This division is always interesting to visitors who have any knowledge
of the essential excellences of textile fabrics. There can be no doubt
of the high repute in which the linens of ancient Egypt were held of
old; but the samples which have remained in a state of preservation up
to the present day, being mostly bandages of the coarse cloths from
mummies, it is hardly possible to estimate fairly the excellence of
the fabrics with which, the great men of ancient Egypt adorned their
persons and those of their wives. However, one or two samples of
linen, as fine as the celebrated muslins of India, remain, and the
visitor should notice particularly those clothes in the case with fine
blue selvage. In the case also are part of the bandages of an Egyptian
mummy of the Greek period, and a sample of ancient Egyptian linen
bleached by the modern process. With these specimens are skeins of
thread, spindles, and knitting-needles; bronze sewing needles; and a
hackle for flax-dressing. With this case the visitor closes his
examination of the wall cases of the Egyptian room. On taking a
general survey of the room, the objects that will first attract his
attention are the casts of the remarkable sculptures from the entrance
to the temple at Beit-onally near Kalabshe, placed over the wall-cases
against the eastern and western walls. These are faithful
representations of the painted sculpture for which the ancient
Egyptians were famous, about thirteen centuries before our era. The
specimens in the room represent the triumphs of the second Rameses.
The cast against the eastern wall is in two distinct compartments. In
the first, Rameses, accompanied by his sons, is driving his vanquished
Ethiopian enemies into a wood: in the second part the conqueror is
investing the vanquished Ethiopian prince with a gold chain, and
behind are the spoils of war, and Ethiopians leading strange oxen to
the victor; while, in the lower division, the vanquished prince is