Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 1.djvu/121

 preserved for us an exhaustive record of the never-ceasing activity which created and preserved the wealth of the country; it has not even neglected the games and various pleasures in which the laborious Egyptian sought for his well earned repose. The king indeed, preserved his first place by the importance of the religious buildings which he raised, by the size of his tomb, and by the

A history of art in ancient Egypt (1883) (14772554125).jpg Height 12¾ inches.

Height 6⅓ inches. —Herdsmen. From a tomb at Sakkarah, 5th dynasty. (Boulak.)

number and dimensions of the reproductions of his features; reproductions which show him in the various aspects demanded by the complex nature of the civilization over which he presided. But in the large number of isolated figures, groups, and scenes which have come down to us, we have illustrations of all classes that helped in the work of national development, from the ploughman with his ox, to the scribe crouching, cross-legged, upon his