of presentations to Rameses II.
in the great temple of Abu Simbel, vary the subject by showing buffaloes
running in and out among the trees, in place of led giraffes. These were
costly playthings wrought in gold, such as the Byzantine emperors of the
ninth century accumulated in their palace of Magnaura, and which they
exhibited on state occasions in order to impress foreigners with a profound
sense of their riches and power. When a victorious Pharaoh returned from a
distant campaign, the vessels of gold and silver which formed part of his
booty figured in the triumphal procession, together with his train of
foreign captives. Vases in daily use were of slighter make and less
encumbered with inconvenient ornaments. The two leopards which serve as
handles to a crater of the time of Thothmes III. (fig. 293) are not well
proportioned, neither do they combine agreeably with the curves of the
vase; but the accompanying cup (fig. 294), and a cruet belonging to the
same service (fig. 295), are very happily conceived, and have much purity
of form. These vessels of engraved and _repousse_ gold and silver, some
representing hunting scenes and incidents of battle, were imitated by
Phoenician craftsmen, and, being exported to Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy,
carried Egyptian patterns and subjects into distant lands. The passion for
precious metals was pushed to such extremes under the reigns of the
Ramessides that it was no longer enough to use them only at table.

[Illustration: Fig. 293.--Crater of precious metal. Wall-painting,
Eighteenth Dynasty.]

[Illustration: Fig. 294.--Cup of precious metal. Wall-painting, Eighteenth
Dynasty.]

[Illustration: Fig. 295.--Cruet of precious metal. Wall-painting,
Eighteenth Dynasty.]

Rameses II. and Rameses III. had thrones of gold--not merely of wood
plated with gold, but made of the solid metal and set with precious stones.
These things were too valuable to escape destruction, and were the first to
disappear. Their artistic value, however, by no means equalled their
intrinsic value, and the loss is not one for which we need be inconsolable.

[Illustration: Fig. 296.--Bezel signet-ring.]

[Illustration: Fig. 297.--Gold _cloisonne_ pectoral bearing cartouche of
Usertesen III. From Dahshur, found 1894, and now in the Gizeh Museum.]

Orientals, men and women alike, are great lovers of jewellery. The
Egyptians were no exception to this rule. Not satisfied to adorn themselves
when living wit