he pores and deposited an
unalterable patina upon the surface. Each kind of bronze had its special
use. The ordinary bronze was employed for weapons and common amulets; the
brazen alloys served for household utensils; the bronzes mixed with gold
and silver were destined only for mirrors, costly weapons, and statuettes
of value. In none of the tomb-paintings which I have seen is there any
representation of bronze-founding or bronze-working; but this omission is
easily supplemented by the objects themselves. Tools, arms, rings, and
cheap vases were sometimes forged, and sometimes cast whole in moulds of
hard clay or stone. Works of art were cast in one or several pieces
according to circumstances; the parts were then united, soldered, and
retouched with the burin. The method most frequently employed was to
prepare a core of mixed clay and charcoal, or sand, which roughly
reproduced the modelling of the mould into which it was introduced. The
layer of metal between this core and the mould was often so thin that it
would have yielded to any moderate pressure, had they not taken the
precaution to consolidate it by having the core for a support.

[Illustration: Fig. 276.--Bronze jug.]

[Illustration: Fig. 277.--Same jug seen from above.]

Domestic utensils and small household instruments were mostly made in
bronze. Such objects are exhibited by thousands in our museums, and
frequently figure in bas-reliefs and mural paintings. Art and trade were
not incompatible in Egypt; and even the coppersmith sought to give elegance
of form, and to add ornaments in a good style, to the humblest of his
works. The saucepan in which the cook of Rameses III. concocted his
masterpieces is supported on lions' feet. Here is a hot-water jug which
looks as if it were precisely like its modern successors (fig. 276); but on
a closer examination we shall find that the handle is a full-blown lotus,
the petals, which are bent over at an angle to the stalk, resting against
the edge of the neck (fig. 277). The handles of knives and spoons are
almost always in the form of a duck's or goose's neck, slightly curved. The
bowl is sometimes fashioned like an animal--as, for instance, a gazelle
ready bound for the sacrifice (fig. 278). On the hilt of a sabre we find a
little crouching jackal; and the larger limb of a pair of scissors in the
Gizeh Museum is made in the likeness of an Asiatic captive, his arms tied
behind his back. A lotus leaf forms the disk of