a piked club; wooden fan handles; wooden paddles carved with heads of
jackals; a mast for the model of a boat; and in the fourth division
are a curious cuirass and helmet, from the tombs of Manfaloot,
fashioned from a crocodile skin. At this point is another intermediate
case containing a mummy, coffin, and boards. The coffin is shaped like
a mummy, with a green face, and Netpe, between Isis and Nephthys on
the breast, with the deceased being introduced to the deities, among
whom he is to be divided by Thoth. This coffin was presented to the
Museum by George III.

Having peered into the fragmentary establishments of ancient Egypt,
followed the contemporaries of Sesostris into their dining-rooms, even
noticed specimens of their dishes, and seen them in their waxen
winding-sheets, the visitor may now pass to the next case (39) and
notice some of the remains of the materials by the means of which they
recorded their actions, and traced their lineaments. Here are
displayed the ancient Egyptian pens and pencils, colours and ink, all
shrivelled and discoloured with the mould of centuries, but remaining
still to bear witness to the early love of knowledge and of art, that
urged the Egyptian scribe and the Egyptian artist to fashion them. In
the first division are the rectangular pallets, with grooves for the
wooden pens or reeds, and hollows for the colour or ink; and here,
too, are the kash, or pens used by the ancient scribes. The pallets
have inscriptions upon them; on one there is an invocation to the
goddess of writing. Fragments of one or two colours, with the
palm-leaf baskets in which they were deposited are also in this case;
together with stands with small colour vases; slabs with colour jars;
mullets for grinding, a basket with paint-brushes made of palm-fibres;
and upon a thin piece of cedar wood is a portrait of an Egyptian
female of the Greek period. Amidst other minute objects lie Egyptian