine and other refreshments were then brought, and they indulged so freely in the former, that the ladies now and then gave those proofs of its potent effects which they could no longer conceal. In the mean time, dinner was prepared, and joints of beef, geese, fish, and game, with a profusion of vegetables and fruit, were laid, at mid-day, upon several small tables; two or more of the guests being seated at each. Knives and forks were of course unknown, and the mode of carving and eating with the fingers was similar to that adopted at present in Egypt and throughout the East; water or wine being brought in earthen bardaks, or in gold, silver, or porcelain cups.'-Wilkinson.

The

The bark she sat on, like a burnished throne,

Burnt on the waters.'

The last Number of the engravings closes with the enrolment, the muster, and exercise of the military. The scribe is writing down their names on the muster-roll, the recruits are learning to march, and we must say, thanks perhaps to the artist, they move in excellent step, and with the most symmetrical regularity. The rest of the plates represent military gymnastics. The following Numbers will probably make us better acquainted with the armies of the Pharaohs: we shall await them with great and undiminished interest.

The literary part of Signor Rosellini's work is composed in the spirit, with the acquirements, and with the diligence of an accomplished scholar. On some historical points of considerable importance we entertain different views; but it is impossible not to feel the highest respect for one who unites so much candour with so much erudition-so much liberality towards all his colleagues in his branch of inquiry, with such high qualifications for the cultivation of that branch of learning to which he has devoted his studies. Those, however, who wish to obtain a more rapid and compendious view of the progress made in Egyptian discovery will consult the volume of Mr. Wilkinson. His long residence in the country-his patient and repeated investigation of the different objects of interest-his intimate acquaintance with the vernacular languages and modern customs, render him a high authority on all points which depend on actual observation: while, if the arrangement of his work might be improved, the matter is full of the most curious information; and the whole set forth, if in an unpolished, yet in a plain, forcible, and unaffected style. To future travellers in the East this book will be an indispensable manual.

ART. VI.-Evidence of the Truth of the Christian Religion, derived from the literal fulfilment of Prophecy-particularly as illustrated by the History of the Jews, and by the Discoveries of recent Travellers. By Alexander Keith, D.D. 12th edit. Edin. 1834.

O

UR readers may be surprised at seeing, by the title of the work which is placed at the head of our Article, that we are about to review a book which has already passed through twelve editions. Such success and such a lapse of time since its original publication, as those circumstances imply, might seem to exempt