Page:The Pharaohs and their people; scenes of old Egyptian life and history (IA pharaohstheirpeo00berkiala).pdf/216

 unknown. Monkeys were sometimes employed in gathering the fruit, and we see from the pictures that they did not fail to help themselves at the same time. Our museums show us the tables and chairs of all sorts that were used by the Egyptians—common chairs, camp-stools, and arm-chairs of elegant workmanship, sometimes of ebony inlaid with ivory. There are the double chairs where the master and mistress of the house sat when receiving their guests—couches, footstools, carpets which served as bedding, and the wooden rests on which the head was placed at night. Children's toys of all kinds may be seen, and a variety of musical instruments; for music was much studied, and was employed not only in the service of the temples, but in the social gatherings of the people, which seem to have been frequent. But both music and dancing on such occasions appear to have been performed for the amusement of the guests, who are themselves only lookers-on. Buffoons also exhibited, who seem generally to have been negroes; they are oddly dressed in a bit of bullock's hide, with the tail attached and tags hanging like beads from their