s to have been
sculptured and painted at full length on the lid of each sarcophagus.

The paintings found in these sepulchres are among the most curious and
interesting remains of Egyptian art; and they are in wonderful
preservation, the colors being as fresh as when first executed. Some of
these figures were copied by Bruce; and Denon, a member of the French
Commission sent by Napoleon to examine the antiquities of Egypt, has
published a most valuable collection which have all the appearance of
spirited and characteristic resemblances. "I discovered," says he, "some
little chambers, on the walls of which were represented all kinds of
arms, such as panoplies, coats of mail, tigers' skins, bows, arrows,
quivers, pikes, javelins, sabres, helmets, and whips: in another was a
collection of household utensils, such as caskets, chests of drawers,
chairs, sofas, and beds, all of exquisite forms, and such as might well
grace the apartments of modern luxury. As these were probably accurate
representations of the objects themselves, it is almost a proof that the
ancient Egyptians employed for their furniture Indian wood, carved and
gilt, which they covered with embroidery. Besides these, were
represented various smaller articles, as vases, coffee-pots, ewers with
their basins, a tea-pot and basket. Another chamber was consecrated to
agriculture, in which were represented all its various instruments--a
sledge similar to those in use at present, a man sowing grain by the
side of a canal, from the borders of which the inundation is beginning
to retire, a field of corn reaped with a sickle, and fields of rice with
men watching them. In a fourth chamber was a figure clothed in white,
playing on a richly ornamented harp, with eleven strings."

Denon observed everything with the eye of an artist. Speaking of the
Necropolis, which consists of numerous double galleries of grottos,
excavated in the solid rock for nearly a mile and a half square, he
observes, "I was convinced by the magnificence both of the paintings and
sculptures, that I was among the tombs of great men and heros. The
sculpture in all is incomparably more labored and higher finished than
any I had seen in the temples; and I stood in astonishment at the high
perfection of the art, and its singular destiny to be devoted to places
of such silence and obscurity. In working these galleries, beds of a
very fine calcareous clay have occasionally been crossed, and here the
lines