mile upon his lips, but it is the smile of etiquette, in which there is no
gladness. The nose and cheeks are puckered up in harmony with the forced
grimace upon the mouth. His large eyes (again in enamel) have the fixed
look of one who waits vacantly, without making any effort to concentrate
his sight or his thoughts upon a definite object. The face lacks both
intelligence and vivacity; but his work, after all, called for no special
nimbleness of wit. Khafra is in diorite; Raemka and his wife are carved in
wood; the other statues named are of limestone; yet, whatever the material
employed, the play of the chisel is alike free, subtle, and delicate. The
head of the scribe and the bas-relief portrait of Pharaoh Menkauhor, in the
Louvre, the dwarf Nemhotep (fig. 195), and the slaves who prepare food-
offerings at Gizeh, are in no wise inferior to the "Cross-legged Scribe" or
the "Sheikh el Beled." The baker kneading his dough (fig. 194) is
thoroughly in his work. His half-stooping attitude, and the way in which he
leans upon the kneading-trough, are admirably natural. The dwarf has a
big, elongated head, balanced by two enormous ears (fig. 195). He has a
foolish face, an ill-shapen mouth, and narrow slits of eyes, inclining
upwards to the temples. The bust is well developed, but the trunk is out of
proportion with the rest of his person. The artist has done his best to
disguise the lower limbs under a fine white tunic; but one feels that it is
too long for the little man's arms and legs.

[Illustration: Fig. 195.--The dwarf Nemhotep, Old Empire.]

[Illustration: Fig. 196.--One of the Tanis Sphinxes.]

The thighs could have existed only in a rudimentary form, and Nemhotep,
standing as best he can upon his misshapen feet, seems to be off his
balance, and ready to fall forward upon his face. It would be difficult to
find another work of art in which the characteristics of dwarfdom are more
cleverly reproduced.

The sculpture of the first Theban empire is in close connection with that
of Memphis. Methods, materials, design, composition, all are borrowed from
the elder school; the only new departure being in the proportions assigned
to the human figure. From the time of the Eleventh Dynasty, the legs become
longer and slighter, the hips smaller, the body and the neck more slender.
Works of this period are not to be compared with the best productions of
the earlier centuries. The wall-paintings of Siut, of Bersheh, of Beni
Has