and
bottles containing the collyrium, which women applied to their eyes.

Some were divided into separate compartments, covered by a common lid,
either sliding in a groove, or turning on a pin at one end; and many
of still larger dimensions sufficed to contain a mirror, combs, and,
perhaps, even some articles of dress.

These boxes were frequently of costly materials, veneered with rare
woods, or made of ebony, inlaid with ivory, painted with various
devices, or stained to imitate materials of a valuable nature; and the
mode of fastening the lid, and the curious substitute for a hinge
given to some of them, show the former was entirely removed, and that
the box remained open, while used.

Knobs of ebony, or other hard wood, were very common. They were
covered with great care, and inlaid with ivory and silver.

[Illustration: SAFETY TOGA PINS.]

Some boxes were made with a pointed summit, divided into two parts,
one of which alone opened, turning on small pivots at the base, and
the two ends of the box resembled in form the gable ends, as the top,
the shelving roof, of a house. The sides were, as usual, secured by
glue and nails, generally of wood, and dove-tailed, a method of
joining adopted in Egypt at the most remote period; but the
description of these belongs more properly to cabinet work, as those
employed for holding the combs, and similar objects, to the toilet.

Some vases have been found in boxes, made of wicker-work, closed with
stoppers of wood, reed, or other materials, supposed to belong either
to a lady's toilet or to a medical man; one of which, now in the
Berlin Museum, has been already noticed.

[Page Decoration]

FURNITURE.

In the furniture of the houses the Egyptians displayed considerable
taste; and there, as elsewhere, they studiously avoided too much
regularity, justly considering that its monotonous effect fatigued the
eye. They preferred variety both in the arrangement of the rooms and
in the character of their furniture, and neither the windows, doors,
nor wings of the house, exactly corresponded with each other. An
Egyptian would, therefore, have been more pleased with the form of our
Elizabethan, than of the box-shaped rooms of later times.

In their mode of sitting on chairs they resembled the modern Europeans
rather than Asiatics, neither using, like the latter, soft _divans_,
nor sitting cross-legged on carpets. Nor did they recline at meals, as
the Romans, on