Volume II Part 2 (2/2)

[Illustration: FIGS 14-17--Plans of houses; froyptian houses were built of crude bricks made of loam mixed with chopped straw These bricks were usually a foot long and six inches wide The ceilings of the larger roon wood; the smaller rooms were often vaulted

[Illustration: FIG 18--Piece of furniture in the form of a house; Louvre]

[Illustration: FIG 19--House fro; from Wilkinson, i p 361]

[Illustration: FIG 20--House with a tower, fro; Wilkinson, i p 361]

”Doors and s opened generally in the middle They opened inwards, and were fastened by means of bolts and latches Some of theypt Most of the inner doors were closed ht material

For the decoration we must turn to the pictures in the rock-cut tombs

The walls of the houses were coated with stucco, and painted with religious and doalleries and coluranite The ceilings were covered e call arabesques and interlacing ornaments of all kinds, while the floors were streith mats woven of many-coloured reeds”[30]

[30] We have borrowed this short description from a Review of M

GAILHABAUD'S _Monuyptien

Maisons_ Those who require further details may consult Chapter V of Sir GARDNER WILKINSON'S _Manners and Custoyptians_

[Illustration: FIG 21--Battlemented house; from Wilkinson, i p

362]

[Illustration: FIG 22--Decorated porch; from Wilkinson, i p 346]

[Illustration: FIG 23--House with inscription; from Wilkinson, i

32]

[Illustration: FIG 24--House, storehouse, and garden; from Prisse, p 218]

We shall describe the tasteful and convenient furniture which these rooms contained in our chapter upon the industrial arts

The flat roof seeypt It added to the accommodation of the house, it afforded a pleasant rendezvous for the fa, where they could enjoy the view and the fresh breezes which spring up at sunset At certain seasons they ranaries, barns, and storehouses were al 24) Those which had flat roofs see which seereat beer drinkers (Fig 25) These brick vaults must have been very thick, and they ell fitted to preserve that equable and co of provisions The bas-reliefs often show long rows of storehouses one after the other Their nuive an idea of their proprietor's wealth So half-way up their sides and to have been reached by an external incline or flight of steps (Fig 26) A sketch oin in a to 27) is shaped like a stone bottle, it has a door at the ground level and a littlehigher up[32]

[31] HERODOTUS (ii 95) says that they did so in the ypt

[32] It is difficult to say what the artistmark under these s Perhaps it represents an outside balcony by which thecould be reached either for the purposes of inspection or in order to add to the store within

[Illustration: FIG 25--Brewing, Beni-Hassan; from Champollion, pl

398]

[Illustration: FIG 26--Granaries, Beni-Hassan; from Wilkinson]

[Illustration: FIG 27--Granaries; Sakkarah]

The Egyptians had country houses as well as those in town, but the structural arrange of the peasant did not differ very greatly from that of the town-bred artisan, while the villas of the wealthy were only distinguished from their houses in the richer quarters of Thebes and Meroves, parks, and artificial lakes

Their paintings prove conclusively that the Egyptians had carried horticulture to a very high pitch; they even put their e-trees[33]