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from the Eastern Sûdân and Punt, where at that time (B.C. 1500) it was produced in such large quantities that Tushratta writing to Amen-hetep III says: "Send me so much "gold that it cannot be measured, more gold than that thou "didst send to my father; for in my brother's land (i.e., Egypt), "gold is as common as dust"! (Tell al-Amarna tablet, No. 8.) According to Diodorus (ed. Didot, p. 41) Rameses II received from his gold and silver mines in one year metal to the value of 32,000,000 minas, or £80,000,000 sterling. Another article of export was paper manufactured from papyrus.

Among the imports may be mentioned copper and tin from Cyprus and Northern Syria, cedar wood from the Lebanon Mountains, lapis-lazuli paste from Babylonia, myrrh and spices for embalming, skins, cattle, ebony, ostrich feathers, bows, pillows, chairs, couches, fans, mats, shields, etc., from the Sûdân; and a number of the products of India and Arabia must have found their way into Egypt by means of the caravans which crossed the desert to some place near the modern Suez or Kantarah, and some sea-borne goods entered Egypt by the route from the Red Sea to the Nile, viá Kuşêr and Kena. The importance of Egypt as a trading centre, and as the natural market half-way between the East and the West, was not fully recognized until the Ptolemaïc Period, about B.C. 250. Business was carried on chiefly by barter, so much wheat, barley, or millet being the value of a sheep, bull, cow, or goat, linen, etc. The Egyptians used weights and measures, eg., the royal cubit of 7 palms or 28 fingers, the little cubit of 6 palms or 24 fingers, the palm of 4 fingers, the hand of 5 fingers, the fist of 6 fingers, and the finger; of dry measure, the hen, the tenȧt, the apt, etc.; of weight, the teben (= 3 ounces), the keṭth of a teben, etc. The use of the scales was well known, but there is no evidence that the steelyard was employed before the Roman Period. Stamped money was unknown among the Egyptians, but they appear to have used a currency which consisted of pieces of wire made of copper, iron, or gold, and gold-dust. Ring-money, made of gold, is represented in the painting on the south wall of the Fourth Egyptian Room; and also the little bags containing gold dust. Ring-money in gold is in use at the present day along the east coast of Africa, and in certain parts of the Sûdân copper wire still possesses great purchasing

powers.

Handicrafts.-The Egyptian of all periods was a skilled potter. In the earliest times the potter's wheel was unknown, and every vessel was shaped by the potter's hand or foot.

Vessels of all sorts, shapes, and sizes were made with great skill, and in later periods were decorated with linear and other designs. The art of the potter throve until the advent of the conquerors from Asia, when it began to languish; and in a few centuries carthenware vessels were superseded by stone. Good examples of Predynastic and Archaic pottery will be found in the cases on the Landing of the NorthWest Staircase, and of the pottery of the later periods in the Fourth Egyptian Room. The Basket-weaver wove rush matting, plaited mats and sandals, and made ropes and baskets of all kinds. Specimens of his work will be seen in Table-case A in the Third Egyptian Room, and in Wall

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Jewellers drilling and polishing beads, etc. [Northern Egyptian Gallery, Bay 12, No. 518.]

XVIIIth dynasty.

cases 182-187 in the Fourth Egyptian Room. Owing to the abundance of flax in Egypt the trade of the linen-weaver was in all periods most flourishing, and the "fine linen of Egypt " was famous throughout Western Asia and the seaports of the Mediterranean. A staff of linen weavers appears to have been attached to each temple, and the sale of their work produced a large revenue; a portion was paid to the king, and the rest was kept by the priests. The city of Apu

(Panopolis, the modern Akhmîm) was one of the chief seats of the linen industry, and to this day the dyed curtains of Akhmîm are used throughout Egypt. The craft of the jeweller was very important, for, in addition to the rings, bracelets, necklaces, pendants, earrings, etc., which he made in gold and silver, he cut the amulets and ornaments in amethyst, garnet, agate, onyx, chalcedony, carnelian, jasper, mother-of-emerald, lapis-lazuli, turquoise, rock-crystal, basalt, porphyry, haematite, obsidian, coral, mother-of-pearl, etc. (See Table-cases F, J.) The finest work of the jeweller belongs to the XIIth dynasty, and the workmen of that period brought the art of inlaying precious stones and metals to a very high pitch of perfection. Some think that the Egyptians understood the art of enamelling, but authorities are not agreed on this point.

