tly displaying in these objects of private _luxe_ the taste of
a highly refined people; and so strong a resemblance did they bear to
the productions of the best epochs of ancient Greece, both in their
shape and in the fancy devices upon them, that some might even suppose
them borrowed from Greek patterns. But they were purely Egyptian, and
had been universally adopted in the valley of the Nile, long before
the graceful forms we admire were known in Greece; a fact invariably
acknowledged by those who are acquainted with the remote age of
Egyptian monuments, and of the paintings that represent them.

[Illustration: EGYPTIAN VASES.]

For some of the most elegant date in the early age of the third
Thothmes, who lived between 3,300 and 3,400 years before our time; and
we not only admire their forms, but the richness of the materials of
which they were made, their color, as well as the hieroglyphics,
showing them to have been of gold and silver, or of this last, inlaid
with the more precious metal.

Those of bronze, alabaster, glass, porcelain, and even of ordinary
pottery, were also deserving of admiration, from the beauty of their
shapes, the designs which ornamented them, and the superior quality of
the material; and gold and silver cups were often beautifully
engraved, and studded with precious stones. Among these we readily
distinguish the green emerald, the purple amethyst, and other gems;
and when an animal's head adorned their handles, the eyes were
frequently composed of them, except when enamel, or some colored
composition, was employed as a substitute.

While the guests were entertained with music and the dance dinner was
prepared; but as it consisted of a considerable number of dishes, and
the meat was killed for the occasion, as at the present day in Eastern
and tropical climates, some time elapsed before it was put upon table.
An ox, kid, wild goat, gazelle or an oryx, and a quantity of geese,
ducks, teal, quails and other birds, were generally selected; but
mutton was excluded from a Theban table. Plutarch even states that "no
Egyptians would eat the flesh of sheep, except the Lycopolites," who
did so out of compliment to the wolves they venerated; and Strabo
confines the sacrifice of them to the Nome of Nitriotis. But though
sheep were not killed for the altar or the table, they abounded in
Egypt and even at Thebes; and large flocks were kept for their wool,
particularly in the neighborhood of Memphis.