e level as the chairs. The upper part was of
leather, or a cotton stuff, richly colored, like the cushions of the
fauteuils; the base was of wood painted with various devices; and
those in the royal palace were ornamented with the figures of
captives, the conquest of whose country was designated by their having
this humiliating position. The same idea gave them a place on the
soles of sandals, on the footstools of a royal throne, and on the
walls of the palace at Medeenet Haboo, in Thebes, where their heads
support some of the ornamental details of the building.

Footstools also constituted part of the furniture of the sitting-room;
they were made with solid or open sides, covered at the top with
leather or interlaced work, and varied in height according to
circumstances, some being of the usual size now adopted by us, others
of inconsiderable thickness, and rather resembling a small rug.
Carpets, indeed, were a very early invention, and they are often
represented sitting upon them, as well as on mats, which are commonly
used in their sitting-rooms, as at the present day, and remnants of
them have been found in the Theban tombs.

Their couches evinced no less taste than the fauteuils. They were of
wood, with one end raised, and receding in a graceful curve; and the
feet, as in many of the chairs, already described, were fashioned to
resemble those of some wild animal.

Egyptian tables were round, square, or oblong; the former were
generally used during their repasts, and consisted of a circular flat
summit, supported like the _monopodium_ of the Romans, on a single
shaft, or leg, in the centre, or by the figure of a man, intended to
represent a captive. Large tables had usually three or four legs, but
some were made with solid sides; and though generally of wood, many
were of metal or stone; and they varied in size, according to the
purposes for which they were intended.

Of the furniture of their bed-rooms we know little or nothing; but
that they universally employed the wooden pillow above alluded to is
evident, though Porphyry would lead us to suppose its use was confined
to the priests, when, in noticing their mode of life, he mentions a
half cylinder of well polished wood "sufficing to support their head,"
as an instance of their simplicity and self-denial. For the rich they
were made of Oriental alabaster, with an elegant grooved or fluted
shaft, ornamented with hieroglyphics, carved in intaglio, of sycamore,