The glass-maker's craft is a very old one in Egypt, and it is probable that the Phoenicians borrowed it from that country. Fine specimens of it in the British Museum are the the turquoise - blue opaque glass jar of Thothmes III (Table-case H, No. 50, Third Egyptian Room), a blue glass bowl, and a variegated glass bowl from the tomb of Amen-hetep II (Nos. 57, 59, in the same case), and an opaque glass stibium pot with a gold rim (Wallcases 182-187, No. 29). The porcelain maker produced the little figures, amulets, bowls, vases, ushabtiu-figures, tiles, beads, pendants, etc., in the beautiful blue, green, purple, violet, and brown glazed ware to which the name Egyptian porcelain is usually given. An exceedingly fine collection of objects in this material is exhibited in Wall-cases Nos. 151156 in the Fourth Egyptian Room. The leather worker prepared parchments for writing materials, and made the harness for horses and trappings for chariots, soldiers' belts (Table-case B, No. 193), sheaths for daggers (No. 37), nets of fine meshes (Wall-case No. 187, Fourth Egyptian Room), seats for chairs (No. 5 Standard-case L, same room), bags in which barbers carried their razors, etc. (Wall-case No. 184, Fourth Egyptian Room.) Examples of the tools of the carpenter, blacksmith and coppersmith, stonemason, house-painter and decorator, etc., will be found in Table-case K and Wall-case 103 in the Third Egyptian Room.

Of the brickmaker's work specimens belonging to the reigns of Amen-hetep III, Thothmes I, Thothmes III, and Rameses II are exhibited in Wall-case 175, Fourth Egyptian Room. Examples of the craft of the furniture maker in the form of tables, chairs, stools, couches, toilet

boxes, altar-stands, etc., are seen in Standard-case L and Wall-case No. 190 in the Fourth Egyptian Room. The work of the ivory carver went hand in hand with that of the carpenter as regards the inlaying of chair frames, jewel-boxes, etc. (see Nos. 13 and 16 in Standard-case L). Specimens of the highest form of his skill are seen in the chair-legs, human figures, spoons, etc., in Table-case A in the Fourth Egyptian Room. The caster-in-metal produced the splendid series of figures of the gods in Wall-cases 119-132 and Table-case H in the Third Egyptian Room; fine examples are the silver figure of Amen-Ra (No. 42), gold figures of Thoth, Ptah and Rā (Nos. 21, 25, 26), and the gold figure of Osiris (No. 34). The wood-carver made the models of men, boats, animals, etc., which were placed in the tombs (see Wall-case Nos. 192, 193, Fourth Egyptian Room), and dolls and children's toys (see Standard-case C, Fourth Egyptian Room). The dyer produced the salmon-coloured linen coverings for mummies (see Case L, First Egyptian Room), the brown mummy-swathings (see Wall-cases 93-96, Third Egyptian Room), and coloured wearing apparel (see Table-case E, Third Egyptian Room), etc.

The baker and confectioner found constant employment in every town and village in Egypt, for the Egyptians loved cakes made with honey, and fruit of all kinds, and bread and buns made into fanciful shapes. A great business was done in bread and pastry which were intended to serve as funerary offerings. Specimens of the bread and the stands on which the flat loaves were placed, will be found in Table-case H, Third Egyptian Room. The terra

cotta cones

A which are exhibited in large numbers in Wall

cases IO, III, are supposed by some to represent the loaves, of a pyramidal shape, seen in the hands of kings and others who are represented offering to the gods. The barber also found constant employment, for many had their whole heads and bodies shaved every two or three days. He also dressed the hair of ladies on ceremonial occasions, and made wigs (see the fine example in Wall-case H, Third Egyptian Room). The barber often united to his trade the profession of physician, just as was the case in Europe in the Middle Ages. The craft of the boat-builder was very important in a country where a river was the chief highway. Flat-bottomed boats and punts used in fishing in the canals, or fowling on the marshes, were made of bundles of

reeds, or papyrus, tied together, like the modern tôf in the Sûdân. Boats for carrying merchandize on the river were made of planks of wood pegged together, which were sometimes kept in position by being nailed on to ribs, and others were merely tied round with ropes made of papyrus. One of the earliest known pictures of an Egyptian boat is seen on vase No. 160, in Wall-case No. 5, on the landing of the NorthWest Staircase. Models of funeral boats, and barges and war boats are exhibited on the upper shelf of Wall-cases Nos. 99-110, in the Third Egyptian Room. The Egyptians were skilful boat builders, and they made rafts capable of carrying enormous blocks of stone, e.g., the obelisks which Queen Hatshepset set up at Karnak. They had equivalents of the modern broad ferry-boat, barge, lighter, etc., which they worked with oars or "sweeps" and sails, or towed, when going upstream, and when there was no wind.

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