Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 2.djvu/431

 Woodwork. (95 attitude and expression of this little figure are very good. The right foot, which is thrust forward, only touches the ground by the toes. The water in which she is about to step may hide sharp flints or unkindly roots, and, with commendable prudence, she begins by testing the bottom. Her legs are bare, because she has raised her garment well above the knee before descending into the marsh. Her carefully plaited hair and her crimped petticoat show that her social condition is good. Another spoon shows us a musician be- tween stems of papyrus. She stands upright upon one of those boats which were used in the papyrus-brakes (Fig. 331). Her instru- ment is a long-handled guitar. The musician herself seems to have been one of those dancers and singers whose condition was pretty much the same in ancient as in modern Egypt. Her only garment is a short petticoat knotted about her waist. The bowl of this spoon is rectangular. Another common motive is that of a girl swimming. She is represented at the moment when her stroke is complete ; her upper and lower limbs are stretched out to their full extent so as to offer the least possible re- sistance to the water (Fig. 257). There is a perfume-box in the Louvre which is sup- ported on a figure contrasting strongly with the last described. The box is shaped like a heavy sack, and is supported upon the right shoulder of a slave, who bends beneath its weight. By the thick lips, flat nose, heavy jaw, low forehead, and closely-shaven, sugar- loaf head, we may recognize this as yet another of those caricatures of prisoners which we have already encountered in such numbers.^ A perfume-box at Boulak should also be mentioned. It is in the shape of a goose turning its head backwards. Its wings open and Q-'ive access to the hollow of the box. This desire to ornament even the most apparently insignificant ^ This figure is reproduced in Rayet's Monuments de V Art Atitiqiu and described by M. Maspero. {Cuillers de Toilette en Bois.) Fig. 329. — Perfume spoou. Boulak. Draw n by Bourgoin.