saloons on the basement of the museum. Of the large collection here
arranged the visitor will only care to notice the more remarkable
specimens. The uses to which these cups and bowls and vases were put,
may be inferred partly from their shapes, and partly from the material
of which they were made; those of a costly kind being probably the
receptacles of the unguents with which the ancient Egyptians of both
sexes anointed their persons after the bath; and the larger and less
costly varieties being the wine vases, &c, in common use. Two ancient
vases are in the first division of the case (22, 23) one with the name
of a king before the twelfth dynasty, and the more modern one of the
twenty-fifth dynasty. In the second division the visitor should notice
the small aragonite vases, resembling wine-glasses; in the third case
a slab, upon which are six vases of various shapes in calcareous
stone; in the fourth a vase from Lower Egypt, with the quantity it
holds inscribed upon it. In the next five cases, 24-27 are filled with
cups, and bowls, small vases, and lamps, including pottery vases
shaped like the pine cone; blue porcelain vase with a pattern; a
highly ornamented porcelain jug; vases in the shape of the hedgehog
and the ibis; glass, long-necked vases; a large blue bowl, ornamented
with leaves; a porcelain vase of the time of Sesostris, ornamented
with petals of the lotus flower; polished terra-cotta vases; double
vases; a lamp shaped like a bottle: a vase for libations in
terra-cotta, with a spout shaped like a bird's beak; bottle-shaped
vase in painted pottery, with three handles, and symbolic decorations;
and curious perforated cups on feet. The three cases marked 30-32
contain also some curious vases and lamps, including a vase shaped
like a woman playing a guitar, from Thebes; a vase issuing from a
flower, in red pottery; a, lamb reclining as a vase; gourd-shaped
vases; earthenware bowls covered with various deities; and lamps
ornamented with toads, boars' heads, children, and leaves, in relief.