upon the ground; or they
will sit upon the floor with their legs close together, and their arms
crossed upon their knees. These four attitudes were customary among the
people from the time of the ancient empire.

[Illustration: Fig. 204.--Hathor-cow in green basalt. Saite work.]

This we know from the bas-reliefs. But the Memphite sculptors, deeming the
two last ungraceful, excluded them from the domain of art, and rarely, if
ever, reproduced them. The "Cross-legged Scribe" of the Louvre and the
"Kneeling Scribe" of Gizeh show with what success they could employ the two
first. The third was neglected (doubtless for the same reason) by the
Theban sculptors. The fourth began to be currently adopted about the time
of the Eighteenth Dynasty.

[Illustration: Fig. 205.--Squatting statue of Pedishashi. Saite work.]

It may be that this position was not in fashion among the moneyed classes,
which alone could afford to order statues; or it may be that the artists
themselves objected to an attitude which caused their sitters to look like
square parcels with a human head on the top. The sculptors of the Saite
period did not inherit that repugnance. They have at all events combined
the action of the limbs in such wise as may least offend the eye, and the
position almost ceases to be ungraceful. The heads also are modelled to
such perfection that they make up for many shortcomings. That of Pedishashi
(fig. 205) has an expression of youth and intelligent gentleness such as we
seldom meet with from an Egyptian hand. Other heads, on the contrary, are
remarkable for their almost brutal frankness of treatment. In the small
head of a scribe (fig. 206), lately purchased for the Louvre, and in
another belonging to Prince Ibrahim at Cairo, the wrinkled brow, the
crow's-feet at the corners of the eyes, the hard lines about the mouth,
and the knobs upon the skull, are brought out with scrupulous fidelity. The
Saite school was, in fact, divided into two parties. One sought inspiration
in the past, and, by a return to the methods of the old Memphite school,
endeavoured to put fresh life into the effeminate style of the day. This it
accomplished, and so successfully, that its works are sometimes mistaken
for the best productions of the Fourth and Fifth Dynasties. The other,
without too openly departing from established tradition, preferred to study
from the life, and thus drew nearer to nature than in any previous age.
This school would, perh