ics of the same social status as the neighbouring shoemaker or
carpenter. The majority of them were, in fact, clever mechanical workers
of varying capability, accustomed to chisel out a bas-relief or set a
statue firmly on its legs, in accordance with invariable rules which
they transmitted unaltered from one generation to another: some were
found among them, however, who displayed unmistakable genius in
their art, and who, rising above the general mediocrity, produced
masterpieces. Their equipment of tools was very simple--iron picks with
wooden handles, mallets of wood, small hammers, and a bow for boring
holes. The sycamore and acacia furnished them with a material of a
delicate grain and soft texture, which they used to good advantage:
Egyptian art has left us nothing which, in purity of Hue and delicacy of
modelling, surpasses the panels of the tomb of Hosi, with their seated
or standing male figures and their vigorously cut hieroglyphs in the
same relief as the picture. Egypt possesses, however, but few trees of
suitable fibre for sculptural purposes, and even those which were
fitted for this use were too small and stunted to furnish blocks of any
considerable size. The sculptor, therefore, turned by preference to the
soft white limestone of Turah.

[Illustration: 236.jpg ONE OF THE WOODEN PANELS OF HOSI, IN THE GIZEH
MUSEUM]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey. The
original is now in the Gizeh Museum.

He quickly detached the general form of his statue from the mass of
stone, fixed the limits of its contour by means of dimension guides
applied horizontally from top to bottom, and then cut away the angles
projecting beyond the guides, and softened off the outline till he made
his modelling correct. This simple and regular method of procedure was
not suited to hard stone: the latter had to be first chiselled, but when
by dint of patience the rough hewing had reached the desired stage, the
work of completion was not entrusted to metal tools. Stone hatchets
were used for smoothing off the superficial roughnesses, and it was
assiduously polished to efface the various tool-marks left upon
its surface. The statues did not present that variety of gesture,
expression, and attitude which we aim at to-day. They were, above
all things, the accessories of a temple or tomb, and their appearance
reflects the particular ideas entertained with regard to their nature.
The artists did not seek to e