Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/64

 40 Outlines of European History recline by the cool waters of the fishpool, where he watches the slow and stately dances of his women or the pranks of his children as they romp about the pool. The villa (Fig. 21) which peeps through the verdure is light and airy and gay with brightly Fig. 22. Colonnades in the Court of a Pyramid-Temple (Twenty-eighth Century b.c.) Notice the pyramid rising behind the temple (just as in Plate I also). The door in the middle leads to the holy place built against the side of the pyramid, where a false door in the pyramid masonry serves as the portal through which the king comes forth from the world of the dead into this beautiful temple to enjoy the food and drink placed here for him and to share in the splendid feasts celebrated here. The center of the court is open to the sky ; the roof of the porch all around is supported on columns, the earliest known in the history of architecture. Each column reproduces a palm tree, the capital being the crown of foliage. The whole place was colored in the bright hues of nature, including the painting on the walls behind the columns. Among these paintings was the ship in Fig. 14 colored tapestry hangings. It is a work of art, bright in all its decorations with the beauty of the outdoor world which the Egyptian so much loved. His lady comes forth to greet him in a long closely fitting robe of spotless white linen. She is in every